Bambi (film)

Bambi is a 1942 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten. The fifth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942, during World War II.

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), his childhood friend and future mate, Faline and the villain of the story Man. The plot centers around Bambi learning to grow up in the wild after his mother is shot by Man. For the film, 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 for Best Sound, Best Song for "Love Is a Song" and Original Music Score.

The film was a major catalyst in what people now see as "environmental films", as well as Walt Disney's favorite of his animated films.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. A direct-to-video midquel, titled Bambi II, was released in 2006.

A miracle in the woods
The movie begins with a long camera zoom through the forest at dawn and all the creatures beginning to wake up, or back to sleep due to some being nocturnal. Suddenly, a blue bird spreads the news about something. Thumper (a young rabbit) wakes up an old owl named “Friend Owl”, who asks what has happened. Thumper and his sisters tell him that the new prince is born. Wanting to see the newborn fawn, Friend Owl flies off to the area where the young prince was born, along with many other animals. Upon reaching the area, the animals come across the mother and her two-hour old fawn lying by her side. The animals congratulate her. She then urges her new fawn to wake up and see everybody. He wakes up and takes a good, long look at all the animals surrounding him. At first, he is frightened of Friend Owl, who gives a friendly hoot, but then builds some courage and manages to make a shy smile. He then attempts to get up, but due to him being very young, he can hardly keep his balance. Thumper comments that he is sort of unstable, to which his mother scolds him. The young prince then falls backwards back into his resting spot, causing some laughter and delight among the creatures. The fawn then lies back into his resting area and gives a big yawn. Friend Owl says to the creatures that it maybe time for them to leave. They all leave, except for Thumper, who asks the fawn’s mother what his name will be. She replies that she is thinking of naming him “Bambi.” Thumper, liking the name, says good bye to her and runs off to join his family. Happy with the name, Bambi’s mother snuggles up with her new born, sleeping fawn. The camera then pulls up from the small bush to reveal Bambi’s father, The Great Prince of the Forest, looking down at them from a nearby cliff ledge.

Exploring the forest
Three days later, Bambi and his mother are taking a walk through the forest. Bambi falls behind a little bit, getting distracted by some greeting animal neighbors. When trying to catch up to his mother, he gets stuck on a tall, thick blade of grass and slips. Upon seeing his fall, Thumper and his family run over to the young prince, asking his mother if he is alright. She replies that he is doing fine. Thumper then replies, saying that Bambi still can not walk very well. His reply makes his mother remind him of what his father told him that morning about “rude talk”. Bambi then gets back up onto his feet, and is able to continue walking, with Thumper and his sisters journeying along side of him. They then begin to explore the forest, first encountering a fallen log in which Thumper teaches him how to jump (though it did not turn out the way he was planning). They then come across several birds eating some berries. Thumper then teaches Bambi how to say bird, who does not get it right the first time, but with a little encouragement from Thumper, his sisters, and the birds orbiting around his head he is able to say it, shouting out on the top of his lungs “Bird!” Happy with his success, Thumper and his sisters run off to tell Bambi’s mother and their mother what the young prince’s first word was, while Bambi runs off chasing a butterfly (thinking it to be a bird). Thumper then tells him that it is not a bird, but a butterfly. The butterfly then flies off, leaving Bambi into thinking that the huge yellow flower in front of him is the butterfly he saw. Thumper then tells him that it is a flower and that they smell great. Bambi tries smelling the flowers of the small field, but comes face to face with young skunk. Bambi calls the young skunk a flower, which leaves Thumper rolling over his backside with laughter, saying that the skunk is not a flower. The skunk then says that it is alright if they can call him flower, which makes Bambi happy and “Flower” bashful.

April Showers
The day grows late and it is time for Thumper to return home, leaving Bambi back with his mother. Off in the distance, a rainstorm is gathering and coming closer. Scared of the clashing of the lightning, Bambi snuggles next to his mother’s side. He is then wakened by the noise of some nearby raindrops, which then forms a small brook flowing right past his resting area. Soon, the whole forest is alive with raindrops dropping about. The creatures living in the forest run for shelter from the falling water. Suddenly, the violent part of the storm comes when lightning explodes about in bright flash of light and produces lots of loud noises, leaving Bambi frightened. Soon, the storm departs and the sunset off in the distance slowly goes down. Bambi, now asleep next to his mother’s side, snuggles up with his mother as the last drops of the storm fall into the nearby overflowing brook.

The Meadow
The next scene opens up a few weeks later, when Bambi is now capable of speaking. His mother is going to take him to the meadow. Bambi, who has never been to the meadow, asks his mother what a meadow is. He then continues to talk to her, until they reach the edge of the big meadow. Bambi is eager to go, but his mother stops and tells him that the meadow is also a dangerous place. She then tells him to stay behind in the thicket while she looks around to see if the place is safe. After a long while, the wide field appears to be safe. Bambi then runs out and tries to catch up with his mother, who runs off in a fast pace, playing with him. After a while, Bambi encounters Thumper and his family again, eating clovers. Bambi wants to eat some of the clovers as well, which makes Thumper tell him that the blossoms are the only parts to eat, which are really not. His mother then reminds him what his father told him that morning. He then recites the small limerick about eating the green parts of clovers, including a new line that he made up. Bambi then walks off and almost steps on a frog. He follows the frog over to a small pool of water, which the frog jumps in. Bambi, however, is left out on the shore, staring at his never before seen reflection. It startles him at first, but then gets used to it. Suddenly, another reflection appears on the water on his side. He then looks up at the unknown source which turns out to be another fawn, a female fawn. Feeling frightened of the young fawn’s presence, Bambi runs back up to his mother for protection. His mother happens to be talking to the other fawn’s mother, whose name is Ena, and is also Bambi’s aunt. The young female fawn’s name turns out to be Faline. Bambi’s mother encourages Bambi to say hello to Faline. Bambi replies no while Faline laughs at his shyness. Bambi’s mother then asks if he is afraid, to which he replies no again. Having no choice, he greets her. With that said, Faline suddenly breaks out in giggles and acting hyperactive. Bambi, however, backs off in fear and falls into a small puddle. While sitting there in the water, Bambi gets pestered by Faline with numerous licks on the cheeks. Finally, after one more lick and giggle Bambi jumps out and charges at Faline with anger. Faline runs off in fear at first, but, gradually, both of them start a small game of tag.

The Great Forest Prince
Suddenly, from out of the surrounding forest, a huge herd of bucks appear from out of nowhere. Faline runs away in fear while Bambi remains, filled with excitement while watching the bucks bound across the field. He even tries running alongside of them, but ends up almost getting trampled. Suddenly, they all stop. Wondering why, Bambi walks over. The reason appears in front of him. It is no other than the Great Prince, Bambi’s father (though Bambi does not know it yet). After a brief look at his son, the Great Prince walks off, leaving Bambi behind. Bambi then asks his mother why everyone stood still when the mysterious stag walked by and who he was. His mother tells him that he is respected by all and that he is very old and very wise. Thus explaining the reason why he is called “The Great Prince of the Forest.”

"Man is in the Forest"
The next part follows the Great Prince during his walk through the forest. Suddenly, the silence of the forest is broken when a flock of crows fly past, yelling and spreading out an alarm of a certain danger. The Great Prince then senses the danger and runs back towards the meadow. Once there he warns the herd. Sensing the danger as well, the herd and all the other creatures begin to retreat from the meadow towards the forest. Soon, the whole meadow is full of retreating frightened animals, running for protection. Faline and Thumper unite with their mothers and manage to escape, but Bambi gets left behind, searching for his mother. His mother is also looking for him as well. Suddenly, the meadow is completely empty. Though everything is still, something dangerous and deadly is still approaching. Sensing the danger, but to still frightened, Bambi is left out in the open, still searching for his mother. Suddenly, the Great Prince appears from behind him and escorts him and his mother to safety of the forest. Off in the distance (offscreen), something spots them and tries getting them, but ends up missing just when they reach safety in the forest. A few minutes later, the danger is gone and the forest returns to normal. Bambi’s mother exits the entrance of their den and looks around. Seeing no danger, she tells Bambi that everything is alright. Bambi then asks his mother what happened and why they all ran. And what was the danger anyway? After a moment of silence, his mother replies “Man... was in the forest.”

Winter
Throughout the autumn, the herd went for a stroll while Bambi watches the leaves fall and land in the river. During a harsh winter, Bambi discovers snow. While Bambi looks around the snow, he sees Thumper sliding on the ice. He then teaches Bambi how to slide on ice. After that, they see Flower hibernating. One day at the end of winter, Bambi and his mother went 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, the gun shots ring out. When Bambi arrives at their thicket, he discovers his mother is no longer with him, unaware that she has been killed by the hunters. He wanders off in 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," revealing to Bambi that his mother is dead, then leads him away.

"Twitterpated" / The Stag Fight
Years later, 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" which Friend Owl taught them 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, a slightly older 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.

Man returns to the Forest / The Forest Fire
That night, Bambi is awoken by the smell of smoke. His father explains that Man is returned to the forest and they must flee. Bambi goes back to search for Faline, but she is being chased by hunting dogs. Bambi finds her in time and fights off the dogs, allowing Faline to escape. With Faline safe, Bambi runs but is shot as he leaps over a ravine. The Great Prince finds him there and urges him back to his feet. Together, they escape the forest fire (which we presume kills Man) and go to a small island in a lake where the other animals, including Faline, have taken refuge.

Another Miracle
At the end of the film, Thumper, Flower and all the other animals including Friend Owl went into the thicket for a big surprise. Faline gives birth to the twin fawns Geno and Gurri, Bambi stands watch on the large hill, and the Great Prince silently turns and moves away Prince Bambi's place, without saying farewell to Prince Bambi, and he allows him to take his place, as the New Great Prince of the Forest, and the Now New Great 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 Bambi
 * Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi
 * Hardie Albright as Adolescent Bambi
 * John Sutherland as Adult Bambi
 * Paula Winslowe as Bambi's Mother and the Pheasant
 * Peter Behn as Young Thumper
 * Tim Davis as Adolescent Thumper and Adolescent Flower
 * Sam Edwards as Adult Thumper
 * Stan Alexander as Young Flower
 * Sterling Holloway as Adult Flower
 * Will Wright as Friend Owl
 * Cammie King as Young Faline
 * Ann Gillis as Adult Faline
 * Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
 * Thelma Boardman as Girl Bunny, Quail Mother and Frightened Pheasant
 * Mary Lansing as Aunt Ena, Mrs. Possum, Pheasant
 * Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
 * Otis Harlan as Mr. Mole
 * Marion Darlington as Bird calls
 * Clarence Nash as Bullfrog
 * Stuart Erwinas Tree Squirrel

Music

 * Love is a Song
 * Little April Shower
 * Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song
 * Looking For Romance

Production
Sidney Franklin, a producer and director at MGM films, purchased the film rights to Felix Salten's novel Bambi, A Life in the Woods in 1933, intending to adapt it into 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 working 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. However, the original novel, written for an adult audience, was considered too "grim" and "somber" for the young audience Disney was targeting, and with the work required to adapt the novel, Disney put production on hold while it worked on several other works. 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. Finally, on August 17, 1939, production on Bambi began in earnest, though progressed slowly due to changes in the studio personnel, location, and methodology of handling animation at the time. 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. 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.

The famous art direction of Bambi was due to the influence of Tyrus Wong, a former painter who provided eastern and painterly influence to the backgrounds. 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.

Although there were no humans in the film, live action footage of humans were 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 equaled less than a second of film versus over thirteen seconds.

Although the release of Bambi was an initial financial loss for the studio the animators learned a lot during its production that they'd utilize in future projects.

Animation from Bambi has been reused in several other Disney films, especially footage of birds, leaves and generic woodland. For example, one scene in The Fox and the Hound reused footage of the animals running from the rain in Bambi's “Little April Shower” sequence. The most notable reused footage from Bambi, however, is the few seconds of Bambi's mother looking up from eating grass just before she is killed by the hunter. This footage has been used in hunting scenes in The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book. It is also featured in The Rescuers, during the song "Someone's Waiting For You" and in the opening shot of Beauty and the Beast. Bambi and his mom both appear in a Donald Duck short called "No Hunting", drinking from a stream. Several minor characters from the film also made cameo appearances in other films, for example: the blue bird from the "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" segment appears in Alice in Wonderland, the hunting dogs appear in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and the ducks and quail from the "April Showers" segment appear in The Fox and the Hound.

Release
Bambi was re-released to theaters in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was released on VHS in 1989 (Classics Version), 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and digitally remastered and restored for the March 1, 2005 Platinum Edition DVD. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2007.The Masterpiece Version was the first Disney Video to be THX certified.

Reception
Bambi lost money at the box office for its first release, but recouped its considerable cost during the first re-release in 1947. Although the film received positive reviews, the timing of the release, during World War II, hurt the film's box office numbers. The film didn't 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 Disney 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." What also hurt box office numbers is the realistic animation of the animals, and the story of their fight against Man in the story. Hunters spoke out against the movie, saying it was "an insult to American sportsmen." The criticism, however, was short-lived, and the financial shortfall of its first release was made up multiple times in the subsequent re-releases.

The death of Bambi's mother is one of the most famous moments in American film history, a moment so upsetting to certain children that they had to be carried sobbing from the theater; the scene was even satirized in a Slappy Squirrel segment on Animaniacs, titled "Bumbie's Mom". For this reason, along with Bambi's brutal fight with a rival buck and the horrific climactic hunting/forest fire sequence, many critics question whether Bambi is suitable for very young audiences. It was not until nearly 40 years later before Disney again featured a parent's death in an animated feature, being Tod's mother in 1981's The Fox and the Hound, which was the 24th Disney animated feature. The Lion King, Disney's 32th animated feature, also featured the death of a parent, being Mufasa. Released in 1994, Lion King would be released 52 years after Bambi and 13 years after The Fox and the Hound.

Today, the film is viewed as a classic. 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.

The off-screen villain "Man" has been placed #20 on AFI's List of Heroes and Villains.

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.

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."

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of the critics gave the film a positive review based on 46 reviews.

Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention and controversy
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. In 2006, the Ad Council, in partnership with the United States Forest Service, started a series of Public Service Announcement ads that featured 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.

In March 1989, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan Jr. has criticized the film Bambi for propagating the idea that the best way to manage the forest resources within the U.S. was to fight forest fires. Secretary Lujan Jr. points out that controlled burning is now recognized as more beneficial, and that forest animals, such as Bambi, simply move out of the way of forest fires and, in general, are not killed by them. This is perhaps ironic, but an interesting indicator of changing scientific attitudes, as the U.S. Forest Service originally used Bambi with limited permission from Disney as their charismatic anti-fire mascot before they developed the now-famous Smokey Bear.Of course, since Bambi was made in 1942, before controlled burnings was theorized, most feel the Secretary of the Interior is over thinking the situation.

Sequel
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-video on February 7, 2006. While the film was a direct-to-video release in countries like the United States, Japan, Canana, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was a theatrical release in some countries like the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Australia and some other European countries.

Copyrights
The copyrights for Bambi 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.

Supervising animators

 * Franklin Thomas (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Milton Kahl (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Eric Larson (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Oliver M. Johnston, Jr. (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Ward Kimball (Faline)

Sequence directors

 * James Algar (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Bill Roberts (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Norman Wright (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Sam Armstrong (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Paul Satterfield (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Graham Heid (Bambi and Thumper)
 * Ward Kimball (Faline)