After suffering a setback because of poor initial grosses from Pinocchio and Fantasia, Walt Disney decided to make a low-budget feature to recoup some of the earlier losses. Dumbo, made for a minimal $800,000, did just that, grossing more than $2.5 million on its first release in 1941.

Dumbo spent only six months in story development and one year in animation. In a 1980 interview, animator Ward Kimball commented, "The reason we brought it in for a low price was that it was done quickly and with a minimum amount of mistakes. The story was clear and airtight to everyone involved in the project. We didn’t do a lot of stuff over due to story-point goofs. There were no sequences started and then shelved, like in Pinocchio. Walt was sure of what he wanted, and this confidence was shared by the entire crew. Dumbo, from the opening drawing, went straight through to the finish with very few things changed or altered.

"Sure, we've done things that have had a lot more finish, frosting, and tricky footwork," Kimball noted, "but basically, I think the Disney cartoon reached its zenith with Dumbo. To me, it is the one feature cartoon that has a foolproof plot. Every story element meshes into place, held together with the great fantasy of a flying elephant. The first time I heard Walt outline the plot I knew that the picture had great simplicity and cartoon heart …" Audiences and critics shared the animator's enthusiasm for the film. Walt Disney biographer Christopher Finch called it "probably the most spontaneous animated feature that the Studio has ever produced … a delightfully unpretentious picture, relying almost entirely upon charm and humor rather than upon spectacular effects." Film critic Richard Schickel wrote that it "recaptured some of the freshness, exuberance, and innocence of the short cartoons as well as their pure and simple form." Film historian Leonard Maltin remarked on the visual aspects of the film, noting that Dumbo himself doesn’t speak, and that "as delightful as the soundtrack is, especially with Timothy's dialogue, one could turn it off and still follow every scene."

Humorous characters also lend much to the success of the film, and the carefully chosen voices include Disney's first use of the versatile Sterling Holloway (best known as Winnie The Pooh), beginning a happy collaboration that continued for more than 40 years.

RKO complained that at 64 minutes, Dumbo was too short for a feature, and wanted Walt to add another 10 minutes. Walt, who had originally planned Dumbo as a 30-minute film, refused. "No, that's as far as I can stretch it. You can stretch a thing so far and then it won't hold. This picture is right as it is."