Wednesday, May 04, 2005

On Seeing "Dumbo" Again

I first saw Walt Disney's rollicking Dumbo in the 1940s. I'm sure that the "pink elephant" scene gave me nightmares. Dumbo is an early pearl in the string of Disney's greatest animated features:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Song of the South (1946)
Cinderella (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Peter Pan (1953)

I include the ponderous Fantasia only because of its visual effects. The rest are good old-fashioned packages of fun, produced by the best animators ever to have been assembled in one studio. You can skip Fantasia, but if you haven't seen the others -- ever, or in a long time -- don't delay. Put them on your DVD wish list today.