Dumbo

While a large circus spends the off-season in the "Winter Grounds" in Florida, a flock of white storks delivers babies to the animals. The storks had to fly through a lot of bad weather, including snow, thunder, lightning and hail. One elephant, Mrs. Jumbo (Verna Felton), does not receive her baby, and keeps scanning the sky. The circus sets out on a new tour, and a belated stork (Sterling Holloway) catches up with the moving train and drops off the expected baby elephant, Jumbo Junior. Casey Junior (Margaret Wright), the sentient 2-4-0 tender locomotive hauling the circus train. Casey Junior is a coal fired engine. The other elephants Catty (Noreen Gammill), Giddy (Dorothy Scott), Prissy (Sarah Selby) are initially delighted, until they see the baby has far-oversized ears, and promptly nickname him "Dumbo". However, Mrs. Jumbo shows her baby great care and love, defending him from the teasing of the other elephants. The circus reaches its new destination and sets up camp. The crews work all night in heavy rains to set up the main tent. The elephants are pressed into service to move all the heavy cargo from the train and to the location of the main tent. The heave spikes are inserted into the ground, which will keep the main tent in place, with the help of the central mast that rises into the sky. The owner of the circus does a massive parade in town the following day to announce the arrival of the circus and to display the animals and attractions that they have in store for the audiences. This includes Lions, Tigers, camels, clowns, elephants, among others. Dumbo, clumsy due to his ears as he keeps tripping himself on his ears, is made into a sideshow attraction. Still Jumbo Jr does not understand the meaning of all this and continues to play with his mother who is nothing but attentive to him. Some rowdy boys start to bully Dumbo, even breaking into his pen, pulling Dumbo out from behind Mrs Jumbo and then blowing into his ears, even pulling his ears forcefully. The furious Mrs. Jumbo spanks their leader. The circus staff is drawn in by the commotion and sees Mrs. Jumbo throwing hay bales at kids, the shocked staff remove Dumbo from the pen, causing Mrs. Jumbo to be further enraged. The ringmaster hits Mrs Jumbo with a whip and the other workers control her by putting a chain in her legs, but she still continues to fight. Eventually Mrs Jumbo douses the circus's ringmaster (Herman Bing) in a water tub The ringmaster though not truly evil, is a strict, greedy, and arrogant man who exploits workers and animals. Mrs Jumbo is subsequently deemed mad and locked in a cage. Dumbo is blamed for the incident and shunned by the other elephants. They instead make fun that Dumbo has ears that only a mother could love. Timothy, (Edward Brophy) an anthropomorphic mouse watches this as Dumbo walks away from the elephants into a different tent where he could be alone. Timothy then reveals himself to the lady elephants causing a stampede as they are all afraid of the mouse. Timothy introduces himself to Dumbo, who does not trust him initially. Timothy then says that he wants to work with Dumbo to get Mrs. Jumbo out of her cage. Timothy says that Dumbo's ears are very beautiful, and they look very decorative. Timothy, along with the crows that travels with the circus, befriends Dumbo and decides to make him a star. Timothy overhears the circus ringmaster planning to make a pyramid of 17 elephants as a new attraction in the circus. But the ringmaster does not have the climax and goes to sleep thinking that it would come to him in a dream. He whispers in the ringmaster's ear while the latter sleeps and convinces him to try a new stunt with Dumbo as the top of a pyramid of elephants. During the show, the pyramid is ready, but Dumbo again feels shy. Timothy ties Dumbo's ears over his head and pricks his behind to get him to perform. Dumbo is supposed to jump on a springboard and get on top of the pyramid. However, Dumbo trips on his ears during the show, misses the springboard completely, and knocks over the pyramid, injuring the other elephants and bringing the big top crashing down. The circus is ridiculed and is forced to leave town as a result of this debacle. After this, the other elephants (who had endured multiple injuries) exile Dumbo completely, and he is put in with the clowns' firemen act, regularly jumping from a "burning building" prop into a vat of pie filling. Despite his newfound popularity, he hates the job and becomes depressed. Timothy decides to take Dumbo to see Mrs. Jumbo. Mrs. Jumbo is chained inside her cage, which only has a few windows for ventilation. As such, Mrs. Jumbo cannot come to the window, and they cannot see each other's faces and can only intertwine trunks. Meanwhile, the clowns decide to increase the popularity of their fireman act by dangerously raising the platform Dumbo jumps from. The plan is to raise the platform from 20 feet to 1000 feet and even ask the circus owner for a raise as they believe that this is a golden idea. In celebration of the plan, they drink champagne, and a bottle of it falls into a water vat. Dumbo, crying after visiting his mother, has an unsettling case of the hiccups. So, Timothy takes him to the vat for some water, only to discover that the water contains champagne. Both of them get drunk, blow all sorts of bubbles and hallucinate pink elephants. Dumbo and Timothy are later discovered asleep high up in a tree by Dandy Crow (Cliff Edward) the leader of a group of crows, and his friends Deacon (Hall Johnson), Fats (James Baskett), Specks (Nick Stewart), Dopey (Jim Carmichael). Initially making fun of Timothy's assertion that Dumbo flew with his ears while drunk, the crows are soon moved by Dumbo's sad story. They decide to help Timothy, giving him a "magic feather" to help Dumbo fly. Holding the feather, Dumbo does indeed take off a second time, and he and Timothy return to the circus with plans to surprise the audience. During the clowns' act, Dumbo jumps off the platform and prepares to fly. He drops the feather, but Timothy assures him it was only a psychological aid. As Dumbo successfully flies about the big top, much to the audience's delight, he throws a trunk full of peanuts to the other elephants as payback. Dumbo gains fame and fortune, Timothy becomes his new manager and signs him to a Hollywood contract, and Mrs. Jumbo is freed. She and Dumbo are given a private coach on the train, and the crows wave goodbye to the elephants as they travel away.