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The Story
Mrs. Jumbo is in a touring circus and is expecting her
baby elephant. One day, the Mr. Stork comes through and delivers her
bundle of joy. Upon opening her bundle, Mrs. Jumbo finds an adorable
baby elephant. When the baby elephant sneezes, his generous sized ears
flew to an open position. The other elephants gasped at the size of
the ears and mockingly called the baby elephant "Dumbo" for his huge ears.
Mrs. Jumbo immediately takes offense and becomes overprotective of her
beloved Dumbo. As the circus opens and the children tease Dumbo, Mrs.
Jumbo's overprotectiveness takes the better of her.
When Dumbo is separated from his mother and estranged
by the elephants, he finds friendship in Timothy Mouse who tries to help
Dumbo overcomes all odds to discover his ability to fly, which leads to fame and
happiness in this inspirational tale of love, loyalty, and friendship.
This movie is a must-have for families with young children.
I must have seen this movie countless of times on
videotape, but in this last viewing on DVD for this review, I realized that
Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo did not have any speaking lines. There were no
actors providing the "voice talents" behind these
characters. This is an example of Disney's magic of animation.
The characters are so expressive that they need not have any spoken lines to
tell the story. Amazing. Now that's Disney animation magic at
its best.
The Extras
"Dumbo" 60th Anniversary Edition DVD comes with
the following bonus materials:
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A collectible "Casey Jr." toy train:
children and their parents can assemble a cardboard/paper toy train of
"Casey Jr." together. The train consists of the
locomotive/engine and a caboose.
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Audio commentary hosted by John Canemaker
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"Celebrating Dumbo Featurette: The Origins and
History
of Dumbo" features the smooth, fun and clear making-of "Dumbo"
segment which explains the many reasons why Dumbo is the most loved
character after Mickey and Minnie. (14 minutes)
-
Original Walt Disney TV Introduction hosted by Walt
Disney as his favorite animation that he had been involved in at that time.
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Sound Design: creating the voice of "Casey
Jr." is a must-see five minutes of how the Casey Jr. along with the
weather elements are incorporated.
-
"Dumbo's Big Discovery" DVD Storybook can be
read-along or read-to-yourself and has voice instruction to guide
children along the operational process. It contains some animated
characters that say their lines when children click on them. This is a very
good improvement in interactive read-along technology from Disney.
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Animated shorts:
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Dumbo Art Gallery: rare and never-before-seen concept
art
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Sing-Along Songs:
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"Look Out For Mr. Stork"
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"Casey Jr."
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Michael Crawford "Baby Mine" music video as
heard on the CD/audio tape "Michael Crawford: The Disney Album"
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Publicity materials: 1941 original theatrical trailer
and
1949 theatrical re-release trailer.
-
Exclusive preview of "Dumbo II" featuring Dumbo
with Timothy Mouse and his new young friends adventure away from home
and realizing that friendship and love are very important to them.
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Sneak Peeks: Peter Pan in "Return To Never
Land", "Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In At The House Of
Mouse", "Cinderella II: Dreams Come True",
"Hunchback Of Notre Dame II", "Whispers: An Elephant's
Tale", "Peter Pan", "The Book of Pooh: Stories From
The Heart", Walt Disney Treasures: limited, numbered editions of
"Silly Symphonies", "Mickey Mouse In Living Color",
"Disneyland USA", "Davy Crockett" DVDs, Walt Disney
Gold Collection clips of all movies currently available, Toon Disney is
TV channel with all Disney shows. Unfortunately, whether you want to or
not, these previews are shown as soon as the DVD starts to play.
But at least you can skip through them by pressing the DVD player's skip
button.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this DVD is excellent. The
restoration effort restored the clarity and brilliance of the original
picture. The colors are accurate and vibrant. According to
Disney Animation, the result captures the artistic intent of the original theatrical
release. Incidentally, "Dumbo" is released in its original 1.33:1 aspect
ratio (1941 is before the advent of widescreen).
There is an all-new Dolby
Digital 5.1 re-mix, which is purposefully conservative to preserve the
artistic integrity of the original film's soundtrack. In this 5.1-channel mix, most
of the mono audio is re-mixed for better imaging through the front three
channels, reserving the surround channels only for ambient effects.
The sound quality is good, allowing for the beautiful songs and dialog to
come through clearly.
Conclusion
"Dumbo" soars as a full-length animated feature,
as it reaches out to families with young children. It's good wholesome
entertainment that teaches our young children love, the value of friendship,
loyalty, and the ability to overcome differences. That said, I highly
recommend this movie and this 60th Anniversary Edition DVD, with
its rich set of value-added features.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
