“Regionalism in Disney Animation: Pink Elephants and Dumbo”, 1990 ():
Walt Disney’s Dumbo (RKO, 1941) is shown to contain two disparate animation traditions operating simultaneously within the Disney studio. Sequences alternate between those presented in Disney’s West Coast style, an expression of the classic Hollywood tradition, and an imported East Coast style, which emphasized artifice, nonlinear narrative, and “rubbery” graphics.
Associated with such New York studios as Fleischer and Van Beuren, the East Coast Style in Dumbo is traced to the contributions of specific New York-trained animators, who were able to operate relatively freely due to Disney’s own lack of involvement [see Disney animators’ strike]. The “Pink Elephants” sequence is analyzed as a major example of the East Coast influence in the film.