Bambi
Encyclopedia
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film
directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney
and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods
by Austria
n author Felix Salten
. The film was released by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942, and it is the fifth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.
The main characters are Bambi
, a white-tailed deer
, his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother), his friends Thumper
(a pink-nosed rabbit
), and Flower (a skunk
), and his childhood friend and future mate, Faline
. For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing Bambi's species into a white-tailed deer
from his original species of roe deer
, since roe deer do not inhabit the United States, and the white-tailed deer is more familiar to Americans. The film received three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield
), Best Song (for "Love Is a Song" sung by Donald Novis
) and Original Music Score.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute
presented a list of its "10 Top 10"—the best ten films in each of ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi placed third in animation.
. After he learns to walk, Bambi befriends Thumper
, a young rabbit; then, while learning to talk, Bambi meets a young skunk whom he calls "Flower" (the skunk says that he does not mind this name at all, and the infant Bambi says, "Flower, pretty Flower").
After Bambi has completely learned how to talk, his mother takes him to the meadow, a place that is both wonderful and frightening. Bambi's mother warns him that deer are unprotected in the meadow as there are no trees or bushes to hide them, so they must take great care for their own safety. In the meadow, Bambi meets the female fawn Faline
, her mother, Aunt Ena, and his own father, the Great Prince of the Forest. Crows suddenly begin to caw, startling all the animals to flee the meadow; Bambi struggles against the rushing animals, trying to find his mother, but his father arrives just in time to press Bambi and his mother out of the meadow before a hunter can shoot them. When Bambi asks why they all ran, his mother explains that "Man was in the forest".
During a harsh winter, Thumper teaches Bambi how to slide on ice. One day at the end of winter, Bambi and his mother go to the meadow and discover a patch of new grass, heralding the arrival of spring. As they eat, his mother senses a hunter and orders Bambi to flee. As they run, gun shots ring out. When Bambi arrives at their thicket, he discovers his mother is no longer with him. He wanders the forest calling for her, but she does not answer. His father appears in front of him and tells Bambi, "Your mother can't be with you anymore" (implying that she has been killed by hunters, an action that is illegal), then leads him away.
In the spring, an adult Bambi is reunited with Thumper and Flower as the animals around them begin pairing up with mates. Though they resolve not to be "twitterpated" like the other animals in love, Thumper and Flower each leave with newly found mates. Bambi is disgusted, until he runs into Faline and they become a couple. As they happily dance and flirt through the woods, another buck, Ronno, appears who tries to force Faline to go with him. Though he initially struggles, Bambi's rage gives him the strength to defeat Ronno and push him off a cliff and into a river below.
That night, Bambi and Faline continue to go through the woods dancing and flirting. Then the next morning, Bambi is awoken by the smell of smoke and the blowing of a horn. His father explains that Man has returned to the forest in greater numbers, and they must flee. When crows caw, Faline is awakened and searches for Bambi. Bambi goes back to search for Faline, but she is gone. While searching for Bambi, Faline is being chased by hunting dogs, and takes refuge on a cliff ledge. Bambi finds her in time and fights off the dogs, allowing Faline to escape. With Faline safe, Bambi kills the hunting dogs after kicking several rocks onto them, then runs but then Bambi is shot as he leaps over a ravine. The Great Prince finds him there and urges him back to his feet, when at the same time, a forest fire begins. Together, they escape the forest fire and go to a small island in a lake where the other animals, including Faline, have taken refuge and Bambi becomes the new Prince.
At the end of the film, Faline gives birth to twin fawns, a boy and a girl, Bambi stands watch on the large hill, and the Great Prince silently turns and walks away, while Prince Bambi looks on proudly watching on his newborn children, just as his father did to him at his own birth.
films, purchased the film rights to Felix Salten
's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods
in 1933, intending to adapt it as a live-action film. Deciding it would be too difficult to make such a film, he sold the film rights to Walt Disney in April 1937. Disney began work on crafting an animated adaptation immediately, intending it to be the company's second feature-length animated film and their first to be based on a specific, recent work. The original novel was written for an adult audience, however, and was considered too "grim" and "somber" for a regular light-hearted Disney film. The artists also discovered that it would challenging to animate deer realistically, and at the same time keep the characters slightly exaggerated and "cartoony". These difficulties resulted in Disney putting production on hold while the studio worked on several other projects. In 1938, Disney assigned Perce Pearce and Carl Fallberg to work on the film's storyboards, but attention was soon drawn away as the studio began working on Fantasia
(1940). Finally, on August 17, 1939, production on Bambi began in earnest, though progressed slowly owing to changes in the studio personnel, location, and methodology of handling animation at the time.
There were many interpretations of the story. Characters such as Mr. Hare (Thumper's Father) and a comic duo of a Squirrel and a Chipmunk were created but eventually cut from the film. There was a scene involving two autumn leaves conversing and eventually dying by falling to the ground, but the artist found that talking flora didn't work in the context of the film and instead used a visual metaphor of two realistic leaves falling to the ground. There was a scene of Bambi stepping on an ant's nest and showing all the devastation that he caused, but it was cut for pacing reasons. In the scene in which Bambi's mother dies there was a brief scene showing her getting shot, but the story team decided the scene was too sad, and that it was emotional enough to justify having her death occur off screen. Disney wanted to show man being killed in the fire to prove to Bambi that man was not invincible. However the scene was cut for unknown reasons. The writing was completed in July 1940, by which time the film's budget had swelled to $858,000.
Walt Disney attempted to achieve realistic detail in this animated film. He had Rico LeBrun, a painter of animals, come and lecture to the animators on the structure and movement of animals. Animators also visited the Los Angeles Zoo
. A pair of fawns (named Bambi and Faline) were shipped from the area of present-day Baxter State Park
in Maine
to the studio so that the artists could see first-hand the movement of these animals. The source of these fawns, from the Eastern United States, was the impetus for the transformation of Felix Salten's roe deer
to white-tailed deer
. A small zoo was also established at the studio so animators could study other animals, like rabbits, ducks, owls, and skunks, at close range. The animators learned a lot about animals during the films production that they'd utilize in future projects. Animators now had a broader spectrum of animation styles, from the wider stylization of Mickey Mouse to the naturalistic look and realistic movement of the characters in Bambi.
The background of the film was inspired by the Eastern woodlands. One of the earliest and best-known artists for the Disney studio, Maurice "Jake" Day, spent several weeks in the Vermont and Maine forests, sketching and photographing deer, fawns, and the surrounding wilderness areas. However his first sketches were too 'busy' as the eye did not know where to focus. Ty Wong, a Chinese animator, showed Day some of his impressionistic paintings of a forest. Day liked the paintings and appointed him art director of the film. Wong's backgrounds were revolutionary since they had more detail around the center and less around the edges. This technique made the audience focus on the characters.
Although there were no humans in Bambi, live-action footage of humans was used for one scene: actress Jane Randolph
and Ice Capades
star Donna Atwood
acted as live-action references for the scene where Bambi and Thumper are on the icy pond.
The realism that Disney was pushing caused delays in production; animators were unaccustomed to drawing natural animals, and expert animators could only manage around eight drawings a day. This amounted to only half-a-foot of film a day, unlike the normal rate of production of ten feet. This resulted in less than a second of film versus over thirteen seconds. Disney was later forced to slash 12 minutes from the film before final animation, to save costs on production due to losses suffered in Europe.
, and was Disney's 5th full-length animated film. Bambi was re-released to theatres in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was then made available on home video in 1989. Even in home video, Bambi has seen multiple releases, including two VHS
releases, in 1989 (Classics Version) and 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and most recently a digitally-remastered and restored Platinum Edition DVD. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium
on January 31, 2007.
Bambi was released in Diamond Edition on March 1st, 2011, consisting of a Blu-ray
and DVD
combo pack. According to Cinema Blend, this release is set to include multiple bonus features that were not previously included in Bambi home releases: a documentary entitled Inside Walt’s Story Meetings – Enhanced Edition, two deleted scenes, a deleted song, an image gallery, and a game entitled Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition. The release will also mark the first use of "Disney Second Screen
", a feature which is accessed via a computer or iPad
app download that syncs with the Blu-ray disc, allowing the viewer to follow along by interacting with animated flip-books, galleries and trivia while watching the movie. A UK version of Diamond Edition was released on February 7, 2011.
sent a telegram to his brother Walt after the New York opening of the film that read: "Fell short of our holdover figure by $4,000. Just came from Music Hall. Unable to make any deal to stay third week...Night business is our problem."
At the time of the film's release, Bambi received mixed to negative reviews from the critics, mainly because of the realistic animation of the animals, and the story of their fight against the evil humans in the story. Hunters spoke out against the movie, saying it was "an insult to American sportsmen." The New York Times claimed that "In the search for perfection, Mr. Disney has come perilously close to tossing away his whole world of cartoon fantasy." Film critic, Manny Farber
called it "entirely unpleasant" and agreed with New York Times statement saying "In an effort to trump the realism of flesh and blood movies, he [Disney] has given up fantasy, which was pretty much the magic element" . The criticism, however, was short-lived, and the financial shortfall of its first release was made up multiple times in the subsequent re-releases.
Today, the film is viewed as a classic. The film holds a 91% "Fresh" rating from fans and critics on Rotten Tomatoes
. Critics Mick Martin and Marsha Porter call the film "...the crowning achievement of Walt Disney's animation studio". In June 2008, the American Film Institute
revealed its "Ten top Ten"
— the best ten films in ten classic American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi was acknowledged as the third best film in the animation genre.It is also listed in the Top 25 Horror Movies of all Time by Time magazine. Bambi, Time states, "has a primal shock that still haunts oldsters who saw it 40, 50, 65 years ago."
.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney
has credited the shooting death of Bambi's mother for his initial interest in animal rights
, an example of what has been called the Bambi effect
.
Soon after the film's release, Walt Disney allowed his characters to appear in fire prevention public service campaigns. However, Bambi was only loaned to the government for a year, so a new symbol was needed, leading to the creation of Smokey Bear
. Bambi and his mother also make a cameo appearance in the satirical 1955 Donald Duck
short No Hunting: drinking from a forest stream, the deer are startled by a sudden trickle of beer cans and other debris, and Bambi's mother tells him, "Man is in the forest. Let's dig out."
In 2006, the Ad Council
, in partnership with the United States Forest Service
, started a series of Public Service Announcement
ads that feature footage from Bambi and Bambi II for wildfire
prevention. During the ads, as the Bambi footage is shown, the screen will momentarily fade into black with the text "Don't let our forests...become once upon a time", and usually (but not always) ending the ads with Bambi's line "Mother, what we gonna do today?" followed by Smokey Bear saying "Only you can prevent wildfires" as the Smokey logo is shown on the screen. The ads air on various television networks, and the Ad Council has also put them on Youtube
.
American Film Institute
on February 7, 2006. While the film was a direct-to-video release in the United States
and other countries, including Canada
, China
, Hong Kong
, Japan
and Taiwan
, it was a theatrical release in some countries, including Australia
, Austria
, Brazil
, Dominican Republic
, France
, Mexico
, the United Kingdom
and some other Europe
an countries.
were inherited by Anna Wyler, Salten's daughter, who renewed them in 1954. After her death, Wyler's husband sold the rights to Twin Books, which subsequently filed a law suit against Disney, claiming Disney owed it money for the continued licensing for the use of the book. Disney countered by claiming that Salten had published the story in 1923 without a copyright notice, and was thus immediately entered into the public domain
. Disney also argued that if the claimed 1923 publication date was accurate, then the copyright renewal filed in 1954 had been registered after the deadline and was thus invalid. The courts initially upheld Disney's view; however, in 1996, the Ninth Circuit Court reversed the decision on appeal.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Bambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag...
by Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n author Felix Salten
Felix Salten
Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
. The film was released by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942, and it is the fifth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.
The main characters are Bambi
Bambi (character)
Bambi, a young roe deer, is the main character in Felix Salten's Bambi, A Life in the Woods and in the Disney films based on the book. Bambi has starred in two movies, Bambi and Bambi II, has had cameos in several Disney cartoons, and has been parodied on occasion by other animation companies...
, a white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
, his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother), his friends Thumper
Thumper (Bambi)
Thumper is a fictional rabbit character from Disney's animated movie Bambi. He appeared again in Bambi II. He is known and named for his habit of thumping his left hind foot...
(a pink-nosed rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
), and Flower (a skunk
Skunk
Skunks are mammals best known for their ability to secrete a liquid with a strong, foul odor. General appearance varies from species to species, from black-and-white to brown or cream colored. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora...
), and his childhood friend and future mate, Faline
Faline
Faline is a doe in Felix Salten's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its sequel, Bambi's Children as well as in the Walt Disney movies Bambi and Bambi II. Her mother is Ena...
. For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing Bambi's species into a white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
from his original species of roe deer
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
, since roe deer do not inhabit the United States, and the white-tailed deer is more familiar to Americans. The film received three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield
Sam Slyfield
Sam Slyfield was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for four Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Bambi * Saludos Amigos * The Three Caballeros...
), Best Song (for "Love Is a Song" sung by Donald Novis
Donald Novis
Donald Novis was an English actor and tenor.-Life and career:Born in Hastings, East Sussex, Novis came to the United States in the late 1920s to pursue an acting and singing career. He made his film debut as the Country Boy in the detective film Bulldog Drummond...
) and Original Music Score.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
presented a list of its "10 Top 10"—the best ten films in each of ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi placed third in animation.
Plot
In a forest thicket, a doe gives birth to a fawn whom she names BambiBambi (character)
Bambi, a young roe deer, is the main character in Felix Salten's Bambi, A Life in the Woods and in the Disney films based on the book. Bambi has starred in two movies, Bambi and Bambi II, has had cameos in several Disney cartoons, and has been parodied on occasion by other animation companies...
. After he learns to walk, Bambi befriends Thumper
Thumper (Bambi)
Thumper is a fictional rabbit character from Disney's animated movie Bambi. He appeared again in Bambi II. He is known and named for his habit of thumping his left hind foot...
, a young rabbit; then, while learning to talk, Bambi meets a young skunk whom he calls "Flower" (the skunk says that he does not mind this name at all, and the infant Bambi says, "Flower, pretty Flower").
After Bambi has completely learned how to talk, his mother takes him to the meadow, a place that is both wonderful and frightening. Bambi's mother warns him that deer are unprotected in the meadow as there are no trees or bushes to hide them, so they must take great care for their own safety. In the meadow, Bambi meets the female fawn Faline
Faline
Faline is a doe in Felix Salten's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its sequel, Bambi's Children as well as in the Walt Disney movies Bambi and Bambi II. Her mother is Ena...
, her mother, Aunt Ena, and his own father, the Great Prince of the Forest. Crows suddenly begin to caw, startling all the animals to flee the meadow; Bambi struggles against the rushing animals, trying to find his mother, but his father arrives just in time to press Bambi and his mother out of the meadow before a hunter can shoot them. When Bambi asks why they all ran, his mother explains that "Man was in the forest".
During a harsh winter, Thumper teaches Bambi how to slide on ice. One day at the end of winter, Bambi and his mother go to the meadow and discover a patch of new grass, heralding the arrival of spring. As they eat, his mother senses a hunter and orders Bambi to flee. As they run, gun shots ring out. When Bambi arrives at their thicket, he discovers his mother is no longer with him. He wanders the forest calling for her, but she does not answer. His father appears in front of him and tells Bambi, "Your mother can't be with you anymore" (implying that she has been killed by hunters, an action that is illegal), then leads him away.
In the spring, an adult Bambi is reunited with Thumper and Flower as the animals around them begin pairing up with mates. Though they resolve not to be "twitterpated" like the other animals in love, Thumper and Flower each leave with newly found mates. Bambi is disgusted, until he runs into Faline and they become a couple. As they happily dance and flirt through the woods, another buck, Ronno, appears who tries to force Faline to go with him. Though he initially struggles, Bambi's rage gives him the strength to defeat Ronno and push him off a cliff and into a river below.
That night, Bambi and Faline continue to go through the woods dancing and flirting. Then the next morning, Bambi is awoken by the smell of smoke and the blowing of a horn. His father explains that Man has returned to the forest in greater numbers, and they must flee. When crows caw, Faline is awakened and searches for Bambi. Bambi goes back to search for Faline, but she is gone. While searching for Bambi, Faline is being chased by hunting dogs, and takes refuge on a cliff ledge. Bambi finds her in time and fights off the dogs, allowing Faline to escape. With Faline safe, Bambi kills the hunting dogs after kicking several rocks onto them, then runs but then Bambi is shot as he leaps over a ravine. The Great Prince finds him there and urges him back to his feet, when at the same time, a forest fire begins. Together, they escape the forest fire and go to a small island in a lake where the other animals, including Faline, have taken refuge and Bambi becomes the new Prince.
At the end of the film, Faline gives birth to twin fawns, a boy and a girl, Bambi stands watch on the large hill, and the Great Prince silently turns and walks away, while Prince Bambi looks on proudly watching on his newborn children, just as his father did to him at his own birth.
Cast
- Bobby Stewart as Baby BambiBambi (character)Bambi, a young roe deer, is the main character in Felix Salten's Bambi, A Life in the Woods and in the Disney films based on the book. Bambi has starred in two movies, Bambi and Bambi II, has had cameos in several Disney cartoons, and has been parodied on occasion by other animation companies...
- Donnie DunaganDonnie DunaganDonald "Donnie" Roan Dunagan is a semi-retired American former child actor and United States Marine Corps drill instructor. He was a voice actor in the Bambi film, providing the voice of Young Bambi. A 28-page interview, his first after decades as a "lost Hollywood player," can be found in the...
as Young Bambi - Hardie AlbrightHardie AlbrightHardie Albright was an American actor and the son of travelling vaudevillians.Born as Hardie Hunter Albrecht, he made his stage debut in one of his parents' acts at the age of 7....
as Adolescent Bambi - John Sutherland as Adult Bambi
- Paula WinslowePaula WinslowePaula Winslowe , sometimes credited as Paula Winslow, was a radio and television actress from the 1930s to the mid-1960s....
as Bambi's Mother and the Pheasant - Peter BehnPeter BehnPeter Behn is an American voice actor. He is best known for providing the voice of the young Thumper in the film Bambi.-Early Life and Education:...
as Young ThumperThumper (Bambi)Thumper is a fictional rabbit character from Disney's animated movie Bambi. He appeared again in Bambi II. He is known and named for his habit of thumping his left hind foot... - Tim Davis as Adolescent Thumper and Adolescent Flower
- Sam EdwardsSam EdwardsSam Edwards was an American actor. His most famous role on TV was as the banker in the TV series Little House on the Prairie.-Biography:Born into a showbusiness family, his first role was as a baby in his mother's arms...
as Adult Thumper - Stan Alexander as Young Flower
- Sterling HollowaySterling HollowaySterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...
as Adult Flower - Will WrightWill Wright (actor)William Henry "Will" Wright was an American character actor. He was frequently cast in curmudgeonly roles. He was sometimes credited as Will J. Wright....
as Friend Owl - Cammie KingCammie KingEleanore Cammack "Cammie" King was an American former child actress. She is best known for being one of the actresses who portrayed "Bonnie Blue Butler" in Gone with the Wind . She also provided the voice for the doe "Faline" in the animated Disney film, Bambi .-Life and career:King was born in...
as Young FalineFalineFaline is a doe in Felix Salten's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods and its sequel, Bambi's Children as well as in the Walt Disney movies Bambi and Bambi II. Her mother is Ena... - Ann GillisAnn GillisAnn Gillis , sometimes credited as Anne Gillis or Ann Gilles, is a retired actress, starting her career in the early 1930s as a child actress and ending in 1947. She later came back into acting for a small part in 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968...
as Adult Faline - Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
- Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
- Mary Lansing as Aunt Ena and Mrs. Possum
Production
Sidney Franklin, a producer and director at MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
films, purchased the film rights to Felix Salten
Felix Salten
Felix Salten was an Austrian author and critic in Vienna. His most famous work is Bambi .-Life:...
's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Bambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag...
in 1933, intending to adapt it as a live-action film. Deciding it would be too difficult to make such a film, he sold the film rights to Walt Disney in April 1937. Disney began work on crafting an animated adaptation immediately, intending it to be the company's second feature-length animated film and their first to be based on a specific, recent work. The original novel was written for an adult audience, however, and was considered too "grim" and "somber" for a regular light-hearted Disney film. The artists also discovered that it would challenging to animate deer realistically, and at the same time keep the characters slightly exaggerated and "cartoony". These difficulties resulted in Disney putting production on hold while the studio worked on several other projects. In 1938, Disney assigned Perce Pearce and Carl Fallberg to work on the film's storyboards, but attention was soon drawn away as the studio began working on Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
(1940). Finally, on August 17, 1939, production on Bambi began in earnest, though progressed slowly owing to changes in the studio personnel, location, and methodology of handling animation at the time.
There were many interpretations of the story. Characters such as Mr. Hare (Thumper's Father) and a comic duo of a Squirrel and a Chipmunk were created but eventually cut from the film. There was a scene involving two autumn leaves conversing and eventually dying by falling to the ground, but the artist found that talking flora didn't work in the context of the film and instead used a visual metaphor of two realistic leaves falling to the ground. There was a scene of Bambi stepping on an ant's nest and showing all the devastation that he caused, but it was cut for pacing reasons. In the scene in which Bambi's mother dies there was a brief scene showing her getting shot, but the story team decided the scene was too sad, and that it was emotional enough to justify having her death occur off screen. Disney wanted to show man being killed in the fire to prove to Bambi that man was not invincible. However the scene was cut for unknown reasons. The writing was completed in July 1940, by which time the film's budget had swelled to $858,000.
Walt Disney attempted to achieve realistic detail in this animated film. He had Rico LeBrun, a painter of animals, come and lecture to the animators on the structure and movement of animals. Animators also visited the Los Angeles Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
The Los Angeles Zoo , is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The City of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals...
. A pair of fawns (named Bambi and Faline) were shipped from the area of present-day Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park is a large wilderness area permanently preserved as a state park, located in Piscataquis County in north-central Maine. The Park was established by 28 donations of land, in Trust, from Park donor Percival P. Baxter between the years of 1931 and 1962, eventually creating a Park of...
in Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
to the studio so that the artists could see first-hand the movement of these animals. The source of these fawns, from the Eastern United States, was the impetus for the transformation of Felix Salten's roe deer
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
to white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
. A small zoo was also established at the studio so animators could study other animals, like rabbits, ducks, owls, and skunks, at close range. The animators learned a lot about animals during the films production that they'd utilize in future projects. Animators now had a broader spectrum of animation styles, from the wider stylization of Mickey Mouse to the naturalistic look and realistic movement of the characters in Bambi.
The background of the film was inspired by the Eastern woodlands. One of the earliest and best-known artists for the Disney studio, Maurice "Jake" Day, spent several weeks in the Vermont and Maine forests, sketching and photographing deer, fawns, and the surrounding wilderness areas. However his first sketches were too 'busy' as the eye did not know where to focus. Ty Wong, a Chinese animator, showed Day some of his impressionistic paintings of a forest. Day liked the paintings and appointed him art director of the film. Wong's backgrounds were revolutionary since they had more detail around the center and less around the edges. This technique made the audience focus on the characters.
Although there were no humans in Bambi, live-action footage of humans was used for one scene: actress Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph
Jane Randolph, born Jane Roemer , was an American film actress. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio and died in Gstaad, Switzerland....
and Ice Capades
Ice Capades
The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympicand National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition....
star Donna Atwood
Donna Atwood
Donna Atwood was an American figure skater. She competed in pair skating and won the gold medal at the 1941 United States Figure Skating Championships with partner Eugene Turner. In 1949, she married John H. Harris, the first owner of the Ice Capades, with whom she had two children...
acted as live-action references for the scene where Bambi and Thumper are on the icy pond.
The realism that Disney was pushing caused delays in production; animators were unaccustomed to drawing natural animals, and expert animators could only manage around eight drawings a day. This amounted to only half-a-foot of film a day, unlike the normal rate of production of ten feet. This resulted in less than a second of film versus over thirteen seconds. Disney was later forced to slash 12 minutes from the film before final animation, to save costs on production due to losses suffered in Europe.
Release
Bambi was released in theaters in 1942, during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and was Disney's 5th full-length animated film. Bambi was re-released to theatres in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was then made available on home video in 1989. Even in home video, Bambi has seen multiple releases, including two VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
releases, in 1989 (Classics Version) and 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and most recently a digitally-remastered and restored Platinum Edition DVD. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium
Moratorium (entertainment)
A moratorium in the home entertainment business refers to the practice of suspending the sales of DVD movies or DVD boxed sets after a certain period of time...
on January 31, 2007.
Bambi was released in Diamond Edition on March 1st, 2011, consisting of a Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
combo pack. According to Cinema Blend, this release is set to include multiple bonus features that were not previously included in Bambi home releases: a documentary entitled Inside Walt’s Story Meetings – Enhanced Edition, two deleted scenes, a deleted song, an image gallery, and a game entitled Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition. The release will also mark the first use of "Disney Second Screen
Disney Second Screen
Disney Second Screen is an interactive onscreen film feature accessible via a computer or iPad app download that provides additional content to a user as he or she views a movie. The movie links with the viewer's device through an audio cue, a manual sync, or with a visual sync indicator...
", a feature which is accessed via a computer or iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
app download that syncs with the Blu-ray disc, allowing the viewer to follow along by interacting with animated flip-books, galleries and trivia while watching the movie. A UK version of Diamond Edition was released on February 7, 2011.
Reception
Bambi lost money at the box office for its first release, but recouped its considerable cost during the 1947 re-release. This was due to the timing of the release, during World War II and this hurt the film's box office numbers. The film did not do so well at the box office in the U.S., and the studio no longer had access to many European markets that provided a large portion of its profits. Roy DisneyRoy O. Disney
Roy Oliver Disney was, with his younger brother, Walt Disney, the co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company.-Early life:...
sent a telegram to his brother Walt after the New York opening of the film that read: "Fell short of our holdover figure by $4,000. Just came from Music Hall. Unable to make any deal to stay third week...Night business is our problem."
At the time of the film's release, Bambi received mixed to negative reviews from the critics, mainly because of the realistic animation of the animals, and the story of their fight against the evil humans in the story. Hunters spoke out against the movie, saying it was "an insult to American sportsmen." The New York Times claimed that "In the search for perfection, Mr. Disney has come perilously close to tossing away his whole world of cartoon fantasy." Film critic, Manny Farber
Manny Farber
Emanuel "Manny" Farber was an American painter, film critic and writer. Often described as "iconoclastic" , Farber developed a distinctive prose style and set of theoretical stances which have had a large influence on later generations of film critics; Susan Sontag considered him to be "the...
called it "entirely unpleasant" and agreed with New York Times statement saying "In an effort to trump the realism of flesh and blood movies, he [Disney] has given up fantasy, which was pretty much the magic element" . The criticism, however, was short-lived, and the financial shortfall of its first release was made up multiple times in the subsequent re-releases.
Today, the film is viewed as a classic. The film holds a 91% "Fresh" rating from fans and critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Critics Mick Martin and Marsha Porter call the film "...the crowning achievement of Walt Disney's animation studio". In June 2008, the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
revealed its "Ten top Ten"
AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
— the best ten films in ten classic American film genres — after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi was acknowledged as the third best film in the animation genre.It is also listed in the Top 25 Horror Movies of all Time by Time magazine. Bambi, Time states, "has a primal shock that still haunts oldsters who saw it 40, 50, 65 years ago."
Legacy
The off-screen villain "man" has been placed #20 on AFI's List of Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
has credited the shooting death of Bambi's mother for his initial interest in animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
, an example of what has been called the Bambi effect
Bambi Effect
"The Bambi effect" is a term used anecdotally or in editorial media that refers to objections against the killing of animals that are perceived as "cute" or "adorable", such as deer or dolphins, while there may be little or no objection to the suffering of organisms that are perceived as somehow...
.
Soon after the film's release, Walt Disney allowed his characters to appear in fire prevention public service campaigns. However, Bambi was only loaned to the government for a year, so a new symbol was needed, leading to the creation of Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. An advertising campaign featuring Smokey was created in 1944 with the slogan, "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires". Smokey Bear's later slogan,...
. Bambi and his mother also make a cameo appearance in the satirical 1955 Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
short No Hunting: drinking from a forest stream, the deer are startled by a sudden trickle of beer cans and other debris, and Bambi's mother tells him, "Man is in the forest. Let's dig out."
In 2006, the Ad Council
Ad Council
The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....
, in partnership with the United States Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
, started a series of Public Service Announcement
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
ads that feature footage from Bambi and Bambi II for wildfire
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
prevention. During the ads, as the Bambi footage is shown, the screen will momentarily fade into black with the text "Don't let our forests...become once upon a time", and usually (but not always) ending the ads with Bambi's line "Mother, what we gonna do today?" followed by Smokey Bear saying "Only you can prevent wildfires" as the Smokey logo is shown on the screen. The ads air on various television networks, and the Ad Council has also put them on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
American Film InstituteAmerican Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesAFI's 100 Years... 100 MoviesThe first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and VillainsAFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
:- Man - #20 Villain
- AFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresAFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
- Nominated - AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- #3 Animated film
Midquel
Bambi II was released as a midquel sequel to Bambi. Set in middle of Bambi, it shows the Great Prince of the Forest struggling to raise the motherless Bambi, and Bambi's doubts about his father's love. The film was released direct-to-videoDirect-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
on February 7, 2006. While the film was a direct-to-video release in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other countries, including Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Taiwan
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, it was a theatrical release in some countries, including Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and some other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries.
Copyrights
The copyrights for Bambi, A Life in the WoodsBambi, A Life in the Woods
Bambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi. Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Paul Zsolnay Verlag...
were inherited by Anna Wyler, Salten's daughter, who renewed them in 1954. After her death, Wyler's husband sold the rights to Twin Books, which subsequently filed a law suit against Disney, claiming Disney owed it money for the continued licensing for the use of the book. Disney countered by claiming that Salten had published the story in 1923 without a copyright notice, and was thus immediately entered into the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. Disney also argued that if the claimed 1923 publication date was accurate, then the copyright renewal filed in 1954 had been registered after the deadline and was thus invalid. The courts initially upheld Disney's view; however, in 1996, the Ninth Circuit Court reversed the decision on appeal.