Review: Bambi

The story of the titular young fawn as he makes his way through life into adulthood, learning many of life’s lessons. We’re not just talking about the nice lessons either, as the threat of hunters with their guns is always in mind, leading to one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of cinema.

 

Although it doesn’t reach the magical heights of “Pinocchio”, how can anyone not love this 1942 Disney classic from (supervising) director David C. Hand? Not only is it basically a rite of passage for every youngster, but without this film there would certainly be no “Lion King” (probably its most direct descendant- we won’t talk about “Bambi II”, nor will I ever watch it), “Fox and the Hound”, or “Finding Nemo”, to say the very least. It’s the archetypal Disney animated film with animated animal characters. It’s such a lovely film in many, many ways, but it’s often referred to as a coming-of-age film, and yes Bambi does learn that this is a cruel piece of shit world sometimes, and people die. Life isn’t always fair, and sometimes it just plain craps on you for no understandably good reason. For many kids this was and probably still is their first encounter with the concept of death. On that front it’s extremely effective, if a bit fucking cruel. It’s also a bit of a trailblazer, talking about man’s destructive influence on the environment and its creatures long before that even really became a thing.

 

It’s also just a really pretty, almost dreamlike film and certainly a painterly-looking one, which has its positives and negatives (more on the latter in a minute). It’s a film with a lot of cuteness, which will rub some people the wrong way, but not me. Animated bunny wabbits are so cute. Not real bunny wabbits, they’re creepy and always staring at me in judgement. Personally I think Thumper (despite not actually appearing in the original novel) steals the entire film from Bambi, and the film would be a lot lesser without that character who largely serves as very cute comic relief. 

 

True to life, the characters get uglier once puberty has set in. I won’t say that the film is overrated, simply that it gets less interesting as it goes along. I also have to confess that the usual Disney choir gets a helluva workout here to an almost laughable degree.

 

This is adorable, and if you hate this film, you’re not human, and you have neither a heart nor a soul. It may not be the great entertainment of “Pinocchio” (it sure beats the overrated “Fantasia”, however), nor is the animation terribly impressive- it’s extremely pretty, but like I said, painterly and thin. But look, it’s “Bambi” and everyone loves “Bambi”, right? By the way, is it just me or is one of those adult deer voiced by J. Peterman from “Seinfeld”? Tell me I’m wrong!

 

The script is by Perce Pearce (who co-directed “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with Hand and several others) and Larry Morey (ditto), from a Felix Salten (writer of the novel “The Shaggy Dog” was based on) novel, with several others having a hand in bringing the story to the screen as well.

 

Rating: B