In Disney's glory era, long before the times of media conglomerates, corporate scandals and manufacturing labour practice abuses that plague companies the size of Mouse House nowadays, the world was a lot more innocent. Nobody new Uncle Walt was an authoritarian anti-Semite who brutalised his employees with overwork - it was all about the magic.

And magic is served up in usual mid 20th Century Disney doses in the tale of a young circus elephant whose big ears make him the subject of scorn and derision until he discovers their power and becomes a hero.

One of the cutest fictional characters in history with his little forlorn eyes, enormous ears and tiny trunk, a lovely story and interesting characters long before Disney films became the Paste-Disney-template-over-random-way-of-life they are today.

A classic for good reason, although to the unbiased eye even then they worked to a fairly strict formula - one that's worked again and again, everywhere from Ping and The Ugly Duckling to Rocky.