Disney/Stuff I Grew Up With: A Goofy Movie (1995)

The reason I put this film in the section of Stuff I Grew Up With was because this came out in 1995 when I was seven years old and watched it many times from then up to the end of elementary school. I can't really remember how I first saw it though. I didn't see it in the theater and, while I rented it many times after I first saw it, that's not how I actually first saw it. It was probably one of two things. They might have had us watch it at school at one time, which happened quite a bit when the teachers had forgotten to plan out the lessons for the day or they just want to teach. The other possibility was that a cousin of mine had the VHS and he may have shown it to me. Whatever the case, I loved it as a kid and when I rediscovered it after I got back into Disney, I still thought it was a great flick. I agree with Doug Walker in that I was surprised that some wanted him to bash it in a Nostalgia Critic episode because it is a well-made little movie. Granted, it is one of the more dated films Disney has ever produced in any capacity since the fads, styles, and music are very 90's but I think the story still holds up.

After having a nightmare where he finally gets with Roxanne, the girl of his dreams, only to turn into a monstrous version of his father, Goofy's son, Max, heads off to the last day of school in order to impress Roxanne and prove to her that he's not a loser with an over the top stunt. Although he gets in trouble with the principal for it, Roxanne, along with all the students in the school, was blown away by the stunt and this gives Max the confidence to ask her out to a big party to celebrate the end of the school year as well as to watch a pay-per-view concert featuring a popular singer named Powerline. Unknown to Max, though, the principal has called Goofy and tells him that Max is heading for trouble if he doesn't do something about it. Worried about his son, Goofy decides to take Max on a fishing trip with him across the country, unwittingly derailing Max's date. Max isn't happy about it at all but when he tries to tell Roxanne that the date is off, he doesn't want to lose her as a potential girlfriend and tells her that Goofy is taking him to L.A. to see the concert and to join Powerline onstage. It doesn't take Max long to reveal how much of a mess he's gotten himself into and as he tries to cope with his dad's well-meaning but embarrassing antics during the trip, he has to figure out how he's going to pull himself out of it and not lose Roxanne.

This was the first film to be directed by Kevin Lima, who had worked in the animation and art department on other Disney and non-Disney animated films and he would go on to direct Disney's Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians (his weakest film by far), and Enchanted, as well as two TV movies based on the character Eloise. I think Lima proves to be a capable director with this movie and by this point, should have directed more movies than he has. Also, this movie isn't technically part of Walt Disney Pictures' official animated feature canon since it was also produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and its Australian animation department. You can tell as well. The animation and design are much better than the direct to video films the Australian department usually made but it's still not quite up to par with Disney's usual feature standards.

Lima said that his intention with this movie was to make Goofy a three-dimensional, multi-faceted character and while some may not find that to be feasible, he and the crew actually did a good job in doing so. This movie enforces something that I'm sure everybody has already known about Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer): he's a good-natured, well-meaning guy who tries to make things right but his clumsiness and lack of intelligence causes him to mess things up. He loves his son, Max, dearly, tries to be a good father to him and make him happy as best as he can but everything he does just frustrates Max even more. He wants to be part of Max's life and have the same close relationship with him that he did with his own father and there are moments where he remembers the good times he had with Max when he was younger. However, he just can't get it through his head that Max is at that point where he wants to have his own life. The good thing is that the two of them do have a reconciliation and Goofy seems to learn that he can be a part of Max's life but he's also going to have to back off a little bit as well. Above anything else though, Goofy is always an understanding father. By the end of the movie, Goofy learns about the dilemma that Max has gotten himself in and becomes determined to help him out by getting him onstage with Powerline. One thing that's not different about Goofy, though, is his clumsiness. He's still one of the most uncoordinated and unintentionally destructive characters ever and the filmmakers taking that into account as well as giving him more emotional depth is a big part of the joy of this film.

Since A Goofy Movie is a sequel to the show Goof Troop, there are a bunch of characters from that show that are present here, the most notable, of course, being Max Goof. It's funny, when I was a kid, I was used to Dana Hill's performance as Max on Goof Troop and, since I was only seven or eight at the time, didn't understand why Max's voice was different here. Mom had to explain to me that it was because Max was in upper high school in this film and was much older. In any case, Max (voiced by Jason Marsden) is starting to look a lot like teenage version of his dad, which is exactly what he's afraid of. Heck, the film starts with him having a nightmare about turning into Goofy, much to Roxanne's horror. On top of that, when he accidentally does Goofy's "hyuk" laugh in front of Roxanne, he's absolutely mortified. He absolutely does not want to be a carbon copy of his dad, which builds upon one of the plot elements from Goof Troop where he wished that his dad would be more normal than he is (in fact, this issue of Max being like his dad was discussed in the show). You get the feeling that deep down, Max does love his father but just wishes he would let him have his independence and not embarrass him so much. It's funny because when I was a kid, I actually thought that Max was really mean to Goofy, although even then I kind of understood it. Now, I don't blame either of them. While Goofy was only trying to get closer to his son, Max had every right to get really mad at him at points because some of the stuff he put him through was very embarrassing. Max did tell Goofy part of the reason why he didn't want to go on the road trip and therefore, it is a little frustrating that Goofy still made him go, even though you know why he did. You could say that Max should have told Goofy the truth from the start but that's not the stuff a teenager would normally talk about with his dad, particularly when your dad is Goofy. So all in all, Max is a little mean to Goofy here but you do understand it and I like him here (I did think he wasn't as likable in An Extremely Goofy Movie but that's a story for another day).

You couldn't have a movie based on Goof Troop without Pete and P.J. (voiced by Jim Cummings and Rob Paulsen respectively, as it was in that show), although I have to wonder what happened to Pete's wife and daughter from the show? Did Peg divorce Pete and take Pistol with her or something? For that matter, in this movie, Pete works with Goofy at the mall as baby photographers. Did the used car business he had in Goof Troop go under? In any case, Pete's his usual abrasive self in this movie but never to the point where he's absolutely hateful. He thinks he knows everything about parenting and tries to give Goofy advice, such as saying that you got to be firm with your kid, "keep 'em under your thumb" and "they'll never wind up in the gutter" as he says. Basically, this means being a bully to your kid, which is how he treats P.J and this makes for a great dichotomy between the two pairs of father and son. I always felt so bad for P.J. since he has just an obnoxious jerk for a dad who makes him feel like crap most of the time. In any case, I've always liked P.J. as a character because he's that one true buddy who always has your back and never lets you down, although he's not the most optimistic person in the world. Going back to Pete, he's also kind of a rat in this movie because he feels that Max is a bad kid from the start and goes as far to tell Goofy that Max messed with their map so they would head to L.A. Yes, Max did change the map and he shouldn't have done that but honestly, he and Goofy were having a really good time up to that point and they may have headed to Lake Destiny, Goofy's intended destination, after the concert, but Pete had to go and spoil it. It looks like Pete takes some enjoyment out of telling Goofy this, even though he claims he hates to be the bearer of bad news. Look at the devilish grin he makes when he overhears Max and P.J. talking about the map situation. It's like he's thinking, "I've got you now, Max." In fact, even in Goof Troop, it felt like Pete had something against Max. In any case, my favorite scene in this movie between Goofy and Pete is when he tells Goofy what he heard Max say about the map while they're relaxing in a jacuzzi (by the way, Pete in a speedo? Gag!) Goofy refuses to believe Pete and when he tells him to check his map, Goofy says, "I trust my son. You know, maybe Max isn't all the things you think a son should be but... he loves me." Pete says, "Hey, my son respects me." Goofy just says, "Yeah." I like that because it subtly reminds us that Goofy has seen how Pete treats his own son and he does not want his relationship with Max to go that way. You wouldn't think there would be this much depth in a movie about Goofy, let alone in a scene between Goofy and Pete, but it's there, which is why I'm disappointed that this movie doesn't get more credit than it does.

One character from this movie that I'm sad never appeared in anything else save for an episode of House of Mouse is Max's eventual girlfriend, Roxanne (voiced by Kellie Martin). She comes across as a very sweet, nice girl who, despite her beauty (and she is very pretty for an anthropomorphic dog), is just as awkward around Max as he is around her and that's why she never said anything to him before he fell off the bleachers at the football field and she asked him if he was okay. At the end of the movie when Max admits to her that he lied about his going to the Powerline concert and that Goofy doesn't know Powerline as he originally told her, she is completely understanding. Even more shocking to him is that the thing that embarrassed him in front of her, the "hyuk" laugh, was something that she found cute and that she liked him as soon as she heard it. Roxanne isn't in a lot of the movie but she comes across as so sweet and so cute that I really wish that Disney had done more with her. I like her dad too, who is this hulking, intimidating bulldog who is not fond of Max at all and never says anything either except for some low growling. The way he freaks Max out just makes me smirk. I also have to mention Roxanne's friend, Stacy (voiced by Jenna von Oy). She's the exact opposite of the shy Roxanne: she's a fast-talking, outgoing young lady who seems to be the class rep (I always chuckle when she's talking in the auditorium and this geek in the audience is saying, "Yo, Stacy! Take to me, take to me, baby!" much to her annoyance). She's also a good friend to Roxanne in that she encourages her to talk to Max, knowing that she likes him, and even gets rid of a girl who tries to hit on Max after school is over. I wish she was in the movie more because she was a hoot. Finally, I have to mention Max's other friend besides P.J., Bobby. He's voiced by Pauly Shore and just like everyone else in existence, I'm glad that Shore has dropped off the face of the Earth. He's not even credited in the movie, saying to me that even Disney knew that his involvement could hurt the movie. But, I have to be honest, I did think Bobby was a funny character. He's not in the movie much but when he was, I was smiling whenever he talked, putting "age" at the end of a lot of words, like "slurpage" and "smokage." When Max gets excited that Roxanne agreed to go out with him and begins dancing with the principal's assistant, I just love how Bobby is encouraging it, saying, "Yeah, dance with her! Groove with her!" So, yeah, I normally think that Pauly Shore is a blight on comedies or movies in general for that matter but I did like him here.

This movie is very episodic and the songs are tied into those episodes so I'm going to go through each of them. The first song is After Today, where Max and all of the students sing about what they're going to be doing after the last day of school. Max, of course, is assuming that Roxanne will be his girlfriend but I like what everybody else is singing about, like these Goth chicks on a school bus who sing, "No more pep rallies to catch, bleh!" and after the kids get off the bus, the driver sings, "I'm gonna sit on my butt." While it's not my favorite song in the movie, it is catchy and the stuff happening around Max during the sequence is memorable. After that is when Max puts his plan into motion to create an impromptu concert during the principal's speech to the students in the auditorium where he dresses up like Powerline and lip-syncs to his song Stand Out (all of Powerline's songs are sung by Tevin Campbell). It's supposed to just be shown like a music video on a screen that they put up at the beginning but while Max is performing, things go awry when he slips and falls right through the screen, exposing himself to the students. Max decides to go with it and attempts to finish the song but before he can, he's stopped by the principal. This part is okay and so is the song but it's not one of my favorite parts of the movie. I like the reprise of it after school better because it's much like the After Today sequence with Max singing while stuff is happening around him. The part of it that is the most striking to me now because it's something I didn't understand as a kid is when Max skateboards through this house and inadvertently stops this baby from sticking a fork into this power socket. You think about it, if Max hadn't done that, that baby would have been electrocuted! When I watched this movie again when I was old enough to understand it, I was kind of horrified!

One of my favorite scenes in the entire movie is when Goofy and Max set out on their trip. It starts with poor Goofy once again doing his best to cheer Max up, not realizing that he's a big part of the reason why he's so glum. He tries to play games with Max like 20 Questions and when Max turns on the radio to listen to rock music, Goofy tries to get him to sing with him by putting in a cassette of the song High Hopes. That does go over well because the two of them fight over it, changing between the radio and the cassette until the radio breaks. It's after that the song On the Open Road begins. I like this section a lot because of the sequence around the song. It's an interesting duet too because Goofy is singing happily about the joys of being on the open road whereas Max is singing about how pissed off he is and how he'd rather be anywhere else but there. Max is frightened that Goofy's insane driving is going to get them killed, with lyrics like, "The old man drives like such a klutz that I'm about to hurl my guts upon the open road" and "Roxanne please don't forget me, I will return some day," and then sees Goofy heading for a construction roadblock and says, "But I may be in traction when I do!" Soon, all the other drivers on the road join in the song, like these female country singers who ask if that's the way to Nashville (which, being in Tennessee, makes me smile) but the funniest is when Goofy sees this prisoner in the back of a police transport vehicle singing about how he's going to prison. Still thinking that Max may be heading that way, he quickly drives away from that car. There's other stuff like this little guy whose wife is a big, fat woman with a voice like a man, an old woman who drives like a maniac on the road with her cats that are in the car with her looking like nervous wrecks, a corpse who gets out of his coffin in a hearse and starts dancing on the roof (!), and even Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck hitchhiking. It's a memorable sequence in my opinion and I also like the little moment afterward where Goofy is too busy looking at the map and not paying attention to the road, forcing Max to swerve the car out of the way of an incoming truck. Max's facial expressions where he starts out still mad, sees the truck coming, and panics while he steers the car is funny as hell.

After that is when Goofy takes Max to this tourist trap that his dad took him took him to when he was young: an opossum-based theme park. They see this really bad show with animatronic possums which has corny singing, an emcee who is so old that he looks like he's about to keel over any second, and animatronics which short-circuit badly. I think anybody can relate to this kind of situation because if you've ever been on a road trip with your family, you've more than likely encountered those really bad, worn-down attractions that small-town locals try to put on. When Max sees that mother dragging her less than enthusiastic kid into the park, I can totally relate to what he's thinking because I've seen more than my fair share of that. I'm also sure most can relate to their parents putting humiliating hats on them at these types of parks, like when Goofy puts that possum hat on Max. You can probably also relate to those people who wear costumes at those parks who come up to you when you're really not in the mood, although I hope none of you have every smacked the mask around like how Max does to this loser dressed up as a possum. Finally, even though it is painful to watch, Max's explosion at Goofy at the end of the scene is totally understandable to me. It had been building to that point ever since Goofy forced him to go on the trip and humiliating him in front of all those people by twirling him around despite his protests was the last straw. On the same token, you do feel bad for Goofy due to the fact that you know he just wanted to have some fun and with reconnect with his son. His hurt expression says it all.

After that is when the two of them camp beside this small lake in the woods and Goofy tries to give Max fishing lessons but Max is still acting distant towards him. That's when Pete shows up with this ridiculous RV that has everything: a hot tub, a big swimming pool, a basketball court, a little bowling alley, retractable saw-blades that slice down trees in order to make room, and a satellite dish on top of it. You also get to see P.J. singing along with another Powerline song while cleaning his room. It's a really funny image because he can't sing as well as Max but he's not at all embarrassed because he tells Max, "You're just jealous, man, because you ain't got the moves!" At the same time, that's when Pete gives Goofy that bad "keep 'em under your thumb" parental advice, and therefore, he forces Max to go fishing with him. The moment before that when Pete forces P.J. to kick down one bowling pin left standing is where I really feel bad for P.J. It's made even worse when Pete says, "High five, son" but when P.J. attempts to do so, Pete pulls away his hand, yells, "Psych!" and laughs at P.J. What an asshole of a father Pete is. Anyway, while showing Max the Perfect Cast that his father taught him, Goofy accidentally hooks a slab of steak that Pete is barbecuing and ends up getting the attention of Bigfoot (voiced by Frank Welker), who tries to get the steak but is reeled in by Goofy after he bites into it. He then attacks them and chases them back to the campsite, where Pete promptly runs off with P.J. in the RV. Goofy and Max manage to make it to their car and Bigfoot, while still trying to attack them, becomes curious and distracted by shifting through a box of their supplies near the car. The movie becomes like Cujo here where Goofy and Max are trapped in the car all night by Bigfoot, who's thrown the keys away and attacks whenever they try to get out, like when Goofy tries to get a can of soup that Bigfoot threw onto the hood of the car. At one point, Bigfoot ends up with headphones on and hears the Bee-Gees singing Stayin' Alive, to which he promptly disco-dances to.

While all this is going on, two important things happen while Goofy and Max are stuck in the car. While waiting for the car's cigarette lighter to heat up the soup, Goofy reminds Max of Hi, Dad soup, something that Max used to do when he was a little kid where he would spell words out using the letters in the alphabet soup. This is where you get a sense that Max begins to understand his dad, that Goofy remembers all the stuff he used to do with his father and just wants to share that with him. One part that's really touching is when Max, after finishing the soup, uses the remaining letters to spell out Hi, Dad and gives it to Goofy, who almost tears up when he sees it. I know Max is a dick through most of the movie but you have to admit that was nice of him. The other important thing that occurs is Max, unable to sleep due to Goofy and Bigfoot's combined snoring, writes an intended note to Roxanne, first keeping up the lie of going to the Powerline concert and then admitting to it. While lamenting on how hopeless his situation is, he accidentally jostles the map loose from the glove compartment and that's when he changes the route to from Lake Destiny to L.A. He knows he shouldn't and that he's breaking his dad's trust but it is a way for him to get out of the mess he's in. There's a suspenseful part where Goofy starts to wake up and Max, having broken the pencil he was using, quickly uses the point to finish changing the route and puts the map up. The tension is relieved by Goofy, half-asleep, saying, "How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?" Max says, "Uh, three and a half?" Goofy then promptly falls back asleep. After that, Max rips up the note to Roxanne and lets the wind carry the pieces away, with the bit that says, "I lied" getting a closeup in the frame when it gets snagged on a twig. I kind of feel that it's supposed to mean that he not only lied to Roxanne but he's just lied to his dad as well.

It's ironic that Max messed with the map because the very next day, after they somehow managed to get away from Bigfoot, Goofy decides to make Max the navigator of the trip and that he can pick all the stops on the way to Lake Destiny. Before Goofy announces that, you can see that Max is possibly regretting doing that but he decides to go along with since he's the navigator and Goofy would never know. What follows is a montage of all the places they went to, like a beach where Goofy nearly wrecks on a jet ski; an amusement park where Goofy gets sick on the roller-coaster and Max inadvertently makes him sick again afterward; the two of them constantly having to change tires on the car; going to a cave and ending up getting chased out of it by a bunch of bats; and so on, ending with them stopping at the motel where they're again joined by Pete and P.J. This is where that awesome scene between Goofy and Pete that I mentioned earlier happens and when Goofy learns that Max did, indeed, mess with the map. This section is where you can see an emotional arc in Goofy's disappointment. First, he's genuinely hurt by what Max did and the following day when they're heading to the junction that will take them to either Los Angeles or Lake Destiny, he decides to see which direction Max will ask him to take. At the last minute, Max tells him to take the left fork to Los Angeles. This is when Goofy goes from being hurt to downright angry, which is a way we've never seen him before. He angrily swerves the car onto the side of the road, storms out in anger, and walks to an overlook. Max tries to make up with him but Goofy will have none of it, feeling that Max thinks he's just an idiot who can't understand anything. That's when Max accidentally causes the car to skid down the road and the two of them have to chase after it, arguing the entire way. I've never seen this done before where two characters are in the middle of an action and they're arguing and eventually come to a realization. In this case, it's when Goofy and Max fall down into a river with the car, and they argue about what's been happening between them during the film. It ends with Goofy telling Max that he'll always be his son no matter how old he gets.

It's while they're floating down the river on the car that the two of them sing the song Nobody Else But You, which leads to them reconciling. I have to say that song is my least favorite of them all. I don't hate it and it is the point where Goofy and Max understand each other but it's just not a catchy song in my opinion. After it, Max finally tells Goofy about the situation he's gotten himself in and Goofy decides to help him get onstage with Powerline. That's when they realize that the car is heading towards a waterfall and the two of them become separated. Goofy gets Max to grab onto his fishing pole in an attempt to pull him up but Max ends up having to save him when he gets flung off his perch and the car gets a tarp tangled onto it which acts like a parachute that gently takes them down the waterfall. Goofy slips off the pole and Max has to use the Perfect Cast technique to save his father. The moment where Max reels Goofy up and the two share a loving embrace after having nearly lost each other is quite touching.

The scene at the concert in L.A., which is the next to last scene in the movie, is my favorite part of the film by far. Goofy and Max sneak into the backstage area and attempt to get onstage but they become separated. This is where we're finally introduced to Powerline himself, who is an intended combination of Prince and Michael Jackson. I thought Powerline was cool when I was a kid and even though his image and style is dated now, I still like him quite a bit (although his waist is almost non-existent). I love the antics leading up to Goofy and Max getting onstage, with Goofy accidentally walking in on this big woman dancer in her dressing room (Goofy's reaction is hilarious), getting thrown into a special effect meant for the show which promptly electrocutes him and blows him onto the stage, and Max getting chased around backstage onto the lights before landing in-between Goofy and Powerline. In my opinion, the scene of the three of them dancing onstage is just epic and the song I2I that Powerline sings is my favorite part of the entire movie. I don't care if it's dated or what, that song has such a fun, catchy beat to it that when I rented the movie as a kid and watched it half-way through in the morning before I went to school on the last day I was supposed to have it, I tried to find a way to keep it longer just so I could watch the movie to the end in order to hear that song again. It was that awesome to me as a kid and it still is as an adult. The lyrics even fit with the situation between Goofy and Max very, very well. By that point in the movie, they have learned to see things eye to eye, just like the song says.

As I said earlier, you can tell that this movie isn't one of Disney's main animated features. It just has that look to it where it does feel more like a feature-length episode of one of Disney's animated TV shows. That said, though, this movie is very pleasing to the eye. It's bright and colorful, (the opening dream scene that Max has is quite impressive with its flowing field of grain and how dark it gets when Max turns into Goofy), and it's also interesting to, for once, see a Disney movie that takes place in modern day America, albeit with anthropomorphic dogs as the inhabitants. Due to its being set in America in the year it was made, it does end up becoming one of the more dated films Disney has ever produced. Besides the music and the presence of a character played by Pauly Shore, there's also the styles (the baggy pants and the mohawks that Bobby and some other characters have), the skateboards, some of the slang used, the outdated technology (the cassette that Goofy puts into the player in his car), Powerline himself, and so on. I know people tend to cringe at dated stuff and I do too sometimes but in this case, since I grew up in that time period, it's all nostalgic for me and I do enjoy some of it (but, even though I liked his character, Pauly Shore? I still shiver at that).

The movie has a nice sense of humor about it. Some if it is actually fairly mature and downright naughty. The first real scene is Max trying to get dressed for school and Goofy coming in on him when he's in his underwear! In fact, why does Goofy have a towel around his body and on his head as if he's a woman who just got out of the shower? At one point at the mall where Goofy and Pete work, the little girl who's getting her picture taken by Pete runs around the store without her diaper and you get a clear view of her little butt. And let's not forget that aforementioned gag at the Powerline concert where Goofy walks in on that half-naked woman in her dressing room! There's also this slutty-looking girl who tries to hit on Max after he becomes popular. She's the one who Stacy tells to back off because Max is now Roxanne's boyfriend. You could sort think of Bobby as a stoner-type character. The last time you see Pete, he does a spit take but if you take a second look, he's drinking beer! Speaking of which, during the song Nobody Else But You, Max, when referring to Goofy, sings, "Though he seems intoxicated, he's just extremely animated." The best of humor is when the movie actually makes fun of Disney itself. That possum park is clearly meant to be a run-down, tourist trap version of Disneyland and you can't tell me that show Goofy and Max see isn't making fun of the Country Bears attraction. There's a lot more humor in the film, subtle and fast bits that pop up both in the songs and in the actual story, but those are the instances that stuck out to me.

Besides the songs, the movie has a pretty good score by, of all people, Carter Burwell, who usually works with the Coen Brothers. It's a pretty good score that actually has a lot more serious moments than funny moments, although those are in there. It has themes for both Goofy and Max as well as Max and Roxanne, somber music for the moments where Max is depressed about his situation and when he hurts Goofy's feelings when they're leaving the possum park, a funny western-sounding bit of music that plays when Goofy and Max are chasing the car that turns serious when they fall into the river and then goes to touching when Goofy tells Max that he'll always be his son, and a well-done suspense score for when Goofy and Max are heading for the waterfall. The best part of that is that there's a lull in the music when it seems like Max has saved Goofy but it gets serious again when Goofy slips off the fishing pole and screams for Max as he falls. The music that plays when they embrace after Max reels Goofy back up with the rod is very touching as well. Not matter if the movie is live-action or animated, when you've got a good composer, you're going to get good results and this is no exception.

In my opinion, it's shame that A Goofy Movie is so overlooked because it's an awesome movie. It has a new, three-dimensional portrayal of a beloved character as well as other likable characters, a great emotional core with the relationship between Goofy and Max, surprisingly mature dramatic moments, good humor, colorful animation and setting, and some great songs and music. It's simply an underrated gem that tends to go unnoticed even by most diehard Disney lovers because it's not an official part of the studio's line of animated features. If you've never seen it for that very reason, I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're a fan of Goofy. To me, it's the best feature film debut for Goofy that you could ask for.

Disney: Bambi II (2006)

The 2005 Platinum Edition DVD of Bambi that I got in order to see that film had a sneak peak at this upcoming follow-up to the film, which, at that time, was titled Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest. I was interested in seeing it from the preview that was shown but at that point, I hadn't become aware of just how bad Disney's direct to video and DVD sequels could be. If I had experienced that at the time, I would have brushed this movie off immediately. I've mentioned Disney's direct to video sequels before. I feel that they're unnecessary, unwanted, cheap cash-ins on the name of the classic original. Save for the sequels to Aladdin and The Lion King, that is generally the case. However, in my humble opinion, Bambi II is another one of those rare exceptions to the rule. It does have flaws, don't get me wrong, but you do get a sense that the filmmakers' heart was in the right place and for the most part, it is a well made, sincere companion piece to the original.

I wish they had stuck with the original title instead of simply calling this movie Bambi II because this is not a sequel in the traditional sense but rather a new type of film called a "midquel." It begins with the aftermath of the death of Bambi's mother when he runs into his father, the Great Prince of the forest. The Great Prince takes Bambi back to his den and there, meets up with Friend Owl. The Great Prince asks him to find a doe that can raise Bambi but Friend Owl says that with food being scarce during the harshness of the winter, the does are barely able to care for themselves and he won't be able to find a foster mother for Bambi until spring. The Great Prince reluctantly agrees to look after Bambi until that time. As the winter draws to a close, the Great Prince tries to teach Bambi how to be a proper heir to the throne but is frustrated with his son's lack of progress. At the same time, Bambi tries to get his imposing father to warm up to him by impressing him and showing him that he can be a prince. Over time, the two of them do become close, as Bambi learns to be brave, to not fall for man's tricks, and how to "feel" the forest as the Great Prince is able to. But when Friend Owl manages to find a foster mother for Bambi after all, the Great Prince must chose whether to go along with his original intent or not.

The director of Bambi II is Brian Pimental and so far, this is his only directing credit. He's mainly a writer for the Disney studio, having written the story for Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, the actual screenplay for as as well as been a story supervisor on A Goofy Movie, a story supervisor on Tarzan, and additional story material on Brother Bear and Home on the Range (the latter of which isn't exactly a glowing sign of talent). He also did come up with the story for this film. He's been part of the animation department on an An American Tail and has done so at Disney for Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, Enchanted, and most recently, Rio, as well as having been part of the art department for Return to Neverland. So while this has so far been his only directing credit, I felt he did a capable job here for the most part.

The major complaint I always hear about Bambi II is that there's dialogue galore, unlike the more visual and fairly pantomime original. I found that it worked well in some aspects but other times, not so much. There are sections of this story that could have been done with less dialogue than there was. I will say that I thought that Alexander Gould, who had voiced Nemo in Finding Nemo, was quite good as the much more talkative and developed Bambi in this film. I like how the film opens with Bambi calling for his mother and running into the Great Prince as it happened in the original movie (although I wonder why they seemed to use Gould's voice there but when the Great Prince spoke, it was Fred Shields' voice from the original) and it does a good job at making you feel that you're back in the world of the original film. I, for one, really felt for Bambi in this film. He's just lost his mother and is now being looked after by his father, whom he's only met once before and is still an imposing figure to him. due to his father's uptight and kind of cold attitude, Bambi wonders if he really does care about him or if he's just looking after him because he has no choice. His lack of knowledge about how to be a prince really frustrates his father as well and eventually, he decides that he wants to show him that he can be a prince. You can see how happy he is when he first sees actual pride in his father's face after he makes a jump across a ridge that the Great Prince admits he didn't make until he was much older than Bambi. After that is when Bambi, after encouragement from Thumper, asks the Great Prince why he stands still in the middle of the forest so much and when he tells him about it being part of a prince's duties, a bond starts to form between them. It really is heartwarming to see the father and son become close to each other and even though Bambi's feelings are shattered for a brief section when he finds out that his father has been trying to find a foster mother for him, he is soon reassured that his father really does love him. Even before that, Bambi has learned that he must man up (so to speak) and when he's being taken to his new home, he sucks it in and attempts to be brave, although he does say a silent goodbye to his father. I felt that it meant that even if he and his father hadn't been reunited, Bambi, though initially depressed about the situation, would have been strong enough at that point that he would have been okay.

You also really feel for Bambi due to how much he misses his mother. It's clear at the beginning when he's taken to the den of his father and looks at him before he falls asleep, clearly shattered by the dark turn his life has taken. It's also painful for him to see Faline run to her own mother and nuzzle her. The scene that really punctuates it is this heart-tugging dream that Bambi has about his mother (voiced by Carolyn Hennesy). It's effectively touching because we saw how close Bambi was to his mother in the original and therefore, his telling her that he misses her so much is just heartbreaking. I liked the way she comforted him and reassured him that everything was going to be alright and when he asks her why she's no longer with him, she simply says, "Everything in the forest has its season. Where one thing falls, another grows. Maybe not what was there before, but something new and wonderful all the same" It's genuinely moving. The situation is made even sadder by what happens when Bambi wakes up, where he thinks he hears his mother's voice but it turns out to be a trick of man, namely a deer-call. That's what I like about this movie is that they decided not to sugarcoat that aspect of the story. It's after his father saves him from being shot by the hunter using that deer call that he realizes that he will never see his mother again. Bambi says to his father, "She's never coming back, is she?" After pausing for a bit, the Great Prince sadly says, "No." That's when Bambi knows that he must move on. It's a very sad scene but I think it does help build Bambi's character, both for the audience and for himself, and it reinforces the coming of age motif. I know I'm sounding really sentimental and mushy with this but it's how I feel about it.

As for the Great Prince, I do agree that they perhaps humanized him a bit too much here. In the original film, he was a silent, imposing figure who seemed to appear when you least expected it like a ghost. Here, I do think that they showed him and had him speak more than was necessary. With this story, they probably couldn't avoid showing him more but during instances such as when he tells Bambi that a prince does not, "Woo-hoo" and the like, they could have easily done that with little to no dialogue. They also could have kept his imposing factor up by not having him speak much to Bambi for the first part of the movie and only do so more when they start to become close. So, I do agree with those criticisms but on the whole, I felt that Patrick Stewart was a great choice to play him and I thought he did a capable job, giving the Great Prince a strength and dignity with his deep voice. I also thought the character was solid as well. Even though he's reluctant to be a parent to Bambi because, as he says, "Princes look after the herd, does look after the young", you can see that he does indeed love his son and knows that what has happened is hard for him. You also get a sense that he really did love Bambi's mother as well. (But, I did feel that they dropped the ball at the end when he shows Bambi where he met his mother. That was fine but it didn't make sense when he said that he was Bambi's age when he met her because in the original, Bambi's mother said that he had lived longer than any deer in the forest, suggesting that he was much older than her.) He's a bad-ass as well, beating up these hunting dogs that attack Bambi. He eventually does become close to his son, having fun with him as well as teaching him, and he begins to have second thoughts about sending him to a foster mother. He is hurt when Bambi is upset when he finds out about it but he resolves that what he's been doing is not a prince's duty. However, circumstance brings them even closer together and he does decide to raise Bambi himself. Some may not agree but I felt that this did match up with his appearance in the original film when Bambi had become an adult because by that point, Bambi wouldn't have needed him any more as a parent and it makes sense, to me anyway, that we would have simply tried to sternly encourage Bambi then because he was a buck now. Plus, you saw them together briefly at the very end of the original so they might still be very close off-camera. So, even though he wasn't as mysterious in this movie, I thought that the Great Prince was treated decently as a character here.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like Thumper (voiced by Brendon Baerg) more here than in the original movie. I know he had been a very popular character before this movie but I didn't get why because there wasn't much to his personality in the original film. Here, he has a lot more scenes and is more of a character, being Bambi's best friend and trying to help him impress his father. A lot of people probably found him to be annoying and overly cutesy here but I just didn't. I will say that I didn't get why they put in that subplot of him being constantly followed and irritated by his sisters. It didn't bug me but it didn't go anywhere either. So, yes, I liked Thumper here. Sue me. However, I felt the other characters were only put in here just because they were in the original. Flower (voiced by Nicky Jones) has no purpose being here. He's still cute and loveable but the only noteworthy thing he does here is fart skunk gas. That is a problem I have with this movie. That was not necessary and really drags the movie down a notch in terms of respectability. Keith Ferguson was fine as the voice of Friend Owl but I don't think he kept the same spirit that Will Wright did. He gets the respectable part of the character down but doesn't come across as cranky or crotchety as Wright did. The character that does nothing at all is Faline (voiced by Andrea Bowen). In order to make it match up with the latter half of the original, they couldn't have her and Bambi become all that close but that's just my point. She shouldn't have been in here at all because she does absolutely nothing. Introduced here as an actual character is Ronno (voiced by Anthony Ghannam), a bullying young deer who, it turns out, will grow up to be that buck that Bambi has to battle for Faline in the latter part of the original movie. He didn't need to be here either because his rivalry with Bambi amounts to nothing more than a little scuffle before the climax of the movie. Also, I can't help but be slightly annoyed at the way they characterized him here. When he appears briefly in the original movie, he's an intimidating and ferocious buck. Here, they made him a bratty little punk who is actually a whiny mama's boy and a coward. Basically, he's like Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels. As a result, the character suffers from the same problem: it's rather disconcerting to learn that an intensely menacing character started out as a whiny brat. Yes, they weren't trying to do a story about a good person turning evil like in the Star Wars prequels but it would have been better if they had, preferably, not included Ronno at all or at least given a hint of the menacing character he would become.

The section where the movie really suffers is when Thumper and Flower try to help Bambi to be brave so he can impress his father. It's funny, I said that I like Thumper more as a character in this movie but this very section where he's the most prevalent is by far one of the movie's weakest spots. It's much too cutesy and slapsticky. This is where Flower first farts skunk gas but this is also where the three of them try to work on growling back at whatever is scaring them and all Bambi can do is let out the baa-like noise that a deer generally makes. They walk through the forest in single-file, with Bambi making that noise, Thumper just going, "Roar!", and Flower going, "Rrrr!" and trying to act like a turtle because he says, "Turtles are so scary." There's also this running joke that develops here where they growl at two tadpoles in a pond and one of the tadpoles starts chasing and growling at the other. You even see them later when they've become frogs and they're still doing that. It's cute but it doesn't need to be here. That's when the three of them try to cross a log over a stream that's guarded by a grouchy porcupine (voiced by the director, Brian Pimental) and Bambi decides that this is his chance to show his father that he can be brave. It ends in disaster with Bambi being chased all over the log by the porcupine (who is characterized as the typical old grouch who doesn't like young whippersnappers trespassing on his property) and eventually get a bunch of spines in his rear end, which Thumper has to pull out later on (Thumper even says, "I ain't gonna lie to you, it ain't pretty" and I'll admit, I snickered at how he said that). This does eventually lead to Bambi jumping that large gap and impressing the Great Prince but the lead up to it could have been done so much better and in a more dignified way. For as much good things I've said about Thumper, it really wasn't necessary for him or Flower to be present here. They could have just had Bambi trying to figure out how to impress his father on his own. They could have left the porcupine in but have him be much more menacing and when Bambi gets injured by him, he has to pull them out by himself or better yet, have his father do so, which would have made Bambi jumping the gap an even bigger payoff since it happened after that humiliating scene. I know Disney would have been capable of that but because they wanted to market this movie to young kids who probably can't comprehend the maturity of the original, they didn't do it.

Another pointless scene in the movie happens before that section and is, in fact, one of the first big scenes. Bambi, Thumper, Flower, and the rest of the young forest animals go to see the groundhog since it's time for him to come out and decide whether winter is going to continue or not by seeing his shadow. This groundhog character is also voiced by Brian Pimental and he's another overtly silly character, terrified of seeing his shadow (why, in this context, he is terrified of his shadow is never explained) and when he doesn't see it, he happily announces that spring is here and he starts dancing around and singing Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song from the original. It doesn't last though because this is where we're introduced to Ronno, who scares the groundhog back into his burrow. That whole section makes me cringe because it's entirely unnecessary, far too cutesy, and that groundhog dancing around kind of craps on the realistic animal animation that Walt Disney had his animators strive so hard to accomplish in the original film. And not only could they have made Ronno a better character as I mentioned earlier but they also could have had a better way to introduce him. Really pointless scene.

Now it's time for me to start complimenting the movie again. As far as the look goes, it's absolutely gorgeous. Most of Disney's direct to video titles look really cheap and you can see the low budget but this genuinely looks like there was care put into it. It's a shame that hand-drawn animation has become so scarce in recent years because this movie is a testament as to how good it can look with today's technology. The colors are vibrant and beautiful and the film does look like it takes place in the same forest world that the original did. Some of the actual background paintings by Ty Wong from the original movie were scanned and used in the film along with the backgrounds that were created specifically for this movie using computer paint programs, so you get that same recognizable look and, like the original, it does feel like you're in nature. While the movie is perhaps a bit too sunny and you don't see that haze that the original had, the scenes that take in the snowy winter are atmospheric and do carry a feeling of downbeat dreariness in regards to what has happened to Bambi's life. The film even recycles those dramatic changes in color whenever an intense scene happens that occurred in the original. The character animation is also really good. Save for those embarrassing groundhog and porcupine characters, the realistic animal animation from the original is kept intact for this film. They do, however, take some minor liberties with it but again, none as bad as those aforementioned characters that the director voiced. Some may find that the characters are far too cutesy in their facial designs, especially Bambi and Thumper but I thought they were charming and looked great. The Great Prince himself looked really great, as strong as he was in the original, and the designs of the other characters do match up well. To sum up, Bambi II is a beautiful film to look at and its design is a nice compliment to the original.

Another aspect of the original that is treated with great respect is man. While man isn't as foreboding a force here as he was originally, he's still treated as such. They could have just gone balls out by actually showing man and even making some of the hunters ridiculous, comic relief characters (like the idiotic Don Knotts-esque dogcatcher in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, and I just shuddered while remembering him) but fortunately, they didn't. Man is still treated as a force rather than actual character. You still don't see the hunters, not even a shadow, and all that signals their presence is gunshots and a glint of light meant to be coming from the barrel of a rifle. There is weird thing that happens when Bambi is trapped in a field by a hunter. The light on Bambi suddenly gets really bright and I can't tell if that light is supposed to be a creation of man, such as headlights from a truck (deer in the headlights, yeah), or if it's meant to be for dramatic purposes. I'm going to lean towards the latter since those dramatic colors do occur when the Great Prince rescues Bambi from the hunting dogs. Either way, it's an interesting visual touch. I also like how they expanded on the concept of the hunters without going overboard. Ronno explains to Bambi and Faline that man has a stick that can make him sound like them; in other words, a deer call. They scoff at it but Bambi himself is lured into the field because he hears a voice that sounds like his mother saying, "I'm here" and "Hello?" That's actually fairly genius, characterizing how deer perceive artificial deer calls, and the way it sounds is quite eerie. You also see an old fashioned trap when Bambi's would-be foster mother tries to break up a fight between him and Ronno and she steps into a rope tied to a tree with a bell, meant to signal hunters. While not as creepy as the deer call, I thought that was done well too. Unfortunately, for all I've complimented this film's treatment of man, they did do some things wrong. Whenever the birds in the forest become aware of hunters' presence, they fly away while yelling, "Man! Man!" That wasn't necessary because in the original, it was much more effective for Bambi or the Great Prince to see these frightened birds flying around crazily from the treetops. They, and also, you, knew what they were scared of. Didn't need to say anything more. But the worst is the treatment of the hunting dogs. Those dogs still look ferocious but their ferocity is diminished considerably because they get mixed up in slapstick involving that porcupine and Flower passing gas right in one's face. Should not have done that.

The climax isn't much to write home about. All it is Bambi being chased by hunting dogs by a rocky hillside and, with the help Thumper and Flower as well as unwittingly from that porcupine, he manages to defeat them and he also succeeds in sending one falling off that cliff. I guess it's meant to be a precursor to Bambi fighting off the hunting dogs as an adult but it wasn't as intense or spectacular. Bambi also falls off the ledge and is apparently killed. You know he's not dead, of course, which does detract from any real drama they were trying to get out of this moment. Still, it is touching to see the Great Prince shed a silent tear for his son and after Bambi regains consciousness, they share a poignant moment. That was heartwarming, even if you knew it was coming. The actual ending for the movie does make up for that lackluster climax in my opinion. You see Bambi with his antlers starting to grow and he and his father visit the spot where the Great Prince first met Bambi's mother. I find it to be a nice, final moment to the movie and it sort of compliments the coming of age aspect of the original. Throughout this movie, you've seen Bambi come to terms with the death of his mother and by this point, it's clear that he'll always remember her but he has been able to move on, which fits in with how he is in the second half of the original.

The soundtrack to this movie is also well done. The songs, and save for that groundhog, the songs aren't sung by any of the actual characters but by omnipotent singers like in the original, do fit with the tone and story of the film. The opening and closing song There Is Life by Alison Krauss is really what this movie about, because it talks about coming out of the darkness of despair and moving on from the bad things that life throws at you, just as spring comes out of the harshness of winter. It's sort of a reassurance to Bambi himself that his life may seem dark and alone at the beginning of the movie but he's going to be alright, a song version of what his mother tells him in that dream sequence. It comes full circle when a brief reprise of it is played at the end with Bambi and his father visiting that special spot. The song Through Your Eyes by Martina McBride does compliment the bond between Bambi and the Great Prince and there's no secret as to what The Healing of a Heart by Anthony Callea symbolizes. So, the songs in this movie are great. As for the music score by Bruce Broughton, while I can't say I remember the melodies off the top of my head, I will say that they do their job very well and bring out the emotion for their specific scenes, like the sad scene that opens the film, the touching dream with Bambi's mother, the bonding scenes between Bambi and his father, and the funny scenes, even though I still the think the latter were unnecessary. Supposedly, there are also some instrumental reprises of songs from the original but the only one I caught was the most obvious: Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song. Not a bad score but not the most memorable either.

While Bambi II does have its fair share of flaws, mainly the overtly cutesy and slapstick scenes as well as perhaps demystifying the Great Prince a bit too much, I don't think there's any argument that it is one of the better direct to video sequels that Disney has ever produced. It does feel heartfelt and genuine for the most part, the characters are still likable, it's beautifully drawn and animated, the drama from the original is present, albeit nowhere near as hard-hitting, man is still treated as a force and not as an actual character, and Bambi growing close to his father as well as learning to move on from his mother's death is touching. If you avoided it because of the less than stellar reputation that Disney's direct to video sequels have, I'd say give it a watch. It may just surprise you.

Disney: Bambi (1942)

I saw a lot of Disney animated features when I was growing up but Bambi was never one of them. It may be because when it was released on home video in 1989, I was only two years old and wasn't even beginning to be able to process movies yet, unlike The Jungle Book, which was released on VHS when I was four. By the time it was released again in 1997 when I was ten, I was starting to grow out of Disney save for a few certain films and so, I never saw it then either. I did see small bits of it after that release because someone was playing it at my sister's house during a get-together she was having but I didn't pay it much mind. It wasn't until I bought the Platinum Edition DVD in 2005 that I finally saw the movie. My opinion of it: it's good. That's all I can say. It's just good. It's not one of my favorite Disney animated features per se and not one I watch very often but all in all, I do think it's a well made and beautiful looking film for the most part.

If you've read my review of Pinocchio, you would know that Bambi, based on a 1920's book by Felix Salten, which made it the studio's first film to be based on a fairly recent work of literature, was originally intended to be the studio's follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs since they acquired the rights to the book in 1937, the year of Snow White's release. However, the film wasn't completed until 1942 due to many production problems, such as the difficulty of adapting a dark and somber book to the Disney standards, the animators' difficulty in animating deer and other animals realistically while giving them character at the same time, and the enormous amount of work and time Fantasia was taking up. Even though production on it really began in 1939, it still took another three years to complete due to the departure of certain studio personnel, the studio being moved to a new location, and changes in animation techniques. Walt's insistence on the animals being animated realistically caused even more delays, resulting in only a half-a-foot of film a day (less than one whole second) and the film's budget ended up swelling to $850,000 and while that was cheaper than even Dumbo, which was released in 1941, it was much more than the studio expected to spend on the movie.

Bambi is also an unusual film from Disney in that there's not much dialogue in it. Granted, Fantasia was completely pantomime save for the live-action segments with the conductor of the orchestra, but still, this movie has very little dialogue. It relies mainly on visuals, music, and raw emotion rather than words to get its point across and for the most part, I think it succeeds. I do like most of the characters even though they don't say much. The visuals, which I will elaborate on shortly, are done very well and you really have to admire the realistic animation of the animals, especially the deer. If you've ever been to a zoo or seen deer in the wild, you can watch this movie and really see that, except for their ability to talk and their expressive faces, the animated deer in this movie do look and move like real ones. The stances, mannerisms, and movements are correct, the joints and anatomy are realistic, and they are colored to exactly like real deer, especially the spots of the fawns and their white tails (although from what I can gather, the deer in the book are what are known as roe deer, since the author of that book is Austrian). The other animals, from the rabbits to the ducks, birds, moles, mice, and so on also look very realistic. However, it's interesting to note that the realistic animation of the animals was actually criticized when the film was originally released. Critics said that it destroyed the fantasy element that had made Disney's previous films magical. Yes, this movie is not as fantastical as the majority of the studio's other films but I think that's the point. This is meant to be a realistic look at life in the forest and the animals' dialogue and facial expressions are merely meant to give us an emotional anchor in regards to how they view and deal with it.

Bambi himself is, of course, the focus of this coming of age story and even though he doesn't have that much dialogue or impressive character traits, I feel that you still really care about him. Even though this film is only 70 minutes long, you do feel like you've seen this character's entire life and nothing important has been skipped. Also, despite the fact that he's a deer, we see his life unfold in the same that a human's does. We see him shortly after he's been born, take his first wobbly steps, get introduced to the other inhabitants of his world, make friends with other children in the forest, speak his first words, and experience rain and thunder for the first time. As with human life, we also see him learn about the dark side of his world. In his case, it's the dangers of going out into the open, the threat of hunters, the harshness of winter, and, ultimately, the loss of his mother. Finally, we see his first encounter with the opposite sex when he meets Faline, the young doe who would become his mate later in life. Like a human boy, he's kind of bashful when he meets this girl and isn't that fond of her, particularly when she giggles at him and kisses him. The way he wipes away that kiss is like what you would see when a little boy who isn't that fond of girls gets kissed for the first time. After he becomes an adolescent, we see him meet up with Faline again and while he's still bashful, this time it's probably because he's old enough to realize her beauty and how it makes him feel. After she kisses him this time, he's smitten with her because of his sexual awakening. He even has to fight off a buck who tries to get her for himself and after a fierce fight, he manages to win. Bambi and Faline them become mates and after they're reunited after the climactic forest fire, Faline gives birth to Bambi's children. We see Bambi on a nearby hill looking down on his mate and children, just like his own father when he was born. Every possible part of his life save for his natural death has been explored here. Bambi is now the prince of the forest and the cycle has begun again with his children.

I'd be lying, though, if I said I enjoyed every aspect of Bambi's life and character. My favorite section of the movie is the beginning up to when Bambi and his father walk off into the forest after his mother is killed. Although the voice acting isn't the best due to the lack of major acting experience on the kids' parts, I thought that Bobby Stewart and Donnie Dunagan were likable as the voices of baby and young Bambi respectfully. My young nieces always lost interest in this film after Bambi becomes an adult and honestly, I kind of feel the same way. Hardie Albright and John Sutherland are passable as adolescent and adult Bambi (although I can't spot any difference) but for some reason, I've never Bambi to be as interesting when he becomes an adult. It could be because I was more interested in seeing him learn the good and bad aspects of life when he was a child rather than him dealing with adult issues. Whatever the case, the section when Bambi appears as an adolescent up to when to the climax is the least interesting part of the movie to me.

You can't talk about Bambi himself without mentioning the character in this film that is the center of one of the most notorious scenes Disney has ever produced: his mother (voiced by Paula Winslowe). Her death scene is what the majority of the populace think of when they hear the film's title. It's ironic, too, because her death is not shown at all. You see her running behind Bambi, Bambi gets ahead of her, and you hear the gunshot. That's it. You don't actually see her get shot or her dead body afterward (which you were originally supposed to, actually, but Walt decided against it) but that's because you don't need to. You know what's happened. Sometimes the subtle way has more of an impact. It's even more upsetting because Bambi's mother came across as very sweet and nurturing, just as a mother should be. She loves her son dearly and does her best to keep him safe and happy in the dangerous world that they live in but she also makes him aware of the danger rather than making him think that it doesn't exist at all. I'm convinced that that's why her death strikes such a nerve. It's not because you see her die. It's because she's a great mother and the idea of her dying (and no doubt being gutted and eaten by the hunters after they find her body) is very upsetting and horrific.

The other characters in the film are likable but I don't find them to be anything special. Of course, there's Thumper, the hyper little rabbit who gets his name because he constantly smacks the ground with his foot. He's an okay, likable character but there's nothing else to say about him. I did think the scene where he's an adult and meets up with that female rabbit was funny due to his bashful reactions. (He's voiced by Peter Behn when he's young, Tim Davis as an adolescent, and Sam Edwards as an adult. I still don't see the difference between the voices of the young and adolescent stages.) My mom thinks Flower the skunk is absolutely adorable and I feel the same way. I never thought that I would find a skunk to be cute but you look at Flower with his big blue eyes, bashful attitude and his sweet voice which is provided by Stan Alexander when he's young (and Tim Davis as an adolescent apparently) and unless you're just a cold-hearted person, there's no way you couldn't find him to be precious. (Yes, I'm a big softy. Deal with it.) Weird thing is that I thought Flower was a girl (I actually thought the same thing with Bambi when I was a kid) but when he shows up as an adult with the voice of Sterling Holloway (whose voice doesn't sound quite as high here as it usually does) and becomes smitten with a female skunk, that's when I realized that he is indeed a guy. I feel the same way about Faline (voiced by Cammie King from Gone with the Wind as a child and Ann Gillis as an adult) as I do about Thumper. She comes across as hyper but sweet, the latter especially when she's an adult, but there's not much else to grab onto.

I do kind of like Friend Owl (voiced by Will Wright). I like how he's a nice guy most of the time, as in the scene where he and the other animals visit the newborn Bambi, but can be a bit crusty and grumpy, like  during the springtime scene when he's trying to sleep and all the birds won't stop twittering because they're in love. I also smirk how every time he's woken up from a nap, he grumbles, "Oh, what now?" The only part with him I'm not too keen on is the scene where explains to the adult Bambi, Thumper, and Flower about being "twitterpated" in the springtime. I know many probably like this section but the exaggerated way that Friend Owl explains it to them just comes across as corny and cringe-inducing to me. It's a bit too kiddy in my opinion, even for a Disney film. Finally, I have to mention Bambi's father, the Great Prince of the Forest (voiced by Fred Shields). He's a mysterious and yet fascinating figure to me for several reasons. One, he's not present in Bambi's life until they meet one day in the meadow and Bambi is actually kind of intimidated by him. But, he manages to get Bambi out of the meadow when hunters chase all the animals out. It's not until after Bambi's mother is killed that the Great Prince identifies himself as Bambi's father. When he said, "Come, my son," I thought he was just saying that because, as the Great Prince of the forest, he sees all the young deer as his sons but I eventually put two and two together. Since he appears on the hill above Bambi and his mother after his birth and Bambi does the same thing when his own children are born, I realized that he is indeed Bambi's father. He also has a real presence to him. He's very tall, muscular, has big antlers, and he doesn't speak much but when he does, it's a deep, commanding voice. You could sort of see him as the prototype for Mufasa in The Lion King. He also has a habit of appearing when you least expect him to, such as when he appears to Bambi after the death of his mother, when Bambi is looking down at the human camp, and after Bambi is wounded by one of the hunters. I can't help but really like the Great Prince because of the sheer power of his presence and his mysterious nature.

You may have noticed that I was kind of struggling when I was trying to go in-depth into the characters like I usually do. With this kind of film, there's not much to latch onto in that aspect. The characters aren't bland or anything. It's just that there's not much dialogue and because the film's main focus is on the visuals, most of the emotion comes from the characters simply being in their surroundings and reacting to the atmosphere around them rather than from the characters themselves, just as you would get from real animals. And like I said, I do like most of the characters but it's just that with a movie like this, it's difficult to go into detail about them.

As with most Disney films, the art design in this movie is absolutely top notch. Since my house is in the woods, I can safely say that this film does capture the feel of a forest very well. Chinese animator Ty Wong did really good impressionistic paintings of a forest and he was hired to do so for this movie. His backgrounds, while clearly a painting due to the brushstrokes and water colors, do manage to manage to pull off the hint and feeling of a real forest very well, even if the edges aren't as detailed as the center. You don't need a whole lot of detail though because the impressionistic art is so good that it makes you feel like you're in the wilderness and surrounded by nature. The opening shot that pans through the forest also achieves that feeling and once again, the addition of animated elements such as the running water and Friend Owl flying into something concrete like the forest edges is just unreal for the 1940's. The scene where Bambi first experiences a thunderstorm is quite realistic to me. The raindrops, the running water, and the haze in the air as it pours down does make me think of what it's like when it rains out here at my house in the woods, particularly during the autumn and early spring. The snowstorms also do look realistic and harsh and the scene where Bambi and Thumper play in the snow does make me think of what it looks out here when it's a sunny day after it has snowed. There's one scene during the winter segment with Bambi and his mother in the snow at night with the moon in a clear, dark sky that should be a postcard because it's so beautiful. Bambi is also one of the most atmospheric Disney movies ever in my opinion. There are some bright, sunny scenes but for the most part, there's a misty haze in the air, around the characters and at the edges of the woods, that gives a feeling of mystery, that you don't know what's out there. This is very much true in the scene where Bambi's mother walks cautiously out into the middle of the meadow, to make sure there is no danger. It's kind of an eerie scene, with the meadow being enveloped in that mist and the music adding to the atmosphere. If any filmmaker is planning to make an animated film that is meant to be kind of eerie, they should watch Bambi and that scene in particular because it is effective. During the scene where Bambi has to fight off a rival buck for Faline, the color palette starts turning bright red, green, and blue to characterize the chaos and intensity of the scene. This is one instance where I have to criticize the art direction. While it looks great, I think it would have been better to show the fight normally instead of getting overly visual with it because it's hard for me to tell what's going on. Other than that, due to the amazing art design in this film, it's easy to accept the fact that the drama and emotion comes from the characters reacting to what's around them rather than from the characters themselves because they have great surroundings to react to.

There is a villain in Bambi but it's a villain that is never seen and is only characterized by its presence: man. Man is treated not as a character but more like a force in this film. You don't see anything concrete except for a brief look at a camping site late in the film and a pack of hunting dogs. Whenever hunters are approaching, you don't see a shadow, the glint of a gun, anything. You do know that they're there due to the creeping music theme that signals their presence (which I wonder if John Williams took some inspiration from when he wrote the legendary Jaws theme), the animals sensing them, and the sound of gunfire. Even before they're first introduced when they attack the animals in the meadow, their presence is very much a factor when Bambi's mother warns him that he must never run out blindly into the meadow because there's no cover out there. The aforementioned scene where she cautiously walks out into the meadow to check for danger further punctuates this feeling. There's also an eerie moment after the attack in the meadow where Bambi asks his mother what happened and she simply says, "Man was in the forest." It's a silent, still moment save for her saying that and it really lets you feel the constant fear that the animals have of humans. Another good scene like that is when Bambi as an adult looks down on a camping site and his father explains to him that man is in the forest again. By the way, I think it's interesting that people always mention the death of Bambi's mother but they never talk about a moment that I think is even more horrifying. It happens after that aforementioned scene with Bambi and the Great Prince. All the animals are panicking and running for cover as the hunters enter the woods. There are some pheasants hiding in the tall grass but one pheasant (voiced by Paula Winslowe) becomes hysterical as the hunters get closer and closer. Her friends warn her not to move but she gets too scared and takes off into the air. There's a gunshot and you actually see her limp body fall and hit the ground! To me, that is infinitely more horrific than the death of Bambi's mother because you see the aftermath, however brief it is.

Of course, there was a lot of controversy when this movie was released from hunters who said that Bambi was a slam on hunting and American sportsmen in general. In my opinion, this film is not attempting to demonize mankind. True, man is presented here as a frightening force of death and destruction but that's just it: it's characterized the way it feels to the animals of the forest (which could be why we never see any humans because animals always run they minute they merely sense hunters). Animals don't know anything about sportsmanship or keeping the population in check. All they see are these creatures that creep into their environments with these devices that can kill them and just start attacking them. That's what this movie shows. Granted, it does make you hate man for killing Bambi's mother and other frightened forest animals like that pheasant but all it comes down to is that this is what happens when hunters enter the forest and those characters were just casualties of something that occurs every day. I'm sure some hunters were also insulted by man unintentionally causing the climactic forest fire but again, you can't say that's never happened. Smokey the Bear doesn't lie, folks. Forest fires do often start because of careless people not putting out their campfire and the like. So, to sum this argument up, I just think that, while man is the villain of the movie, it's just portraying man in the way the animal world views it: a destructive force in the way we view earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Heck, Felix Salten, the author of the original book, was a hunter so that should say something there.

I like the music score for the film, written by Frank Churchill and Edward Plumb. Like the art design, it's meant to characterize the emotion that the characters are feeling rather than have it come from the characters themselves. There's a lot of vocalizing in the score (this time, I have to wonder if Danny Elfman took inspiration from that for many of the scores he's done for Tim Burton), some of which is wondrous like during the opening scene or after Bambi is born, which I think is meant to be about life. Other vocalizing on the soundtrack is much more somber, like during the scenes where the deer are having to cope with the harshness of winter and especially the bit after Bambi's mother is killed, no doubt meant to symbolize the sad aspects of life. I've already mentioned man's theme, which is very ominous and creeping. As with any Disney film, there's a lot of cute, sweet music, like when Bambi is exploring his world for the first time and meeting other inhabitants of the forest. And there's the action music when Bambi has to battle another deer for Faline and during the forest fire.

There are songs on the soundtrack but they're not sung by the characters as with most Disney films. They're actually sung by off-camera, omnipotent singers. I will say right now that none of the songs really did anything for me. They were okay but I didn't find them to be that special, although one of them was nominated for an Oscar apparently. Love Is a Song and Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song) were nice but I didn't find them to be that intriguing. Little April Shower was interesting, though, because it does fit with the scene, starting out very whimsical and wondrous, characterizing Bambi's initial curiosity of the rain, and then turning bombastic when the shower becomes a storm, signifying how Bambi is now frightened of it. Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song is the most curious because it comes out of nowhere right after the somber moment where Bambi walks off with his father after the death of his mother.Walt probably wanted to give the audience something light-hearted after that but it was really abrupt and jarring. In any case, the song itself is a bit too whimsical and happy even for me though.

I think I agree with Doug Walker in that Bambi is a film that I admire more than I actually like. The art design, the character animation, the atmosphere of the film, the creeping presence of man, and the music are all awesome but to be honest, when I watch a Disney animated feature, I watch it for likable, fun characters as well as a good story. This film's story is simply Bambi's life and because of the visual nature of the film, the characters, while enjoyable, don't give me much to grab onto. Therefore, while I do think Bambi is a good film, it's not one of my personal favorites and not my first pick when I feel like watching a Disney movie. But it is a fine example of great visual art, which is what Disney is able to create when they're at their best.

Disney: Pinocchio (1940)

Some of my earliest movie memories come from Walt Disney's Pinocchio. I remember when this was released in 1992 when I was just five years old and my mother took me to see it at a small theater near in Sewanee. It had been promoted a lot on TV, particularly in regards to some tie-in toys that were from some fast food chain (it may have been Pizza Hut, I'm not sure), and Mom figured it would be something that my young mind would enjoy and she was right. Even though I was very young and my exact memories of it are vague, I can still remember loving this movie when I saw it in that theater. Along with The Jungle Book, it was one of the first Disney movies I ever saw and became a fixture of my early childhood. I rented the VHS that came out the following year many, many times from my local video store and as I became six and seven years old, more concrete memories of the film entered my mind. After a while, though, as with most Disney-oriented stuff, it went out of my life for a long time and while I certainly didn't forget about it, I didn't think about it much from when I was eight to my mid-teens (that's why I didn't put this as an installment of Stuff I Grew Up With). By the time I graduated from high school, I had gotten back into Disney, having now grown to appreciate the movies as an adult along with the memories of when I was a kid. I didn't see Pinocchio again until the Platinum Edition DVD was released in 2009 and I scooped it up. Like most movies from my childhood, it was a huge trip of nostalgia to see this great flick once again and to this day, it's one of the Disney animated features that is very special to me.

Everybody should know the story of Pinocchio but here's a summary in case you don't. Jiminy Cricket begins the film by telling us how he learned to believe in the old adage of wishing upon a star to make your dreams come true. A long time ago, he arrived in a small village (not exactly sure where or during what time period but it's obviously somewhere in Europe) and entered the workshop of a kindly woodcarver named Geppetto. Jiminy arrives just in time to see Geppetto put the finishing touches on a little wooden boy he names Pinocchio. Although happy with the puppet, he makes a wish that night that Pinocchio would become a real boy. Hearing his wish, the lovely and kind Blue Fairy brings Pinocchio to life. Although she's granted him life, the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wishes to become a real boy, he must prove himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish and to learn the difference between right and wrong. She appoints Jiminy Cricket to be Pinocchio's conscience. Eventually, Geppetto wakes up and, although he initially believes he's dreaming, is ecstatic to learn that his wish has come true. The next day, Geppetto sends Pinocchio off to school but he immediately runs into a couple of con-artists who easily manipulate the naive kid. From there on, the film centers on a series of encounters that Pinocchio has with many villainous characters and on Jiminy's attempts to steer him straight.

As I've said many times before, Disney has an uncanny knack for taking fairy tales and classic stories that have existed for centuries and making them so much their own that, therefore, most people think of the Disney versions when they hear the titles. Pinocchio is no exception. The Disney film is such a beloved classic that it's what most people think of when they hear the title. I'm sure few are familiar with the original Carlo Collodi book and fewer still have even read it (including me). It doesn't really matter because the film, as with many Disney adaptations, is quite different from its source material, although the first drafts of the screenplay were closer to the book but Walt wasn't satisfied with them. In any case, animator Norman Ferguson brought the book to Walt Disney's attention during production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Walt became absolutely ecstatic about the possibilities of turning it into an animated feature. It was actually intended to be the studio's third animated feature with Bambi being the second but Bambi took longer to complete than expected. So Pinocchio ended up becoming the long-awaited follow-up to Snow White and even though the film wasn't all that successful when it was originally released in 1940, it's become one of the studio's most beloved films and for good reason too.

I know that there are some very cynical people out there who probably wouldn't take to Pinocchio himself that well but to me, Pinocchio is a very appealing. Unlike the sarcastic and mischievous little kid he was in the original book, he's depicted here as a very innocent and naive character. He's constantly asking, "Why?", is very gullible and is easy for one of the slick-talking villains to lead astray but he has a pure heart and, during the climactic chase with Monstro the whale at the end of the movie, sacrifices his life to save his father. He also, with the help of Jiminy, gradually learns the difference between right and wrong. I thought that Dickie Jones' performance fit the innocence of the character very well. I also think that his actual look is very appealing as well. If it weren't for his button nose, the rivets in his joints, or the Mickey Mouse-like gloves he wears, you would think he was already a real boy. Therefore, when the Blue Fairy turns him into a real boy at the end of the movie, it isn't that much of a change. In any case, I think Pinocchio is a very appealing, innocent character whom you can root for and sympathize with.

The character that most people associate with Pinocchio besides the title character is Jiminy Cricket. In his Disneycember series of videos, Doug Walker admitted that he doesn't care for Jiminy at all. While he isn't one of my favorite Disney characters, I do think he's likeable. He's pretty much a boyscout character (similar to what Mickey Mouse became): pure as can be, always doing the right thing and, as Pinocchio's conscience, trying to steer him in the right direction as well. I could see how some would get tired of that or find that to be really bland but I didn't mind it. However, he does have moments where he nearly quits being Pinocchio's conscience, like when Pinocchio becomes part of Stromboli's act or when he's smoking and playing pool at Pleasure Island but ultimately decides not to run out on the kid and ends up helping him. I also like how, even though he's Pinocchio's conscience and is thoroughly clean-minded, he isn't so uptight that he doesn't admire pretty women (even if all of those said women are either puppets or carvings). I thought Cliff Edwards did well as Jiminy's voice, especially when he sings When You Wish Upon a Star. Also, as many have mentioned, he doesn't look like a cricket at all but rather like a little man with a big head. He was originally designed to look like a cricket but Walt, as with Pinocchio's original personality, decided that wasn't appealing enough and had animator Ward Kimball create the design we know now. All in all, I can see how some would find Jiminy Cricket to be bland but I liked him.

Geppetto is characterized as a kindly old man, who loves making puppets and hand-carved clocks in order to bring joy to people and therefore, his wish to have a son is granted. Even before Pinocchio is brought to life, Geppetto absolutely adores his little "wooden head", happily controlling him around the room with the marionette strings. Christian Rub's performance really brings out the kindness of the character. I also smirk at how Geppetto is kind of senile. There are a bunch of clocks in his workshop, all of which work, and yet when they strike 9:00, he says, "I wonder what time it is" and pulls out a watch. (By the way, the clocks in his workshop are very interesting in their designs and no one looks the same as another. There are models on them such as a guy trying to chop a turkey's head off but the turkey keeps pulling his head away, a woman spanking a kid who's been naughty, and many others.) When he first discovers that Pinocchio is alive, he thinks that he's dreaming and pours water over himself, getting poor Figaro soaked in the process. My favorite is at the end when he's mourning the death of Pinocchio and it doesn't register that Pinocchio is talking to him. When Pinocchio is brought back to life and turned into a real boy by the Blue Fairy, he says, "Father, why are you crying?" Geppetto says, "Because you're dead, Pinocchio." "Father, no I'm not." "Yes, yes, you are. Now lie down." It's some nice levity to what was at first a very heavy and sad moment.

Even though they don't have speaking roles, Geppetto's pets are memorable characters as well. I really like the little cat Figaro (who would later appear in theatrical shorts and would somehow become Minnie Mouse's cat). His attitude is that of a cranky and spoiled little kid. I love his expressions when he's trying to sleep and Geppetto subtly asks him to open the window. He throws off his blanket, as if he's thinking, "Give me a break!" When Geppetto goes out to look for Pinocchio when he's been taken by Stromboli, Geppetto tells him and Cleo not to eat until he comes back with Pinocchio. As soon as Geppetto leaves, Figaro prepares to eat his dinner, but Cleo motions for him not to. Figaro then frustratedly leans on his left front leg, looking very much like a little brat who didn't get his way, and is like, "Oh, damn it!" He's also not too fond of Pinocchio at first, being a bit jealous of the attention he's getting from Geppetto even before he's brought to life, but he grows to love him by the end of the film. As for Cleo the goldfish, I don't have much to say. She comes across as sweet and such and seems to like Figaro even though he doesn't feel the same way (which gives her a big shock when Figaro kisses her at the end of the movie when Pinocchio becomes a real boy) but other than that, she doesn't do much.

The Blue Fairy (voiced by Evelyn Venable) comes in the form of a really beautiful woman with a kind demeanor who grants Geppetto his wish and brings Pinocchio to life. While she's kind to Pinocchio when she brings him to life and tells him what he must do to become a real boy, she does have to be a bit firm with him about the consequences of not telling the truth when she finds him locked up in Stromboli's wagon and he lies about how he got there. She only appears in two scenes in the movie and unlike her literary counterpart, isn't all that involved in Pinocchio's upbringing, since she appoints Jiminy as his conscience. Her presence, however, is felt constantly, such as when this glowing dove comes out of nowhere and drops a note for Pinocchio and Jiminy and at the end of the movie when she gives Jiminy a badge for his good work at being Pinocchio's conscience. While I don't mind the Blue Fairy, I don't quite get why she didn't just turn Pinocchio into a real boy in the first place. I know she wanted Pinocchio to learn to be good boy before he became flesh and blood but wouldn't the lessons on right and wrong that he learns be the same if he was a real boy? She says that a boy who won't do good might as well be made of wood. Why not say that to him as a warning that, if he doesn't learn his lesson, she'll before forced to turn him back into a puppet? I guess that would be a little cruel to grant Geppetto's wish and then take Pinocchio away from him but still, it could've been another way to take the story. Doug Walker brought up another good point: Pinocchio's personality was a creation of the Blue Fairy since he was just a block of wood beforehand. Why didn't she just bestow upon him the knowledge of the differences between right and wrong, the importance of telling the truth and so on? Maybe she figured it would be better if she gave him a child's personality and had him learn everything else for himself like a real child would but it does make you wonder. But like Doug himself said, that's probably thinking about it way too much.

Even though I've never read the original story, I've heard that it's actually a dark, twisted story, especially for something meant for children. Even though the Walt Disney film is not as twisted, this movie does become quite dark once Pinocchio starts running into the villains of the piece and there are even some moments here that are downright freaky. If we're going to talk about the villains (and there are five of them, which is amazing for any movie), let's start with the least threatening of them: the slick-talking conman fox Honest John (voiced by Walter Catlett) and his silent counterpart, the cat Gideon (who was supposed to be voiced by Mel Blanc but they deleted all his dialogue save for a few hiccups). First, you do have to wonder why these two characters walk around the town in plain sight and no one questions the presence of a large, anthropomorphic, talking fox and cat but it's a Disney film so you just go with it. Anyway, Honest John is definitely as sly as a fox. He's slick, fast-talking, and knows how to manipulate those who are very naive, such as Pinocchio. He's able to trick Pinocchio twice and use him to earn some money. Although he's not at all frightening like the other villains of the movie, there is a bit of sinister undercurrent to him that he goes along with the coachman's evil scheme to kidnap young boys, even though both he and Gideon are quite horrified when the coachman tells them why there's no risk in them getting in trouble with the law. All he cares about really is making money and not getting caught for it. He'll stoop to anything, even helping this evil man round up young boys. Gideon, on the other hand, is kind of like an evil version of Dopey the dwarf. He's dumb and never says a word (whether it's because he can't or just doesn't is never explained) but he goes along with Honest John's schemes to get money. Whereas Honest John uses his slick-talking to get the job done, Gideon often tries to bop people with a big mallet: brute force instead of brains. Again, they're not frightening like the other villains but they're definitely no angels either.

The first real villain of the movie is Stromboli (voiced by Charles Judels), this big, fat gypsy (who has an Italian accent, for some reason) who is a puppet-maker and after Honest John sells Pinocchio to him, forces him to perform on stage. Since he's also a puppet-maker, you can sort of see Stromboli as an evil version of Geppetto. At first, he comes across as just a blowhard, angrily yelling at Pinocchio in Italian when he slips and falls during his stage performance. The comic and silly nature of that show with its funny looking and hyper moving marionettes coupled with Pinocchio's singing and his trying to imitate the other puppets also offset how dark the situation becomes in the following scenes. In the scene following the show where Stromboli sees how much money Pinocchio made for him, his true evil nature comes through. When Pinocchio tries to go home, Stromboli tricks him into laughing with him when he says that Pinocchio's statement about doing so is funny and then, when Pinocchio least expects it, he throws him in a cage and locks him in. That's when he reveals his plans to travel the world, making lots of money off of Pinocchio. Most horrific of all, he reveals that he plans to turn Pinocchio into firewood when he grows old and unable to perform. That coupled with the evil laugh he gives afterward is very intimidating. It also gets to me when Pinocchio starts protesting and Stromboli yells, "Quiet! Before I knock you silly!" And you believe he would do it too. At this point when Stromboli's wagon starts moving and Pinocchio is left alone in that dark wagon while a storm rages outside, you're like, "Holy shit, this movie's tone just took one sharp turn!" There's also a bit of cruel irony when Geppetto is out looking for Pinocchio and Stromboli's wagon passes right by him. Even crueler is when Geppetto calls for Pinocchio right after the wagon passes by but a thunderclap drowns the sound out. Pinocchio, and later Jiminy, of course do manage to escape Stromboli with the help of the Blue Fairy but still, Stromboli was a very sinister figure.

The most frightening villain in the entire movie to me is the coachman (also voiced by Charles Judels), this large Cockney guy who hires Honest John and Gideon to help him take unsuspecting rowdy boys to Pleasure Island, where he somehow turns them into donkeys (I know it's supposed to be caused by the boys doing things they're not supposed to, like drinking, smoking, getting fights, breaking stuff and so on but I'm still not clear on exactly how he does it) and sells them to be used in salt mines. That is messed up and terrifying on so many levels. Even before you get to Pleasure Island, the coachman reveals what a sick, sadistic character he is when he meets with Honest John and Gideon in a bar. When Honest John worries about them getting arrested for this scheme, the coachman assures him by saying, "They never come back as boys!" When he says that, his face turns slightly red, his eyes turn green, and his ears become pointed, all coupled with an evil grin. He looks like Satan right there (and perhaps he is of some satanic nature and it's just never explained). That along with how Judels said that line is scary as hell. On top of that, the coachman has these creepy looking henchmen who are dressed in black and are even kind of ape-like. You never find out what they are exactly but they're just as sinister as their boss. It also gets me when one of the boys turned donkey can still talk and when he says, "I wanna go home to my mama!", the coachman throws him in a section of the room with other ones that can still talk. When they start begging him to turn them back into boys, he cracks a whip and yells, "Quiet! You boys have had your fun, now pay for it!" It's a shame that the coachman doesn't get brought up more when Disney villains are discussed because I think he's one of the most terrifying characters the studio has ever created.

Since we're talking about the coachman, I have to mention the scene in this movie that freaked me out big time as a kid and still disturbs me even to this day. On the way to Pleasure Island, Pinocchio meets up with this kid Lampwick (voiced by Frankie Darro), who is a tough-talking, rowdy kid who can't wait to get to the island so he can be bad. When they get there, he takes great pleasure in getting into fights, tearing stuff up, drinking booze, and smoking cigars. But that attitude changes when he turns into a donkey. The transformation is gradual: ears and tail pop up and his face turns into that of a donkey when it's out of sight for a brief second (you got to love how Pinocchio slowly but surely gets rid of the cigar and booze when he sees what it's apparently doing to Lampwick). Once he realizes what's happening to him, Lampwick panics and starts yelling for his family. He begs for Pinocchio to help him and then his hands turn into hooves (which is a freaky but impressive bit of animation, I might). The freakiest part by far is after that when he fully transforms. It's done in shadow and you see his body contorting down to a four-legged stance and his screaming for his mother drowns out into a bray. You then see him as a fully changed donkey, braying crazily and kicking up the room in a panic. That scene scared the living crap out of me as a kid and even now when I watch it, I still get shivers. That has to be among the darkest and scariest moments Disney has ever produced.

My favorite villain and the one I was waiting on when my mother took me to see the film when I was five because I'd seen him in advertisements is the whale, Monstro. Hey, I love giant monster movies so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's my favorite. There's a lot of buildup to him starting when Pinocchio and Jiminy receive the letter from the Blue Fairy that tells them that Monstro has swallowed Geppetto's ship whole and Jiminy warns Pinocchio about how gigantic Monstro is because he's heard of his reputation. Also, when the two of them go down into the ocean to look for Monstro, all of the sea-life they come across run away in abject fear when they mention Monstro's name. When we finally get to Monstro, we see why everyone is so scared of him because he is a very intimidating creation due to his sheer size and the loud, frightening roars he makes (provided by Thurl Ravenscroft). The animation on him (done by Wolfgang Reitherman, one of Walt's beloved Nine Old Men) is very impressive and it brings out his sheer power perfectly. The sequence where Pinocchio, after being swallowed by Montro and reuniting with Geppetto, makes Monstro sneeze them out is my favorite part of the movie, especially when Monstro, furious at them for doing that to him, chases them across the ocean. It really is a thrilling sequence, with Monstro tearing the ocean up, smashing into rocks, destroying their raft, and charging at them full throttle while Pinocchio tries to save Geppetto. That latter bit is very suspenseful because Pinocchio is trying to drag Geppetto through an opening in this wall of rocks and it keeps cutting back to Monstro getting closer and closer, to the point where he leaps toward them and you see a closeup of his huge, sharp toothed mouth. Pinocchio just barely manages to get Geppetto and himself through the opening before Monstro crashes into the rock wall. Even though he doesn't get them, Monstro, intentionally or not, does manage to kill Pinocchio through the fury he causes when he crashes into the cliff. However, unlike the other villains in the film, Monstro is not actually evil. He swallows Geppetto and Pinocchio because he's hungry and the only reason that he chases them during the climax is because he's pissed at them for making him sneeze. As frightening as he is, he's still just an animal and only acts the way one normally acts.

Another dark aspect of the film is that none of the villains are ever defeated or made to pay for what they've done. They just disappear when the sections of the movie involving them end. Honest John and Gideon no doubt went on to scam more people and make money in more sleazy, dishonest schemes; Stromboli is never punished for what he did to Pinocchio (although you could guess that he probably lost a lot of money and was ridiculed after Pinocchio escaped from him); most disturbing of all, the coachman is never caught and the boys aren't saved; and even though Pinocchio and Geppetto manage to escape from Monstro, he more than likely wasn't killed by crashing into that cliff and probably went home with a bad headache, plus he did manage to kill Pinocchio. I don't think that's ever happened again in a Disney movie where the villain isn't killed or at least defeated by the end of it. It no doubt would have been very contrived and distracting to show all of those villains getting their comeuppance when all you really care about is Pinocchio and the other main characters but that's still awfully downbeat for a Disney movie.

Many people tend to forget that this was made back in the 40's when adults were the main audience for movies and therefore, there's a lot of stuff here that some would find inappropriate for a kids' movie. Obviously, there's the smoking (the bar where Honest John and Gideon meet with the coachman seems to be absolutely thick with cigar smoke) and booze drinking but there's also stuff that involves Jiminy Cricket. When Jiminy is watching Geppetto put the finishing touches on Pinocchio, he leans his hand on something and soon realizes that his hand is on the rear end of a model of a woman. He quickly removes his hand and says, "Pardon me." Very adult joke. And like I said, Jiminy isn't above admiring models and puppets that look like pretty ladies. There's nothing wholly inappropriate here, as with most Disney films, but it's clear that this movie was meant for adults as much as it was for kids (hence, Walt's definition of family films).

Just as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was groundbreaking because it was the world's first full-length animated feature, Pinocchio is also groundbreaking in the animation techniques it introduced. First off, the movie absolutely gorgeous to look at. Everything is very well designed, both the characters and the environments. The clocks in Geppetto's workshop look really good and practical because real working models of them were built for the animators to use as models for their drawings. They also used rotoscoping, which had been invented for the Fleischer Brothers' Superman cartoons, to get realistic movements out of the wagons in the film. There was also some rotoscoping used in the animation of the Blue Fairy. As they did with Snow White and would also do with other films, the animators studied live action footage of actors (I'm guessing the actual voice actors) performing the various scenes as a guide and also studied how human beings move, rather than tracing the live action images as they had done with Snow White. As a result, the characters do move very much like real people, albeit a bit exaggerated. As far as the environments go, I thought the most atmospheric ones were the seedy bar where Honest John and Gideon meet the coachman and Pleasure Island. Even before things turn sinister there, the place doesn't look quite right to me. The outside of some of those attractions looked a little freaky to me and that big wooden door at the entrance should have given those boys pause but they were too dead-set on causing trouble to think about it. I also thought the park looked very eerie when it suddenly got all quiet and still and Jiminy noticed that there wasn't a soul in sight. Nice bit of atmosphere there.

We're so used to all the technology used in animated films nowadays that we take it for granted and when you realize what the Disney animators were doing back when animation was in its infancy, it's quite impressive. Not only do the characters, environments, and vehicles look good but there are some very well done effects-work in the film as well. One that really impresses me is the opening shot of the day after Pinocchio is brought to life. The camera actually moves through the village as if it were a real three-dimensional space and you actually see animated characters come out of their houses, as if it were live-action footage. Again, given the limitation of animation technology at the time, it's amazing how realistic that looks. The water effects in the final act of the movie also look very good and took a year to develop with all the waves, bubbles, ripples, and the blurry underwater look. As I mentioned earlier, on top of that, Monstro looks absolutely breathtaking in his animation. I know it's easy to take animation for granted today but like I said, if you put this film into context as to when it was made, you can see how groundbreaking it really is.

Song-wise, Pinocchio has one of the most iconic that Disney has ever produced. When You Wish Upon a Star not only won an Oscar that years but it has also become the theme for the Walt Disney Company itself. It's a beautiful and heartwarming song, sung very well by Cliff Edwards. I know some have criticized it in recent years as promoting laziness rather than being proactive but like Doug Walker said, I think it's meant to be a message of hope rather than something you should actually do all throughout your life. It's not saying you should just let fate take care of everything. It's just saying that sometimes, things work out so unexpectedly well that it could be seen as a miracle (besides, people shouldn't take stuff like this so seriously anyway). The other songs are fine for the most part. Little Wooden Head, the song that Geppetto sings when he's first controlling Pinocchio after finishing him, is sweet and charming, showing what a kind man he is and how much he loves this little puppet; Give A Little Whistle, which Jiminy sings to Pinocchio after he's been appointed as his conscience, is okay but I don't think it was needed at all; I can't help but smile at Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, the little song that Honest John sings when he's fooled Pinocchio into going along with one of his schemes because it's so cheerful despite the fact that it's being sung by a villain; and finally, there's I've Got No Strings, which Pinocchio sings when he's performing on stage for Stromboli, which is quite charming and Dickie Jones has a good singing voice. Pinocchio also won an Oscar for the music score itself but I don't know what was so special about it. It's a good score, mind you, and it does its job well, particularly in the freaky donkey transformation scene and the thrilling climactic chase with Monstro, but I don't get what convinced the Academy that it was good enough for an Oscar. That's just me, though.

I honestly think that Pinocchio is one of Disney's best animated features. It's beautifully designed and animated, has great characters, creepy villains, its fair share of scary, dark moments, and an iconic main song. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about it either. Even though it may not have been a financial success when it was originally released, it eventually did gross over $84 million due to reissues throughout the years and it's now deservedly seen as a classic of American animation. If you haven't seen it and you're a lover of animation, particularly Disney, this is mandatory viewing. It's, simply put, a true work of cinematic art.