Dumbo is a 1941 American animated movie. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was first released on October 23, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, Dumbo is based upon a child's book of the same name by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Perl. The main character is Jumbo Jr., a baby elephant who is cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. He is ridiculed for his big ears, but in fact he is capable of flying by using them as wings. Throughout most of the movie, his only true friend aside from his mother is the mouse Timothy, making fun of the stereotype between mice and elephants. Dumbo was made to make up for the damages of Pinocchio and Fantasia. The movie has been criticized in recent years as being "racist" (the leader crow in the movie was named "Jim Crow" and at some point around the 1950s was renamed "Dandy Crow" in attempt to avoid controversy, but the original name is still the one mostly known, although it was supposed to be just a sarcastic mockery to the Jim Crow laws in the Southern USA back then and was used only on the character's model sheets), yet is also considered to be one of Disney's best movies. It was an attempt to be simple and make profits for the Disney studio, is now generally regarded as a classic of animation. At 64 minutes, it is one of Disney's shortest animated features. Taking place in 1941, Dumbo was the first Disney animated movie to be set in modern times.