History WesternAnimation / Dumbo

* SneezeOfDoom: How Dumbo's ears were revealed to be large.

* NoAntagonist: A rare instance of a Disney movie that has no villains, per se (at best, the Ringmaster is an AntiVillain). Instead, it's about an elephant who's trying to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer find acceptance within his own circus]].

* ElephantsAreScaredOfMice: When the other elephants talk smack about Dumbo, Timothy the mouse takes full advantage of this trope, scaring them all out of their wits. It's subverted with Dumbo himself, who befriends the little mouse simply because he was nice to him (and not that scary up close).

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Dumbo.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: Striped hyenas are seen in a montage during "Baby Mine".

** This movie perhaps started the trend of giving cartoon crows [[TypicalCartoonAnimalColors yellow bills and feet]].

* {{Flanderization}}: The Ringmaster in the movie wasn't necessarily an outright villain despite his actions toward Dumbo and his mother and being considered the main antagonist of the film, just another jerkass. But he's upgraded to being the main villain antagonist for Dumbo in ''VideoGame/DisneysVillainsRevenge''. He is implied by the roustabaouts in their passive-aggressive musical to be exploitative and abusive toward them and the animals, calling even the roustabaouts names like "dirty apes".

* NoAntagonist: A rare instance of a Disney movie that has no real villains, per se (at best, the Ringmaster is an AntiVillain, despite his "punishing" Dumbo for a failed performance by putting him in very dangerous and humiliating acts and his treatment toward the roustabaouts). Instead, it's about an elephant who's trying to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer find acceptance within his own circus]].

* VillainyFreeVillain: The Ringmaster is touted as the main antagonist, but most of his controversial acts like locking Mrs. Jumbo and sending Dumbo to the clowns were all to maintain and protect his circus and all the other animals there, but the former could also be because of Mrs. Jumbo humiliating him by throwing him into a vat full of water and the latter could be easily a punishment for Dumbo for failing terribly the Ringmaster's beloved act, not to mention his treatment toward the roustabaouts. He apparently would try to honor Dumbo's attempts to get his mother free, but Dumbo screwed up the first one, and after he spectacularly succeeded, despite the Ringmaster being publicly humiliated by Dumbo, he perhaps kept his word and gave Dumbo and his mother a well-deserved luxury, but the film implies that Timothy became the new manager and ringmaster of the circus.

* TriumphantReprise: "When I See an Elephant Fly" gets two reprises, both of which celebrate Dumbo's flight.

* TheUnintelligible
** Both Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo only communicate via typical elephant sounds.
** Also in the movie itself, Dumbo has no spoken dialogue at all, and Mrs. Jumbo only speaks once -- when she says Dumbo's original name.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Largely averted, but many of the circus animals have excessively large litters of young.

* HumanLadder: The Pyramid of Pachyderms.

But I'll be done seen 'bout ev'rything\\

But I'll be done seen 'bout everything\\

But I'll be done seen about everything, when I see an elephant fly..."''

I seen a needle that winked its eye\|

->''"I'll be done seen about everything, when I see an elephant fly..."''

** The bratty kid with the big ears sees Mrs. Jumbo hiding her son, and he decides to go past the rope and tug on his ears. Something like that would have gotten him killed in real life.

* Homage: The whole "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence pays homage to Disney's own rubber hose animations from the 20s and 30s that had otherwise fallen out of fashion by the time Dumbo was released in the 40s.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Timothy really didn't think through his plan to make Dumbo a star via the Pyramid act. To be fair, the ringmaster didn't either; any reasonable leader would have tested the act ahead of time to prevent technical difficulties.

* AdultFear:
** When Dumbo and his mother get separated.
** Mrs. Jumbo defends her child against dangerous bullies, and ''she's'' the one who gets in trouble for it and is locked up so she can't protect him anymore.
** Invoked in the clown's act, which shows a mother's baby trapped in a burning building. While PlayedForLaughs, the music appropriately starts with a dramatic riff before going into the clown medley.

* TooDumbToLive: The kid who thought it was a good idea to torment Dumbo, a baby elephant, within sight of the latter's mother. Retribution was ''very'' mild compared to what would have happened in real life.

* TheSpeechless

* An {{Aesop}}You don’t need the feather to fly.