Dumbo

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the release of Walt Disney's fourth animated feature film, Dumbo.

This big eared wonder flew for the first time on October 23rd 1941. It was directed by Ben Sharpsteen, written by Otto Englander, Joe Grant, & Dick Huemer, and starred Edward Brophy as Timothy Q. Mouse, Verna Felton as Mrs. Jumbo and the elephant Matriarch, Herman Bing as the Ringmaster, Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork, and Cliff Edwards (who also provided the voice of Jiminy Cricket in 1940's Pinocchio) as Jim Crow. It was narrated by John McLeish, best known for narrating Goofy's "How To..." cartoons.

It contains 7 songs by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Produced by RKO Radio Pictures, it is one of Walt Disney's shortest animated feature films at a running time of only 64 minutes long! It was made on a budget of $813,000, and generated $1,600,000 at the box office, making it Disney's most successful film of the 1940's.

Fun Facts:

1. Dumbo was intended to be on the cover of the December 1941 cover of Time Magazine, but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th kinda changed their plans...

2. The film was re-released theatrically four more times in 1949, 1959, 1972, and 1976.

3. Dumbo, along with Alice in Wonderland, was the first Disney film to be released on home video with a VHS release in 1981, a Laserdisc in 1982, again on VHS in 1985. Then, for it's 50th Anniversary in 1991, it was remastered and again released on VHS and Laserdisc, and again in 1994 as a part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. A 60th Anniversary VHS and DVD was then released in 2001, and AGAIN on DVD in 2006 as the "High Flying Big Top Edition." Lastly, and most recently, it was released on HD Blu-Ray disc, DVD, and Movie Download on September 20th 2011 for the film's 70th Anniversary.

4. It won the award for "Best Scoring of a Musical Picture" and was nominated for "Best Song" (Baby Mine) at the 1941 Oscars. In 1947, It won "Best Animation Design" at the Cannes Film Festival.

5. Over at Disneyland, Dumbo inspired the Dumbo the Flying Elephants Attraction, which opened August 16th 1955. Originally, the elephants were to be pink, representing the Pink Elephants sequence from the film.

6. When President Harry Truman, a Democrat, visited Disneyland in 1957, he refused to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant, saying that it evoked too much Republican party symbolism.

Here's to another 70 "High-Flying" years to you Jumbo Jr.!