A stork delivers babies while circus animals are
being transported, by train. Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her
baby who is soon taunted by the other (female) elephants because of his large
ears, and they nickname him "Dumbo".
Once the circus is assembled,
Mrs. Jumbo loses her temper at a group of boys for bullying of her son, so she
is locked up and deemed mad. Dumbo is shunned by the other elephants and with
no mother to care for him, he is now alone. Timothy Q. Mouse, who feels
sympathy for Dumbo and becomes determined to make him happy again, appoints
himself as Dumbo's mentor and protector.
The circus director makes
Dumbo the top of an elephant pyramid stunt, but Dumbo trips over his ears and
misses his target, injuring the other elephants and bringing down the big top.
Dumbo is made a clown as a result, and plays the main role in an act that involves him
falling into a vat of pie filling. Despite his newfound popularity and fame,
Dumbo dislikes this job and is now more miserable than ever.
To cheer Dumbo up, Timothy
takes him to visit his mother. On the way back, Dumbo cries and then starts to
hiccup, so Timothy takes him for a drink of water from a bucket which, unknown
to them, has accidentally had a bottle of champagne knocked into it. As a
result, Dumbo and Timothy both become silly and see huge amount of pink
elephants.
The next morning, Dumbo and
Timothy wake up in a tree. Timothy wonders how they got up in the tree, and
concludes that Dumbo flew up there using his large ears as wings. With the help
from a group of crows, Timothy is
able to get Dumbo to fly again, using a psychological trick of a "magic
feather" to boost his confidence.
Back at the circus, Dumbo must
perform his stunt of jumping from a high building, this time, from a much
higher platform. On the way down, Dumbo loses the feather; Timothy quickly
tells him that the feather was never magical, and that he is still able to fly.
Dumbo is able to pull out of the dive and flies around the circus, finally
striking back at his tormentors as the stunned audience looks on in amazement.
After this performance, Dumbo
becomes a media sensation, Timothy becomes his manager, and Dumbo and Mrs.
Jumbo are given a private car on the circus train.
