![]() I’m sure most Disney fans worth their salt know how the sorcerer Yen Sid (Disney spelled backwards) was based off of the man himself. And for better or for worse, the sequence inspired the Nicholas Cage summer blockbuster vehicle of the same name. Finally, Mickey in his Sorcerer form plays a large role in the story of Fantasmic!. This scene also has the honor of being the only Disney Animated film to have a show scene in The Great Movie Ride. ![]() Over in Hollywood Studios, Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat is the symbol of not only the park, but of the entirety of Walt Disney Imagineering itself. She is his only defender and friend, which makes her imprisonment and separation from him a heartbreak that the entire audience feels. She’s a true mother who loves her son just the way he is and thinks his flaws are cute (just watch the way she tenderly swaddles him using his oversized ears). From the way she defends her son from the cackling crew of elephant ladies’ taunting to the way she tries to keep him safe from all the unkind words directed his way. She has one speaking line in the whole film (“Jumbo Junior”), but the strength of her character doesn’t require any dialogue. She’s so sweet in the beginning with such an obvious yearning for a baby of her own and when she finally gets one, it’s clear that she loves him from the word go. ![]() The stories revolve around both boys coping with the loss of their mothers in different ways. To go even further with the connection between Dumbo and Bambi, both are stories about mothers and sons. Felton, who was the snobbish matriarch elephant, proved what a gifted voice she had, as her list of character credits were arguably the most diverse in the company: the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, and the good pink fairy, Flora, in Sleeping Beauty. Speaking of the Stork, you all noticed that bit where his bundle of Dumbo almost fell through the cloud, right? Well, next time you watch Mary Poppins, watch for a similar tribute at the start of that film with the practically perfect nanny’s carpetbag. Holloway, who voiced the Stork, would go on to lend his voice as a stork once again for Lambert the Sheepish Lion, as well as the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Kaa in The Jungle Book, and, most famously of all, as Winnie the Pooh in… well, you know. This was the first Disney film for Sterling Holloway and Verna Felton ( ), two of the most prolific Disney voices in the history of the company. Just because Dumbo himself doesn’t talk, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a talented voice cast at work in this film. The whole shot was gorgeous and evocative from start to finish and really showed what the technology could do in the right hands. That multi-plane opening shot might just be the finest example of that piece of technology in the entire Disney canon. The mouse that washes its face with a dewdrop in the opening is so incredibly realistic and yet manages to be cute. For Thumper, it’s clear that they studied his voice actor, Peter Behn, for his facial expressions, but the little twitch of his nose that he does and the way he hops is so distinctly rabbit. The animators famously studied the facial expressions of a baby in order to give Bambi that look of innocence, but the way he walks is practically textbook for a baby deer. ![]() The animation of Thumper and Bambi as babies is especially convincing. This is only the second time that the story revolves around talking humanized animals ( Dumbo being the first), and their movements are accurately animal like, yet the emotions on their faces are unmistakably human. The first thing that needs to be said about the animation in this film was how much improvement happened between the time of Snow White and Bambi, as far as the animation of animals go.
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