25 of the creepiest Disney movies ever made

Dumbo (Image via Walt Disney Productions)

13. Dumbo

It’s bad enough that Dumbo, a young elephant, is being exploited at a circus. It’s even worse that he’s separated from his mother, who’s locked up after she loses her temper at boys who are tormenting her young son. Even the other circus elephants are jerks to poor Dumbo. In fact, his name is actually Jumbo, Jr.; the “Dumbo” nickname was given by other elephants who wished to make fun of his oversized ears.

Poor Dumbo can’t even seem to make it work in circus life. He’s supposed to be the top of an elephant pyramid of sorts, but screws up so badly that he’s banished to clown duty. The elephants deem that he is no longer part of the group. He also has to fall into a vat of pie filling, over and over, every night. The point is, Dumbo has a tough life, even amongst his fellow pachyderms.

He at least has one friend in Timothy Q. Mouse. Timothy takes Dumbo to visit his imprisoned mother, which surprisingly makes Dumbo feel sad. They both go for a drink of water from a bucket, without realizing that clowns had accidentally spilled champagne into the same container.

Dumbo then proceeds to have the most horrifying drunk vision ever committed to film. Elephants of all shapes, colors, and patterns invade his dreams. They are endless, with black, soulless eyes and seemingly deprived of an internal bone structure. At one point, a hideous creature made entirely of nightmare elephant heads invade the screen.

Also, there are some frankly racist crow characters in the film, just so you know. One of them is even named “Jim Crow”, for goodness sake. So, major points off for that, too.