Bambi 2 - Bambi e il grande principe della foresta

Once upon a time...Walt Disney made timeless, beautifully animated classics for children, stressing the universal quality of the tale, and avoiding current references, cheap laughs (such as having animals fart) and in-jokes directed at adults. Well, folks, this wonderful films is a throwback to those days--its a grand, if often poignant, adventure in the woods, as Bambi learns to be courageous with the help of Thumper and Flower (back again, the former with four sweet, giggling sisters) and with his father.

This is, indeed, more a film for the present (since Mommy was taken away in the original) a Sonny-Daddy bonding movie, but the animation is gloriously anachronistic, carefully hearkening back to the classic Disney look, immersing the viewers, be they children or adults, in the luxurious changing seasons, all the while telling a solid story.

Some folks complain it isn't long enough, which I think is just another indication that we have become overstuffed and incredibly greedy--the original Bambi was a minute shorter than this, Dumbo just above an hour, and even Snow White only ten minutes longer. Do we need to SuperSize everything? Bravo Disney! If you had called this Prince Bambi instead of Bambi II, it would have cleaned up at the box office! Sensitive adults are advised to bring hankies.

I'm sure everyone can remember the first time they saw Bambi, I'm also sure that most of you have cried while watching Bambi, it's one of Disney's most touching films. So I got to see Bambi 2, while normally we have a million Disney sequels that are major disappointments, but Bambi 2 surprised me, it was very well done and was nicely put together. I really enjoyed the animation, the voices, the story, they were really lovely. The one flaw that comes into sequels is how different the voices are from the previous film, despite that you can still notice a difference, Bambi 2 fits the voices very well for the characters. I also enjoyed this new chapter into Bambi's life as he is learning how to become a prince, but still holding onto his childhood and his favorite friends.

Bambi is having a hard time, his father has to take care of him but his father also has no respect for him since Bambi isn't as brave as he is. Bambi will do anything to just get his father's respect, with the help of some old friends like Thumper and Flower, he'll try his best to over come his fear and be a brave prince. But he's got a new enemy, a mean fawn, Ronno, who constantly teases him about his flaws. Bambi is also having to learn how to grieve the death of his mother and make sure that he doesn't meet the same fate as she did.

Bambi 2 is a definite recommendation, it's a different Disney sequel than I've ever seen because it seems like this one could have been in the theaters. It's very well done and just a total pleasure to watch, wither it's by yourself or with the family. I loved the return of Thumper, it's always a pleasure to see him on screen, I loved when he was trying to show Bambi's father that Bambi could be brave, but Bambi needed more time, so Thumper does his best to distract Bambi's dad, it was so cute and funny. This was a good movie to watch, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

7/10

This is another case of the sequel not being quite as good as the original. But don't take that as meaning that this film is bad because it was actually a pleasant surprise. For a sequel, from Disney, this actually hit the spot quite nicely.

This sequel returns all the original characters from the first one and they all play off each other nicely. I am partial to these movies because I live in Wisconsin where deer hunting is part of our culture but this one is still a cute movie(I really wish we'd get a look at the hunters in these movies though!). It has everything that successful Disney movies have with the smooth animation, decent storytelling and the occasional tug at your heart strings. I can think of many worse ways to spend 70 minutes of your time. I, as an adult, enjoyed this film but if you have kids this is a great one for them too. If animation doesn't bother you, give this one a shot!

I honestly wasn't expecting Bambi 2 to be as good as it was. I found it it sweet, funny and adorable. The original Bambi is not only one of my favourite Disney movies, but one of my favourite movies ever. I thought this a very worthy sequel, well it was more of a midquel really, if a tad rushed in places. I liked the fact that they focused on Bambi and his father, after his mother dies, and the story itself was very sweet and well crafted. The animation was beautiful here, not quite as splendid as its predecessor. I have seen sequels like FernGully 2 and Secret of NIMH 2 where the animation is dull, tacky and choppy. Here it was colourful, vibrant and fluid, just look at the wondrous backgrounds. And I absolutely loved the soundtrack, that alone contributed to the film's charm. Of course I do slightly prefer the original's music, but the soundtrack here was so pleasant to the ears. The characters were every bit as likable as they were in the first- Bambi if you forgive the fact his facial expressions were overdone at times, was still adorable and appealing, and Thumper is hilarious. If there is one thing I prefer over the original, it is that the sequel is funnier than the original. The original, while having some very funny moments was more of a tearjerker and a genuine one it was too. In the sequel, there are five or six funny bits in the first fifteen minutes alone. The voice acting was most impressive, special mention must go to Patrick Stewart, who was perfect as the Great Prince. My final verdict is that it isn't quite as good as the stunning original, but along with King Of Thieves and Enchanted Christmas, this is in the top 5 of my favourite sequels. A solid 8/10 Bethany Cox

Well, kiddies......... those horrific visions I had of Bambi, Thumper and Flower line-dancing in their ghetto-rap outfits with some knuckle-headed "Poptart" caterwauling in the background were all for naught. I'm not gonna give away all the goodies-would'nt be fair to all my fellow "Mousies" to spew out any spoilers- but I can tell you this......aside from a few issues that sorta chapped my inner child, this is simply the best DTV that "The House of Mouse" has ever released. The animation is every bit as good as a lot of the recent theatrical films , with beautifully rendered background art and an overall "Technicolor" look that was for the most part quite dazzling .........and how about them voices? I gotta admit the casting is excellent.

Story-wise, well....that's one of the things that I still ain't all that thrilled about . Despite having been "kiddiefied" from a book that was essentially written for adults, the original "Bambi" was still a wonderful film that catered to both ends of the age spectrum, a talent that Uncle Walt had in spades. This midquel is squarely aimed at the lunchbox-tetherball set to the point that unless you're a complete animation nut like yours truly, you might find one or two scenes a bit too cloyingly ooky to your liking. Still, it's heads and tail above any of the previous DTV "Twosies" and even a few of the "Feature" flicks released over the past 15 years, and I honestly think it's gonna do quite well.

One other bone of contention I have however, are the songs.Granted, they used a few snippets from the original's score, but all the stuff produced exclusively for the current film was your typically weak, formula-laden "contemporary" numbers that are so cookie-cutter bland that you can't even distinguish one from the other. That was one of the most wonderful things about the first movie ...even more than sixty years after it's release, the songs were so well written that they sound just as good now as they did then. Sad to say, it's gonna "date" the film in a most unflattering way. Second b.o.c. I have is in regards to some of the character animation ie: Ronno, the porcupine and the groundhog, especially Ronno. Pretty average design that clashes terribly with the rest of the animation and the exactly the sort of quality you come to expect from a DTV.As said, the rendering of "Bullyboy"Ronno was the worst...at times his looked like they'd been lifted straight from "Balto III".....not impressive in the least. On the other side of the coin, The Great Prince looked gorgeous as did the other deer.......Friend Owl was drawn absolutely spot on, though Thumper and Flower did look nice they still did'nt look quite enough like their original incarnations to retain all their charms. As for Bambi himself, well.......let's just say that 90% was beautifully done, but unfortunately the animators' attempts to "modernize" his facial expressions in a lot of his scenes failed quite miserably and were very disappointing. Despite it's flaws, it's still better than all the previous Disneytoon releases and well worth at least one watch.