Editing Dumbo (section)

===Development===
''Dumbo'' is based upon a children's story written by [[Helen Aberson-Mayer]] and Harold Pearl,<ref name="pace"/> with illustrations by Helen Durney.<ref name="hrdpapers">{{cite web|url=https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/d/durney_hr.htm|title=Helen R. Durney Papers - An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University|date=February 28, 2017|publisher=[[Syracuse University]]|access-date=September 28, 2018|archive-date=May 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514052252/https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/d/durney_hr.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The children's book was first brought to the attention of [[Walt Disney]] in late 1939 by [[Kay Kamen]], the studio's head of merchandise licensing, who showed a prototype of the Roll-A-Book that included ''Dumbo''. Disney immediately grasped its possibilities and heartwarming story and purchased the rights to it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Essays/DumboRollABook/DumboRollABook.html |title=The Mysterious Dumbo Roll-A-Book |website=MichaelBarrier.com |access-date=May 31, 2010 |archive-date=April 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407201533/http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Essays/DumboRollABook/DumboRollABook.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Originally intended as a short film, Disney soon realized a decent book adaption needed a feature-length film.<ref name="John Canemaker">{{cite AV media notes|title=Dumbo: Big Top Edition DVD|others=[[John Canemaker]]|type=Audio commentary|publisher=Walt Disney Home Entertainment|year=2006}}</ref> At the time, the foreign markets in Europe had been curtailed due to [[World War II]], which caused ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' and ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' to fail at the box office. With the film's modest budget, ''Dumbo'' was intended to be a low-budget feature designed to bring revenue to the studio.{{sfn|Barrier|2008|p=176}} Story artists [[Dick Huemer]] and [[Joe Grant]] were assigned to develop the plot into a feature-length film. From January 22 to March 21, 1940, they wrote a 102-page script outline in chapters, much like a book, an unusual way of writing a film script. They conceived the stork-delivery and the pink elephants sequences and had Dumbo's mother renamed from "Mother Ella" to "Mrs. Jumbo". They riffed on elephants' fear of mice by replacing a wise [[American robin|robin]] named "Red" found in the original story with the wisecracking mouse character, Timothy. They also added a "rusty black crow", which was later expanded into five.<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Canemaker |title=Two Guys Named Joe |page=149 |publisher=Disney Editions |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-423-11067-5}}</ref> Regardless of this, very little was changed from the original draft.<ref name="TakingFlight">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/GbgvitYr4To Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210823023901/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbgvitYr4To Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media notes |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbgvitYr4To |title=Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo |type=Bonus feature |publisher=Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment |year=2011 |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In March 1940, a story team headed by Otto Englander translated the outline into story sketches.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=273}}