Dumbo

A cogent examination of the brutal cruelty that is the circus. Or maybe it’s just a children’s cartoon—it’s hard to say.  The story, such as it is, is a thin gruel for feeding an audience an entire movie (even considering the movie's exceptionally short running time of barely over an hour). The extended musical sequence goes on too long, contains little that satisfies visually, and barely serves to advance the story. On top of it all, the animation is oddly poor, given the film was produced during the golden age of Hollywood cartoons. This work succeeded largely on reputation, not on its standalone merits—a reminder the even back in the day, Disney (the company and the man himself) was not infallible.