"Bambi" (1942)

Rating: G

Genre: Animation, Kids & Family

Directed By: David Hand, Samuel Armstrong, Bill Roberts, James Algar, Graham Heid, Paul Satterfield, David D. Hand, Norman Wright, Perce Pearce

Written By: Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Chuck Couch, Ralph Wright, Melvin Shaw

Runtime: 69 minutes

Studio: RKO Radio Pictures

Summary:

In a classic Disney animation, a fawn named Bambi joins his new friends, a young rabbit named Thumper and a skunk kit named Flower in happily exploring the woods. Bambi is captivated with a young doe named Faline, and he learns from his doting mother and his father – the Great Prince of the Forest – that besides the delights of the forest, there is danger in open meadows where hunters can see them. Though fear and tragedy touch Bambi's life, another spring brings renewal.

Review:

This movie, for the most part of it, is so cute!! Bambi is a dote, and the rabbits are adorable, if not a bit cheeky! As Bambi learns what’s what and who’s who in the forest, making friends and sense of everything – it’s all just so cute. Especially when Bambi discovers snow! Aww!! Children provided the voices for the animals in their young state, which was unusual for the time. Usually, it was adults who mimicked the sound of younger voices. 

There’s very little dialogue, it’s mostly in what you see that the story unfolds. But what bit of dialogue there is (particularly from the rabbits, more specifically Thumper) is sure to make you smile and cue – even if you are supposed to be an adult successfully adulting… But Disney is for all ages! There is no one too old to enjoy these classics.

As an adult watching it for the first time, I did think it dragged a bit even though it only reaches 69 minutes. There isn’t much of a story to it as such, other than what I mentioned above about Bambi finding his way and figuring things out. There are fewer than 900 words spoken in the entire film.

But I guess children will enjoy watching all the animals and the pretty colours, and after all, the artwork is beautiful in this film. For the first time, the backgrounds were done in oils as opposed to watercolours. To make the animals in the film appear more realistic and lifelike, animators visited the Los Angeles Zoo and Walt Disney set up a small zoo at the studio with animals such as rabbits, ducks, owls, and skunks, and a pair of fawns named Bambi and Faline so that the artists could see first-hand the movement of these animals. The attention to detail meant that animators completed less work on a daily basis than they had been able to on previous movies. 

One thing in particular caused the animators a bit of difficulty as they apparently could not draw Bambi’s fathers’ antlers correctly. However, as demonstrated, where there’s a will there’s a way, and to get around this problem a 3D model of stags’ antlers was filmed from all angles and then rotoscoped onto animation cells. Another tedious aspect to the artwork was that the artists had to make sure that each spot on Bambi’s back was replicated perfectly in every frame. A lot of late nights and frustrated workers behind those beautiful drawings I reckon…

But for sure, their efforts paid off. Whatever your stance on the story or Disney movies, you can’t deny that Bambi is a beautiful looking film. Some of Bambi’s animation sequences were even reused in other movies – Bambi’s mother appears in the very first shot of “Beauty and the Beast”, Bambi and his mother appear in “The Rescuers”, and finally Bambi’s mother also appears in “The Sword in the Stone” as well as “The Jungle Book”.

The whole first 40 minutes of the story seems to simply be leading up to one moment in particular, one that everyone seems to know about – particularly if you are a fan of Friends like myself – so it will come as no spoiler. The moment in which Bambi’s mother dies.

Her death is considered to be one of the most tragic, heart-breaking moments ever. It is really, really sad. Even though nothing is shown on screen, we hear a gunshot and have Bambi crying out for his mother. Tears will come. Disney really had no notion of holding back in his day. I feel like such a scene wouldn’t be allowed in a children’s film nowadays. But is that what made Disney movies so good? The fact that he didn’t shy away from showing children such heartache does happen? It sounds a bit sadistic when you put it like that. Whatever the opinion, this scene above anything, seems to be the main point of the whole film. There was certainly huge build up towards it, plenty of foreshadowing, and nothing much really happened before it. 

The dialogue picked up more after this moment when Bambi returned to the screen all grown up, his friends Thumper and Flower all grown up too. The three of them together are so cute. And of course, the budding little romance between Bambi and Feline is adorable too. 

I was shocked to learn that in the original script Bambi was supposed to be shot instead of his mother, however the idea was dismissed. We were also supposed to see her jumping over a fence and falling, as well as Bambi discovering her in a pool of blood. Good grief, Walt Disney. Can you imagine if any of these scenarios took place? Children would be scarred completely.  I've seen images of Bambi lying next to his mother with a pool of blood around her, so I did actually think that was what happened. I wonder if there is a version out there where this does happen. I hope not. 

Being the fifth Disney animation to be produced, Bambi was the first Disney film where the songs were not sung by the characters on screen. The songs of Bambi were sung by either an off-screens soloist or a choir.

Although 'Bambi' is considered a classic today, the film was not successful at the box office due to being released during World War II. It lacked access to much of the European market. However, that didn’t stop it from receiving three Academy Award nominations.

Yes, for sure, in terms of the visual and production of Bambi, it is absolutely worth checking out – adult or child! A really beautiful looking film. 

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