Bambi

Get out your hankies, as today we go back to 1942 to review Walt Disney’s gentle coming-of-age fable, Bambi.

I love the smell of fey skunk in the morning...

A common shared memory for many American children, at least when I was young, was their recollection of the first time they saw Bambi – and of course, their reactions to the shooting of Bambi’s mother (uhm, SPOILERS … but honestly, the movie’s 75 years old; if you don’t know that Bambi’s mom was killed, or that Rosebud’s a sled, or that Darth Vader is Luke’s dad, stop reading and go watch more movies.) If one goes into the film for the first time knowing about the killing, as many do, the shock of the moment is naturally dulled. Yet the immediate effect of the fawn’s sudden demise remains startling; more so due to the slowly-paced scenes that follow, in which Bambi wanders out into the falling snow and realizes that his mother can’t answer his pleading cries. Upon my most recent viewing, I finally noticed that Bambi does in fact shed a tear when his father tells him that his mother’s gone - and yet it's all but covered up by the thickening snowfall. Like much of the film, the emotional effect here is more nuanced than one might expect from a talking-animal movie.

Like tears in rain...

That’s not to say that the film is subtle, by any means. Though never viewed onscreen, Man’s intrusion into the woods is played for straight horror, as the terrified woodland creatures flee desperately from their seemingly random rifle blasts. In the planning stages, some elements of the film were changed that would’ve made the entire picture a much more horrific experience: these included a full-on impact shot of the bullet that killed Bambi’s mother, and the grisly immolation of the hunters by the fire started at their camp during the film’s climax. It probably goes without saying that the resulting film seems to be more memorable for what it leaves to the imagination, rather than providing straight nightmare-fuel.

People: what a buncha' bastards...

Besides being a memorably emotional film, Bambi contains two of the most abstract sequences in Disney animation, outside of films with Fantasia in the title. The fight scene between Bambi and an unnamed stag is memorable for its dramatic, almost theatrical use of darkness and bold colors, while the dreamy love montage presents a phantasmagorical interpretation of Bambi and Faline's time together. The strong imagery of this section also helps to gloss over a lackluster ballad, the echo-drenched "Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song)," penned by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey. If there's anything unmemorable about Bambi, my vote would go to the music. The score (by Edward H. Plumb) is merely satisfactory, and of all the film's songs the sole standout is "Little April Showers," which is boosted by the strong visuals of the storm sequence it accompanies. The worst, by far, is the vapid and twee (yes, both!) "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" (yeah, I know,) which nearly ruins the impact of the tragic death scene which precedes it. I don't know about anyone else, but once the phrase "tra-la-la" is sung, I zone out completely.

C-c-c-combo breaker!!!

In addition to the music, a few of the questionable vocal performances stand out. Whereas the young actors chosen to bring the adolescent Bambi, Thumper and Flower to life are uniformly excellent (never coming off as stiff or too precocious,) the same can't be said of those vocalizing the characters as adults. The scene of the trio's reunion is especially bad, where the scripted exchanges aim for jocularity but come off more like under-practiced community theater (Thumper's half-hearted exclamation of "Right-o!" always makes me cringe.) If I were the type to nit-pick (generally not a good quality for someone watching Disney movies non-stop,) I would also point out that the voice of Bambi's father, the Great Prince, sounds rather stiff; sort of like that voice White actors used to put on to portray Native Americans in old Hollywood films. But then again, maybe that was what they were going for?

Apparently Thumper likes 'em busty and bearded like Santa

But these are all minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent film. The wonderfully impressionistic backgrounds by Chinese illustrator Tyrus Wong are like fine-art paintings projected on the screen. Lush in color, they are detailed only in the areas occupied by the characters, in order to draw the viewer's eye, then fade into hazy water-colors at the edges. The opening sequence of the film, tracking deeper and deeper into the woods with no sign of animal life for nearly a full minute, still greatly impresses; the masterful use of Disney's multiplane camera makes one almost smell the pines and feel the dampness of the forest.

Watcher in the woods

Like Disney's The Lion King, Bambi uses talking animals to tell a very human coming-of-age story. Unlike that later production, however, Bambi's story moves at a gentler pace, and the young deer's less dramatic (but none-the-less tragic) story actually helps in making one identify with the animated creatures on-screen. A smaller, more personal character-study compared to The Lion King's operatic epic, Bambi only grows richer with repeated viewings. When growing up, Bambi was one of the big white clamshell-encased VHS tapes from Disney that I owned, but I watched it only sporadically. It wasn't as exciting as Aladdin, or as fun as Robin Hood, or as weird as Fantasia. Strangely, however, I find myself appreciating the movie more and more as I grow older, and not just for the hand-produced artistry. Bambi may be a prime example of a story about life that can be appreciated more as time passes, when one has had a chance to experience more of life for themselves.

I'm sorry, I've got something in my eye...