- “Jumbo. Junior.”
- ―Mrs. Jumbo[src]
Mrs. Jumbo is the overarching protagonist of Disney's 1941 animated feature film Dumbo. She is the loving, protective mother of the film's titular character.
Appearances[]
Dumbo[]
Mrs. Jumbo is first seen one night awaiting a stork, but starts to lose patience when she doesn't receive her baby, unlike the other circus animals. The next morning, she enters the circus train but stops on the footbridge to look out for the stork. However, an impatient Matriarch forces her to move on to the train by nudging her backside and finally ends Mrs. Jumbo's lookout by insensibly pushing her up the ramp and into the car. During the train ride, she is visited by Mr. Stork, who had apparently become lost. She names her new baby Jumbo Jr. The stork leaves after singing "Happy Birthday" to the baby and the other elephants compliment the baby elephant. However, when the baby sneezes and reveals oversized ears after being tickled by the Matriarch on the trunk, they immediately begin teasing him. Mrs. Jumbo responds by slapping one of the elephants, who was touching and mocking her son's ears at the time, prompting them to give him the cruel nickname of "Dumbo." A furious Mrs. Jumbo closes the stall door in their faces, allowing her and Dumbo to rest peacefully.
When the circus stops, Mrs. Jumbo assists in the setup of the tent with the kind help of her son as well. The next morning, she and Dumbo walk in the circus parade. Dumbo trips over his ears and falls into the mud, and so Mrs. Jumbo bathes him when they return to the circus. Soon after having spent a moment of playing a game of tail-pulling, a group of boys enters the tent and they begin teasing Dumbo. When one of the boys enters the pen (which is off limits), pulls Dumbo's ears, and blows in them, Mrs. Jumbo reacts by spanking him and throwing bales of hay at the other bullies. The ringmaster arrives and tries to calm her down with his whip but to no avail. She is assumed to have gone mad and is held down with ropes by the circus employees as well as having chains locked around her legs while others try to stop her with harpoons. When one of the circus employees takes her son away from her and the Ringmaster whips her again, she trumpets in pain, grabs him with her trunk, and throws him in her drinking tub. She is then locked up in solitary confinement.
After Dumbo becomes a clown in the circus, his friend, Timothy Q. Mouse brings him to visit Mrs. Jumbo in her cage. Though her chains prevent her from moving much, she is able to use her trunk to caress and swing her son with her trunk. However, the visit is all too short, and Mrs. Jumbo waves goodbye.
At the end of the film, Dumbo has become famous for his ability to fly. As a result, Mrs. Jumbo is released from solitary confinement and she and Dumbo receive a private train car. She is last seen caressing and hugging her son and waving goodbye to Dumbo's new friends, the Crows, who had earlier taught Dumbo how to fly.
Other appearances[]
Mrs. Jumbo can be easily spotted leaving toward Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
In the series finale of At Home With Olaf, a short clip of Dumbo featuring Mrs. Jumbo and the film's title character as her son appears during a montage of heartwarming moments from Disney films playing in Olaf's song "I Am with You".
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Her only speaking line in the film is when she names her son Jumbo Jr. Other than that, she remains completely silent. But in Disney's Villains' Revenge, she had more speaking lines.
- The line was recorded by the late Verna Felton, who also voiced the Elephant Matriarch, but also another elephant, Winifred from The Jungle Book.
- The animation of her caressing Dumbo during the "Baby Mine" song was recycled for use in Goliath II for the scene with Goliath II's mother caressing her son.
- It is unknown as to what happened to her mate, Mr. Jumbo.
- Joe Grant and Dick Huemer changed Dumbo's mother's name from "Mother Ella" to "Mrs. Jumbo" as a reference to the famed Barnum & Bailey circus pachyderm.
- Her eyes are blue, but when she goes "rogue" after one of the kid boys abuse Dumbo, they're blood-red. In real-life, all elephants' eyes are brown, even when enraged, but in fiction, red eyes is often used to indicate anger as Mrs. Jumbo was feeling after the kids bullied Dumbo.
See also[]
