Elmer Elephant

Elmer Elephant is a Silly Symphony cartoon short produced by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Wilfred Jackson and released on March 28, 1936.[1]

Not to be confused with Elmer the Patchwork Elephant.
Elmer Elephant
1960's "burlap" title card from Disney short Elmer Elephant (1936)
Directed byWilfred Jackson
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringBernice Hansen
Pinto Colvig
Clarence Nash
Music byLeigh Harline
Animation byAl Eugster
Paul Hopkins
Milt Kahl
Ward Kimball
Hamilton Luske
Wolfgang Reitherman
Milt Schaffer
Edward Strickland
Bob Wickersham
Layouts byFerdinand Horvath
Backgrounds byMaurice Noble
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • March 28, 1936 (1936-03-28)
Running time
8:29
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The cartoon tells the story of a curious and friendly elephant named Elmer. In it, he is invited to Tillie Tiger's birthday party in the jungle, bringing her a bouquet of flowers. Tillie loves Elmer, but the other children tease him by pretending to be elephants, mocking him when Tillie isn't around to protect him, and calling his trunk a “rubber hose”. Angry at them for teasing him, Elmer leaves the party and goes to a nearby waterhole to look at his reflection. First he tries to make his trunk shorter, but it grows right back. Then he tries to kick it away, but it comes back and hits him in the face, and he starts crying with pain. Soon Elmer is reassured by a nearby old giraffe who tells him that he used to suffer the same teasing about his long neck and three pelicans who resemble Jimmy Durante. Suddenly, a fire breaks out at Tillie's treehouse with Tillie still in it. The rescue efforts by the other children as well as a monkey fire brigade with a cart-pulling ostrich cause deteriorating catastrophes. Elmer sees Tillie in danger and hurries to the rescue with the old giraffe and the three pelicans. With their help, Elmer uses his trunk like a fire hose to successfully put out the fire. Then he rescues Tillie and brings her down to the ground. Due to his heroic acts, he wins both the respect of the other children and the heart of Tillie.

Later appearances

Elmer is theorized to be the precursor of Dumbo; the common trait of both characters being that they have insecurities about a specific body part they get ridiculed for (in this case, Elmer's trunk) and eventually achieving success with the body part in question.

Elmer would later go on to star in a serial in the Silly Symphony comic strip. "The Life and Adventures of Elmer Elephant," appearing from October 27, 1935, to January 12, 1936, retold the story of the Elmer short.[2] Three years later, Elmer was featured in the strip again, in a continuity called "Timid Elmer". This story was based on a planned second Elmer short, which was abandoned before completion.[3] In this story, published December 4, 1938 to February 12, 1939, Elmer's girlfriend Tillie Tiger is tired of his cowardice, and takes up with a bully, Gooch Gorilla. After talking to a wise giraffe, Elmer gains the confidence to fight the bullies and win back Tillie's respect.[3]

Like the Three Little Pigs before him, he would also become a popular character in merchandising. However, he never made another theatrical appearance again, with the exceptions of the crowd shots in the later Silly Symphonies short Toby Tortoise Returns and a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit alongside Joey Hippo. Most recently, Elmer and Tillie have made brief but notable cameos in Mickey Mouse episode "Carried Away" where they are tourists in Niagara Falls.

Today, the Elmer Elephant short can be found on the 2001 Walt Disney Treasures DVD box set Silly Symphonies.[1] Since 2001, it has also been included as a bonus feature, alongside fellow Silly Symphony short The Flying Mouse, on DVD/Blu-Ray releases of Dumbo. From 1983 to 1997, this short was also the featured subject of DTV's music video of English rock group Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart", and featured in one episode of Sing Me a Story with Belle.

Comic adaptation

The Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip ran a three-month-long adaptation of Elmer Elephant called "The Life and Adventures of Elmer the Elephant" from October 27, 1935 to January 12, 1936. A sequel, "Timid Elmer", ran from December 4, 1938 to February 12, 1939.[4]

Home media

The short was released on the 2001 Walt Disney Treasures DVD box set Silly Symphonies.

References
  1. Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 174–175. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
  2. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 351. ISBN 9780472117567.
  3. Duvall, Earl; Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 1. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631405587.
  4. Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 2. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631408045.
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