"Pink Elephants on Parade" is a large, nearly instrumental musical number featured in the film Dumbo. It centers the imaginary, yet nightmarish Pink Elephants hallucinations seen by Dumbo and Timothy.
Plot
After accidentally drinking the alcohol, Dumbo blows a large bubble from his trunk. The bubble turns into an elephant, which then blows a second elephant out of its trunk. This continues until there are four elephants. The elephants begin blowing their trunks like trumpets, and the trunks merge together into a yellow giant trumpet, which then explodes, and dozens of elephants march out of the remains of the trumpet.
As part of their marching band, a fat elephant marches behind a small elephant. The tiny elephant is using his trunk as an instrument, while the fat one is shaking two cowbells. The fat one accidentally steps on the small elephant over and over, until the small elephant gets annoyed. The small elephant goes behind the fat one and kicks him in the butt, causing him to split into three elephants, who mock the small one by blowing their trunk-horns in his face. He gets angry and grows into a giant elephant, who smashes the three elephants with a pair of cymbals. They explode into dozens of tiny elephants, who march away and surround Dumbo. As they march, they swell up, until there's no more room and they explode.
An elephant opens a window, and many elephants march in through it, marching around the bed of a terrified elephant child, who hides under his covers as his bed and the elephants spiral off into the distance.
Two elephant heads appear, one from the bottom of the screen and one from the top. They notice each other and flee, startled.
Two worms, a male and a female, pass each other, and the male tips his hat to the female. The worms are revealed to be the trunks of two elephants, who walk right through each other. However, their butts get stuck together and they snap back into each other, exploding into a blast of colors which then turns into a small elephant.
The elephant dances as five more elephants of differing colors come out of that one, then the screen shuffles them together into an elephant made entirely of 6 heads. The scene zooms in on the elephant's eyes, which turn into pyramids.
A camel-elephant comes out from behind one of the pyramids and starts walking, looking at the viewer with a friendly smile. However, one of the pyramids she walks past turns out to be an elephant in disguise form, who blows a flute at her, causing her to transform into a snake (it is clear that the transformation is involuntary, as she appears terrified when that happens). The snake sways to the music and turns into a belly dancer, who then fades away except her belly, and turns an eye.
Trumpets play, sounding the start of a performance, as the trumpeting elephants are revealed to be made of curtains. The curtains are now ripped into pieces, and a male and female elephant dance in 1 spotlight.
The male grabs the females trunk, but she pulls back and he turns into a staircase. She climbs up the stairs and jumps into the ground, which turns into a lake. The male turns his legs into a canoe and paddles around the lake, using his trunk as a telescope, but until the female elephant comes out of the lake, pretending to be a fountain. He looks at her with his telescope and she squirts him with water, then runs away and begins ice skating.
The male skates behind her and nearly falls, but she catches him and they skate off. They return on skis and ski down a mountain, covering themselves with snow. They shake the snow off and dance, until their trunks touch and create a bolt of lighting. The male grabs the lightning as the female continues dancing. He rubs it on his butt (turning his back to us as he does so) then turns it back into a lightning bolt and hurls it at the female. It hits her in the head and she explodes into many couples of dancing elephants.
The elephants transform into vehicles and begin zooming around until they all collide and cause an explosion that launches them into the air. They fall and transform into clouds as the alcohol wears off and Dumbo recovers from his hallucination.
Lyrics
Look out! Look out!
Pink elephants on parade.
Here they come!
Hippety hoppety.
They're here, and there.
Pink elephants ev'rywhere!
Look out! Look out!
They're walking around the bed.
On their head!
Clippety cloppety.
Arrayed in braid.
Pink elephants on parade!
What'll I do? What'll I do?
What an unusual view!
I could stand the sight of worms
And look at microscopic germs
But technicolor pachyderms
Is really too much for me!
I am not the type to faint
When things are odd or things
are quaint
But seeing things you know that ain't
Can certainly give you an awful fright!
What a sight!
Chase 'em away!
Chase 'em away!
I'm afraid need your aid
Pink elephants on parade!
Hey hey hey
Pink elephants!
Pink elephants!
Pink elephants....
(instrumental)
Trivia
- Part of the song was heard playing on TV in Disney's 2007 hybrid movie, Enchanted.
- The song was also played in the 1948 Donald Duck short "Tea for Two Hundred".
- Some of the animation of the sequence was recycled for "Heffalumps and Woozles" in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.
- This song was included on the Disney Sing Along Songs VHS I Love to Laugh!
- An instrumental version is used as the soundtrack of a revised version of the scene in the 2019 live action remake.
