
"The pivotal scene in Dumbo (1941), for instance, is the transformation of consciousness and augmentation of capacity -- in this case, the big-eared elephant's motor skills -- via a hallucinatory delirium brought on when the dejected pachyderm drinks a barrel full of water into which, unbeknownst to him, a bottle of spirits had been accidentally spilled. To the foreboding lyrics and serpentine melody of "Pink Elephants on Parade," Dumbo begins seeing things "you know that ain't" (a succession of fractals and geometrical patterns, forms morphing into new ones, and scenes of Oriental mystery and erotica), then passes into [...]