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Dumbo

DUMBO
 
 
Dumbo  is an American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and premiered on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.  Dumbo, the fourth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a novelty toy (“Roll-a-Book”).  The main character is Jumbo Jr., a semi-anthropomorphic elephant who is cruelly nicknamed “Dumbo”.  He is ridiculed for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using his ears as wings.  Throughout most of the film, his only true friend, aside from his mother, is the mouse, Timothy – a relationship parodying the stereotypical animosity between mice and elephants.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

My interest in Wikipedia was piqued by several stunts fomented by Stephen Colbert on his show The Colbert Report.  In one famous incident, “The Wørd” on July 31, 2006 was “Wikiality”; Colbert explained that on Wikipedia, “any user can change any entry, and if enough users agree with them, it becomes true.”  He then encouraged his viewers to modify the Wikipedia entry on “elephants” to state:  “Elephant population in Africa has tripled over the past six months”.  The changes mounted by the “Colbert nation” spread to other pachyderm-related articles:  African forest elephant, African bush elephant, Babar the elephant, white elephant, Dumbo, etc. 

 

I remember another time when Stephen Colbert changed a Wikipedia entry on camera during The Colbert Report so as to fit his worldview – that is to say, the worldview of his buffoonish character “Stephen Colbert” who hosts the show; he is a different person from the actual human being.  

 
(September 2013)