New Release: Disney's Dumbo 70th Anniversary DVD and Blu-ray

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the Dumbo 70th Anniversary Edition on Sept. 20, 2011, on DVD and high-definition Blu-ray.

The Oscar-winning (best music score) animated movie is perhaps one of Disney’s sweetest films, telling the story of a baby elephant in a circus who’s ridiculed because of his incredibly large ears. He’s sent to be a part of the clown acts, but with his only friend, Timothy Q. Mouse, Dumbo proves he’s quite amazing.

Unlike today’s animated films, Dumbo didn’t have a hugely famous voice cast, but the movie is filled with Disney’s usual memorable characters, including those wonderful crows singing “When I See an Elephant Fly.” (Scroll down for a great clip.) Released in 1941, Dumbo was the studio’s fourth animated movie.

For this new disc release, the film has been restored to what the studio believes are the color settings that were approved by Walt Disney himself. The restoration team used the original 70-year-old nitrate camera negative that’s stored at the U.S. Library of Congress and an original 1941 release print held by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

And for the audio, Disney used a film print housed at the UCLA Film and Television Archives, the earliest generation of the original audio of the movie. The Blu-ray will have enhanced 7.1 surround sound and the DVD 5.1.

Dumbo was released as a single DVD ($29.99) and a two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo ($39.99), as well as a movie download in high-definition ($39.99) and standard-definition ($29.99). A Blu-ray/DVD set was released overseas in 2010 (read a review).

The DVD and Blu-ray include these special features:

• two deleted scenes: “The Mouse’s Tale” and “Are You a Man or a Mouse?”
• featurette “Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo“
• featurette “The Magic of Dumbo: A Ride of Passage” looking at Disneyland’s most popular right through the eyes of a child
• audio commentary with Pete Docter (director of Up), Disney historian Paula Sigman and animator Andreas Deja, who worked on The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog and others
• sound design excerpt from 1941 film The Reluctant Dragon
• and Walt Disney’s original TV introduction.

The Blu-ray also add:

• Cine-Explore
• Disney View
• two games: “What Do You See?” and “What Do You Know?”
• featurette “Celebrating Dumbo“
• and two animated shorts: “The Flying Mouse” and “Elmer Elephant.”

Even the downloads come with extras:

• the two deleted scenes
• and the “Celebrating Dumbo” featurette.

Disney also is bowing The Lion King on Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D and Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray 3D.

Here’s a clip with Dumbo and those great crows:

Buy or Rent Dumbo
DVD | DVD/Blu-ray Combo | Blu-ray/DVD Combo | Instant Video	DVD | DVD/Blu-ray Combo | Blu-ray/DVD Combo	DVD | DVD/Blu-ray Combo | Blu-ray/DVD Combo