Bambi has just come out on DVD. I never saw Bambi as a child, but I just watched it, and it’s beautiful — beautiful backgrounds, beautiful animation:
Pre-production began in 1936 and was intended to be Disney’s second full-length animated film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Disney’s perfection and quest for realism delayed the project significantly, so that Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Dumbo (1941) were released earlier than Bambi.
In fact, Bambi may be the most classically beautiful of the Disney films. Quality doesn’t come cheap though:
The movie lost money at the box office for the first run, but began to recoup its considerable cost (over $2,000,000) during the 1947 re-release.
Bambi was the first feature-length animated film to use the multi-plane camera Disney first tested in making “The Old Mill” in 1937.
I found Bambi even more family-oriented than most Disney films. The first act dwells on young Bambi’s physical awkwardness and Thumper’s social awkwardness (“He don’t walk so good”). I suppose young children and new parents find this amusing and endearing.
Bambi’s mother’s death comes much later in the film than I expected. It’s quite traumatic, despite happening off-screen, but the film doesn’t dwell on it at all; in moments we’ve cut to Bambi as a young adult, with antlers.
The second act finds Bambi and his friends “twitterpated,” smitten with spring love. It’s all very 1942 — which reminds me, the voice-acting and music throughout are very 1942, too.
The film’s climax presents a pretty straightforward anti-hunting message. The hunting dogs are creepy — but young-adult Bambi saves his girlfriend, and we get to see her with her two new fawns as the movie ends. Ah, the circle of life.