Produced at a time when the Walt Disney Studio was facing financial difficulties and released to great critical and audience acclaim in October 1941, when America was on the brink of entering World War II, Dumbo remains today one of the greatest animation features ever made and an apex in the history of the Disney Studio. (This is despite the film having been rightly criticized in modern times for the use of racial stereotypes in its depiction of the deadbeat gang of scarecrows.) Based on a short 1938 children book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, Dumbo is the fourth feature ever made by Disney and the cream of his collaborators-artists (the previous three being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia). The film chronicles the journey of a childlike, blue-eyed baby circus elephant who is ostracized and ridiculed for having enormous ears until he manages to achieve his potential and learn to fly by using them as wings. Lasting just over an hour and photographed in glorious Technicolor, Dumbo continues to captivate audiences all over the world not only with its powerful seamless story and its still-intact emotional punch, but also with its masterful sequences such as the moving “baby mine” and the offbeat, boldly experimental “pink elephants on parade.” (Davide CAZZARO)