Instead, he thought of an idea of a baby elephant and his mother being separated, with the theme being "something innocent and sweet and sad", he wrote the particular piece with 20 minutes and made a demo of it.

During post-production, Burton found his demo music and eventually discovered that the piece suited the film resulting in the cue being unchanged and served as the main theme.

[13] Zanobard Reviews assigned 8/10 to the album, summarising "Dumbo is a welcome return to classic Burton-esque Danny Elfman, complete with a memorable main theme, some truly incredible individual compositions and spectacular orchestration all-round.

"[14] Writing for MFiles, Jim Paterson summarised "While the score isn't a full-on classic Elfmanfest, it is thoroughly well crafted with many moments to enjoy.

"[15] Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com attributed that the film's music is "frequently reminiscent of Elfman's haunting score for Edward Scissorhands".