Bambi

This film is receiving a lot of bad reviews on this website. WHY? "The cover will gather dust" indeed! Not while I'm around!

Anyway, this famous and popular film is about a little fawn/calf (young red deer are called calves and he might be a red deer) called Bambi, who is learning to live in the forest with his mother and two main friends to play with, Thumper and Flower. Also, Bambi is not just any fawn/calf. He's the young prince! Will he manage to take his rightful place as great prince of the forest?

I love and have loved this film for about 90% of my life. It is a beautiful classic, has stunning animation, a good story and I love all of the characters, except for the baddie dogs at the end. They are the only baddies you see on screen - and I like that.

So if you haven't watched this classic, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THEN? Watch it, you're guaranteed to love it! :) ;) :()

The characters and story from Walt Disney's adaptation of "Bambi" still hold up as well as they ever did. The animation, likewise, still looks very attractive and detailed. It's understandable if the animation in itself doesn't strike everyone now as being particularly impressive, given the many recent achievements in animation, but in itself it is an excellent job with the resources of its time. It all makes for an appealing and thoughtful classic that is still well worth seeing.

The main characters are well-chosen, especially Bambi himself and the always-engaging Thumper. Some of the best scenes are simply those of the various animal friends playing together – the scene of Thumper and Bambi on the ice being perhaps the most endearing of all. The change of seasons is used to great effect, both aesthetically and in advancing the story and its themes.

It's pretty interesting to contrast "Bambi" with "The Lion King", by no means to decide which is 'better', but rather to take note of the slightly different ways in which they handle some very similar material. Both present the story of a young animal 'prince', the way he explores and learns about his world, and the ways that he must adjust to the tragedies and challenges of adulthood. There are also a number of other interesting similarities. Bambi is at once the more innocent, yet also the more somber of the two.

One very interesting difference is that the greatest threats in "Bambi" come from humans, who are wholly external to the world of the characters, and over whose actions the animals have no control, whereas in "The Lion King" the threats and conflicts are all amongst the animal characters themselves. Both movies deserve to be ranked among the very best animated features of their eras, so there's no need to prefer one over the other – it can just make for even more interesting viewing to notice how these differences help to give each of the two movies its distinctive character.

"Bambi" is the kind of movie that can stick in your mind for many years, especially if you first saw it when young. The characters and many of their adventures make it very appealing, often even adorable, and yet it also portrays some of the most serious (and frightening) things that can happen in the lives of the young. It's a fine movie that accomplishes a lot, and it has held up quite well over the years.

I was staying over at the home of my three-year old niece; after everyone had gone to bed, I found and popped this title in the VCR. I had only a rough familiarity with the plot (like everyone, I knew Bambi's mother gets killed) and was also aware that "Bambism" has been used as describing a overly sentimental love of wildlife.

Oh wow. I found that while this movie certainly has a heart for its characters, it is not at all sugarcoated about the realities of animal life. Consider the following points it makes:

1) Animals do not live in nuclear families. Bambi lives with his mother only, his presumptive father is off in the background.

2). Animals often go hungry in the winter.

3). Male animals must be prepared to fight rivals as a prelude to mating.

4). Man (here assisted by canine lackeys) is easily the most dangerous threat creatures face.

Rather than putting a Hollywood gloss on animal life, "Bambi" if anything is better than what would be made today. Remember that the same studio recently put Hercules into a doting nuclear family, the actual circumstances of the hero's birth apparently thought too scandalous for contemporary children to be exposed to (though one presumes ancient Greek children handled them well enough).

Plus when you consider that a large sector of the populace takes a "humanity couldn't possibly be at fault" attitude toward the decimation of animal populations, you know that Point 4). above would today be softpedaled if not entirely neutralized by the addition of sympathetic human characters. Look what happened with the otherwise excellent TBS production of "Animal Farm."

And the animation!! The gorgeous, pencil-drawn Impressionistic renditions of the rhythms of the woodlands makes you wonder if modern animators haven't been spoiled by computer graphics. I'm only sorry I probably won't ever see this film in a theatre, as it was meant to be seen.

As cliche as it may sound, this is a timeless film for all ages. I cannot praise it highly enough.

Blissful, playful, moving and inspiring, Walt Disney's "Bambi" is a precious jewel that will last longer than most of us will. Indeed, it has a timeless quality, matched with a charming music score and wonderful character voices. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker poked fun at the voice-changes when the infant animals grow up over winter (sort of a puberty-in-the-thicket), but what other way was there to show the passage of time and how it changes everything, even the woodland creatures we take for granted? It's an amazing achievement. The song score never elicited a hit the size of, say, "When You Wish Upon a Star", but it does feature the sprightly "Little April Showers", which underscores the very best sequence. ***1/2 from ****

People frequently say that the death of Bambi's mother is the scene most people cry in. You would have to be to be incredibly shallow and insensitive not to cry. Its a pretty good test of a person and I am so pleased that all these years later I still blubbered like a baby. Bambi looks wonderful and time has treated Walt's favourite film very well.Visually the movie is stunning. All the more remarkable in that it was made in 1942. The scenes of the animals in the meadow enjoying the airy freedom away from the safety of the forest lifts your spirits; it is just beauitiful. The music is brilliant and that rain drop song with the beautiful visuals is a glorious moment in film making. Indeed all the music is wondrous; the score for the fire is rich and exciting. The characters are wonderful. I love the much malinged American skunk, a truly remarkable little creature.I love Flower but Thumper is worthy of the recognition he has got over the years as one of Walt's greatest creations. There are so many wonderful scenes in the film. I love the raindrop scene, the parade and introduction of the stags. Bambi's father is a great creation, almost spiritual. The movie never speaks down to children and the final scene as Bambi's dad disappears is so gracious and beautiful. I love the images in the courting of Bambi and his girl friend. Bambi is a love story and its impossible not to be touched by this magical story. It has always struck me as odd how any one could kill or shoot wild animals and call it sport. Such people are obviously mentally unstable and certainly uncivilised. I dream of a day that recreational hunters get what they deserve. They are the most unworthy people on the planet.Bambi is a lesson in life and its a film that will live for ever as a masterful example of great animation. I really prefer it to the Pixar of today.