Disney Review Part 6: Bambi (Patreon)

Disney Series Part 6: Bambi

Bambi

By the Walt Disney Company

1942

Intro

Bambi is the coming-of-age story about a young deer living in the forest. Through his mother and his friends, Bambi learns how to live in the forest, as well as how to play. However, through the death of his mother, Bambi is forced to grow up under the care of his father, the Great Prince of the Forest. We then jump cut to when the little deer is an older stag, where we meet up again with Bambi’s friends who all reject the concept of love, but all fall for it anyways. While this happens though, our main antagonist, "Man", has set camp up and is on the prowl. The spark of en ember at Man’s camp sets the forest ablaze, and it is up to Bambi to save his love interest, Faline. With the help of his father, Bambi helps the other woodland animals make it to the safety of the river. The film ends with Faline in the same position as Bambi’s mother at the beginning of the film, giving birth to two fawns. Bambi watches over his family as his father walks off, symbolizing the passing of the torch.

History
In 1942, the US officially joined WWII, and Disney was commissioned by the US Government to create propaganda films. (We will begin those films next week) Bambi’s history, however, begins in 1923 with the publication of “Bambi, a Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten. The book takes place in the Austrian forests and Bambi is supposed to be a Roe Deer. The movie follows the main plot of the book, though the book is written for an adult audience. The story of Bambi was first introduced to Walt Disney by Sidney Franklin of MGM. MGM had purchased the rights to Bambi from Salten, who had fled Austria after the Nazis invaded, and the studio had planned to create a live-action adaptation. They felt, however, that it would be too hard to adapt it, and Franklin then sold the rights to Disney. Walt had intended for the film to be adapted after Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but the animators felt that they didn't have the skills to animate realistic-looking animals yet, so Bambi was shelved. It wouldn't be until Fantasia was in its final stages of production that Walt un-shelved the project. The company decided to change the location of Bambi to the Pacific Northwest (California, Oregon, and Washington) and change Bambi from the Roe deer to a White-tailed deer. The art direction was given to Tyrus Wong (1910-2016), a Chinese animator and painter. His background focused the detailing on the center of the composition, this would allow the viewer’s eye to focus on the characters in the center.

Following the lackluster releases of Pinocchio and Fantasia, Walt ultimately cut 12 mins of the film to cut back on production costs. The film would be released missing its target by 4,000($?). This was because of the lack of European sales due to the war. However, further re-releases would prove to be more profitable for the film. Bambi, the character, was actually loaned out to the US government for a year. After the contract expired, the US government created a new character for their forest protection agency, Smokey Bear. Bambi would eventually get direct to DVD sequel in 2006, which was set right before the jump cut after the death of Bambi’s mother. (more on that later)

The Review

I went into watching Bambi with high expectations. Most reviews celebrate the film and rate it rather high. Personally, I find there to be a lack of story with Bambi. Characters don’t get the development I think they need. Bambi, honestly, is the only character who seems to have any kind of development, and even then it’s not much. I believe this is due to the censoring of the darker elements of the story while under development. I believe there is more character development in the sequel, where we apparently do meet The Great Prince of the forest. Though I do feel the story of Bambi lacks luster, I do think the film makes up for that in the art department.

The backgrounds in Bambi make you feel like you have stepped into a watercolor painting. With the execution of the backgrounds, it really does fill like your eye is drawn into the center of the picture. Yet, expanding on the art direction, I don't care for the character designs in Bambi. Thought to make Bambi more appealing to American audiences, I do not care for the big, doe (pardon the pun) eyed look of the characters. I think this is most jarring when we see Bambi as an adult, his eyes still look like they’re bulging out of his head. This extends to most of the other characters as well,; I think the one character design I like is the Great Prince, and that’s because his eyes, though still bigger than normal, don't look like they take up most of his head. Other than that, the character designs are alright. Nothing too special stands out in Bambi.

Animation-wise, Bambi is one of the best coming after Snow White’s deer who were animated like “a sack of flour” as Eric Larson put it. Bambi was actually put on hold because the animators felt they weren't able to animate the animals accurately. By the time they eventually got to Bambi it appears they had built up their confidence.

I have actually been struggling to write this review because there's not a lot for me to say about Bambi.  I like Bambi, but Bambi just doesn't have a lot of content to it. Lots of good lines though, my siblings and I quote it all the time.

Final words

Bambi is odd, I'm not sure what to really say about the film. I don't think there’s a lot of content here and nor do I think there’s a lot of story. Bambi is what it is, it gets its point across, but it doesn’t hold much in the way of content.II feel that the praise the film gets is more for nostalgic reasons rather than the actual content. In the end, I give Bambi a 6/10. Its saving grace is the art direction and the fluid animation that presents an accurate representation of animal movement.