“Dumbo”: discover the real story that inspired the classic character

A “Afternoon session” shows, this Monday (22), the live-action of “Dumbo” (2019), a Disney animation originally released in 1941.

Released in 2019 and directed by Tim Burton, the film takes place in 1919, following Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell), a former circus artist who sees his world turned upside down after returning from the First World War.

After losing his old position at the circus, he finds himself in charge of caring for an elephant who is about to give birth. As soon as the puppy is born, the size of its ears makes it despised. Only Holt is willing to take care of Dumbo and encourage him to fly.

Discover the real story that inspired “Dumbo”

Although adapted into a “children's” Disney story, the elephant “Dumbo”, which in reality was “Jumbo”, lived a sad story, marked by exploitation and violence.

According to information from BBC, the elephant was captured in Africa and taken to a zoo in London, United Kingdom, in 1865. At the time, at two and a half years old, the animal was already considered giant. The same species in the European country was considerably smaller.

As soon as he arrived at the zoo, he received the care of Matthew Scott, who became his main caregiver and the person Jumbo never let go of – and the only person who could also calm him down.

Over the years, Jumbo has become a major attraction in the area. Children rode on its back with great ease and the animal appeared to be docile. However, after everything was over, he became violent and destroyed any place he stayed. Only Matthew Scott was able to calm the animal with the solution he believed to be viable: giving the animal whiskey.

Later, as researchers reported to BBCit was discovered that the violent behavior came from the mistreatment the animal suffered, mainly in relation to its diet, which ended up compromising its dental arch, causing the animal a lot of pain.

Richard Thomas, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester (United Kingdom), said that the animal “went crazy without medicine”. It was also discovered, through its skeleton, that the animal had large lesions on its body, which “must have been incredibly painful and could have been caused by the great weight that Jumbo carried walking with groups of visitors”, highlighted the researcher.

“Jumbo” died tragically in 1885, run over by a train. To this day, it is not known whether the death was due to the animal trying to save another from the train tracks, or whether it died while trying to be stuffed into one of the carriages.