The Public Domain Wiki
Advertisement
Dumbo

Dumbo as he's depicted on the cover of Dumbo The Flying Elephant (1939)

Dumbo is an elephant who can fly but all the circus animals made fun of him because of his ears soon he befriends a robin named Red and and he had a magic feather that can make him fly soon he loses the feather but somehow he can still fly.

Public Domain Appearances[]

Literature[]

  • Dumbo, the Flying Elephant (1939) (Unpublished but was registered)


Copyright Status[]

Despite being unpublished, Dumbo The Flying Elephant was registered in the United States back in 1939 (Which was another requirement for Unpublished works to gain the 95 term alongside publication and if not it's 70+ after the death of Author.) aka Registration number AA 296948 And became public domain sometime in 1968 due to no renewal.)[1]

A baby elephant illustration that was used for his PD SH article was used as a possible substitute for his appearance since surviving illustrations from the Roll-A-Book have not been found. Also Subsequent artwork created for the 1941 book and film are NOT in the public domain. However, the Original cover which is by Helen Durney is possibly public domain since it's the only illustration from the Roll-A-Book that survives from the book alongside the story synopsis and could be used and likely was registered when the book was registered as well. However, this is yet to be proven but seems to be the case.

"Dumbo" is still trademarked by Disney, this means that although Dumbo as he's depicted on the original cover (if it was registered too and didn’t renew) can be used within a work of fiction. He can't be used to confuse people as if Disney was involved in your story or any other type of work.

The 1941 animated film from Walt Disney Pictures is still under copyright until 2037.

Advertisement