10 Feel Good Movies With Heartbreaking Hidden Secrets

For now, let’s sidestep the racist images present throughout Dumbo. There are many people who, quite justifiably, can’t accept that the images are products of their time and thus the whole film is a wash for them. That’s fair enough. For people able to compartmentalise it though, there’s still some parts of Dumbo often left to linger uncomfortably.

Dumbo gets to go back home to his mama. He’s able to fly with confidence, is generally a less nervous boy, and lives with his family once more. He fulfils all his major goals of the movie.

It’s happy endings 101, really. The only issue is, he’s still at the circus.

Elephants are wild animals. They shouldn’t be in America full stop, let alone in a tiny cage, forced to perform each night for human amusement. He gets his own version of happiness, but from the outside looking in, it still doesn’t feel like much of a life.

The modern retelling changed this for a focus on conservation and environmentalism, only to then revive criticism for messing with the classic. You can’t win ‘em all.