![]() ![]() The character designs were also simplified with less detail used to speed up the production process, resulting in a final film whose characters feature a more cartoonish look than those found in Walt’s previous films. After Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo would stand as only the second Disney film to feature the use of watercolours and would not be seen again until Lilo & Stitch in 2002. Under the guidance of supervising director Ben Sharpsteen, the animators used watercolour paints to render the background layouts, which offered far less detail than the background animation seen in Pinocchio and Fantasia. Walt felt the film wouldn’t require the lavish special effects seen in his earlier films and bluntly instructed his animation team to keep the production simple. In early 1941, Walt instructed his production team to make Dumbo as cheaply and quickly as possible with the plan to have the film in cinemas by October. Unlike Disney’s previous films, which were blessed with more than two years of production time, Dumbo was to be crafted in a matter of mere months. ![]() ![]() After purchasing the film rights to Helen Aberson-Mayer and Harold Pearl’s children’s book Dumbo the Flying Elephant in late 1939, Walt chose Dumbo as his next feature film. With World War II continuing to eliminate the possibility of Disney capturing the lucrative European box office dollars, Walt keenly understood the studio’s only hope was to produce their fourth animated feature at a drastically reduced cost and hope for better domestic box office returns to keep his company afloat. Despite huge critical acclaim and several Academy Awards for their first three animated feature films, the heavy losses occurred from the box office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia were taking their toll on the company and Walt Disney himself. By the early 1940s, the situation at Walt Disney Productions was beginning to look somewhat dire. ![]()
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