Force Fed Films: Bambi (1942)

This week Puneet hit me up with a classic Disney movie that I had never seen, Bambi. I think I made a comment along the lines of how I thought the movie ended, and he was quick to tell me that it continued well past that point. To this I was stunned, and realized I had never seen it. What was the shocking revelation that made me realize I'd never seen Bambi? Well for that you'll have to hit the jump to find out. Just make sure you jump far enough!


As I'm sure everybody knows, except me apparently, Bambi is about a young deer growing up from newborn to adulthood. He learns about the world around him, his environment, the other creatures of the forest, as well as the dangers like Man. He tragically learns about death, but he also learns about love and what it means to be a father.

One of the first things I realized about this film that I wasn't expecting was how much like a musical it was. Well, that might not be the right word to describe it, but it was like that Peter and the Wolf movie. The music was directly depicted by the images. A good example of this is the "April Showers" song in which the rain drops, the wind, and even the eventual lightning and thunder are all vividly brought to life through the music. Each rain drop is sounded by a note, the wind and storm by the vocals, and the thunderclaps by symbol smashes. It reminded me more of a Disney Fantasia film than anything else.

I really liked the animation on the characters, seeing Bambi stumble around on his spidery legs was cute, but the backgrounds suffered from that flat "matte" look which they put the animation cells over. You can always tell when something is going to move and when something isn't. Even so, the backgrounds were still nice to look at and done well. The lighting during the storm and the forest fire towards the end were especially good in my opinion.

Bambi meets Faline for the first time

So the big secret, that I believe was only a secret to me, was that this movie shows Bambi grow up. I thought for some reason that he was always a baby deer for the whole movie. I knew of the death of his mother, it's basically pop culture knowledge now that that event is one of the single saddest moments in film. But I always thought that was basically the end of the movie. Apparently not.

I was surprised that the movie was more like a documentary about wildlife than it was a traditional Disney movie. Well, in the way that I think of a Disney movie at least. There's not really much of a story, we're just watching the passage of time. It would have started boring me to be honest if it wasn't also really short, at 1 hour 10 minutes.

Bambi in his 'teens' and seeing Faline once more

I'm glad I saw it for myself finally, and yes the scene with the mother was quite sad. Bambi's father is awesome though, and I really enjoyed seeing all the characters grown up. Also, seeing Bambi fight for Faline was cool since the fight became so stylized. It was like a lightning storm itself. All that considered though, I can't help but wish there was more of a story. I figure The Lion King is basically Bambi with a plot. This film reminded me of The Lion King quite a lot. I wonder what people who had seen Bambi first thought of The Lion King when they saw that?

If I had to choose, I would recommend Bambi based on the fact that it's such a cultural classic and that the animation still holds up. The lack of story is at least not too problematic since it's so short. Check it out, you'll be done it before you know it.