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.