Bambi

Bambi (1942)

After the disappointing Dumbo, a film that was made to be as simple and basic as possible, resulting in a movie lacking in any substance, Disney moved on to Bambi, a film that can quite easily act as a mirror to its predecessor. Bambi is also a simple film, but it is not lacking in substance, it has a depth and heart that was completely missing in Dumbo. While both films feature animal casts and explore the issues of childhood, confidence and motherhood, Bambi does something Dumbo never quite achieves – it grows up. Dumbonever escapes childhood, both the character and the film itself remain childish throughout; everything is loud and colourful, the humour is all extreme slapstick, the characters are one-dimensional cartoons that serve a singular purpose. Bambi could have easily been a cute, silly movie about a clumsy deer and a cast of funny woodland critters, but it is so much more than that; Bambi is a film about life and so, it, along with its protagonist, must live and grow and age. The result is one of Disney’s most mature and interesting films, which takes an honest and not always optimistic view towards life and nature.

The difference between the art style of Dumbo and Bambi is as clear as night and day –Dumbo is vibrant and broad, using a lot of bright colours and lacking any detail in the backgrounds; Bambi is soft and careful, its light, muted colours and picturesque woodland backgrounds are very reminiscent of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This fits the calm and serene feel of the film perfectly and, appropriately, during the few moments of action, the art style changes – the colours become bright and shocking, the backgrounds lacking detail to the point where they are almost scribbled, in order to represent the chaos and confusion of the situation and the inability of the animals to distinguish their surroundings. The animation is fantastic, but once again, controlled; besides the character of the owl, the other characters are mostly restrained in their movements and not as wild or over-the-top as Disney characters tend to be. Again, this is because the film is calmer and slower than most Disney movies – as the central focus of Bambi is the passing of time and aging, it must be allowed to move slowly and carefully, to stop and smell the roses, rather than just rush by. The control in the animation is very impressive, the realism of the animals’ movements, particularly Bambi, who finds difficulty in balancing on his spindly legs and often must awkwardly shift his movement in order to avoid falling over, is quite remarkable indeed; again, the animation is not as lively as usual, but that is a deliberate and appropriate choice. The Disney animators truly show they are masters of their craft, they know exactly what they are doing and when to use each tool at their disposal at the ideal time. 

‘Ask me how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll centre of a Tootsie Pop I fucking DARE you’

The narrative in Bambi is a little difficult to ascertain, on the one hand it is somewhat lacking in any story and is simply just a series of disconnected events, as has been the case in several of the earlier Disney movies, particularly Dumbo; in some ways, Bambiseems to have the weakest narrative of them all. But, of all the Disney films so far, Bambiuses this method best and upon closer inspection, its story is actually a strong and familiar, if subtle one – Bambi is a film about life and all that means. It is about childhood, family, growth, adolescence, friendship, love, fear, death, birth, nature and the circle of life; it captures not just the experiences of wildlife in the forest, but what it truly means to live in this world. The pacing is almost flawless, the film expertly charts an entire generation of life and all that entails in barely over sixty minutes and still manages to seem like it is taking its time. Almost every scene of the film seems impossibly both superfluous and vital, moments such as Bambi learning to talk or ice skate seem irrelevant on their own, but when the film is viewed as a whole, all these moments are revealed to be essential to the overall narrative. The film never forgets what it is about, though it does have a large and exciting climax, it constantly stops to slow down and show us each individual moment of Bambi’s growth along the way. As a result, when the film ends with Bambi a fully grown adult with children of his own, you do not feel cheated; even though the audience has seen Bambi for the first time as a newborn baby only sixty minutes ago, every scene demonstrates him gaining a new experience as he slowly grows and comes to understand life, when the film ends with his growth into an adult, it feels earned. 

The final scene is a perfect end to the story - just as the film started with Bambi’s father, the Great Prince of the Forest, standing atop a hill and watching the birth of his son, the film ends with him stood next to a fully grown Bambi on that same hill as they watch the birth of Bambi’s children. Bambi’s father turns to him and gives him a knowing look, after a few seconds, he turns and walks away; Bambi watches his father leave, then turns and steps forward to take his place atop the hill. In that brief moment, everything is said – the Great Prince’s time has come to an end, new life has been brought into the forest and it is time for Bambi to take his father’s place, the Great Prince looks at Bambi and knows that he is ready. As his father walks away from his throne, Bambi looks back at him, unsure if he really is ready; can he truly replace his father, the great deer who so many respected? Is he really prepared for the responsibility of leadership and fatherhood? After this moment of hesitation, Bambi accepts it is time to move on, he steps forward to claim his place as the new Great Prince of the Forest and the cycle of life continues. All of this is so well communicated in a few moments, with limited animation; no words are needed, we understand everything just from that single glance from father to son. What a beautiful ending to a wonderful film.

‘You think there’s any chance this will happen pretty much all over again in 50 years except with lions instead?’

‘No, that’d be dumb’

The characters occupy a similarly contradictory space of being both simple and complex; on the one hand, the characters are hardly multi-faceted or rounded, but they do experience a great deal of growth and development, they don’t exactly do very much and even the most prominent of the side characters such as Thumper and Flower don’t appear that often throughout the movie, making it seem as if the characters take a backseat to the atmosphere and narrative, yet this is a very character-based movie. It is a difficult situation to put into words, but either way, I feel like the characterisation in Bambi is a lot stronger than in its predecessors. Bambi continues to follow the style of the protagonists before him, for the most part; he is kind-hearted, innocent and naive, mostly led by others and by his environment, on the surface he does not seem to have much depth. But there is something about him that works much better than Dumbo or Pinocchio, again, this success is likely attributed to the fact that Bambi actually ages and grows; the core of what we know to be Bambi is always there, but he does learn and change, not only in appearance but also character – he grows right up until the final scene, where he develops into a confident and responsible leader and father. Again, this final development is revealed to the audience without even using dialogue, demonstrating just how skilled the writers are when it comes to subtle character development. The film charts Bambi’s life and his growth from child to adult, so his character is very important; thankfully, Disney finally succeeded in making an interesting protagonist – Bambi is hardly a complex or challenging hero, but he is at least likeable and reasonably well developed and that in itself is quite a bit better than Disney’s previous attempts at protagonists. 

The other characters are also quite well created, Thumper and Flower realistically capture the attitude and mannerisms of young children and later, they too grow and change like Bambi. Bambi’s mother serves as a guide who teaches Bambi (and the audience) about the forest and helps him develop; she is brimming with kind, soft, maternal love, but is prepared to be firm and serious when she needs to be. The Great Prince of the Forest completely encapsulates the concept of fatherhood and exudes influence, commanding respect but, also, a little fear from his son. The Great Prince barely has three lines of dialogue and so this is mostly achieved by his animation alone, his proud, tall posture and slow, controlled movements; another point to the animators that they can create such a strong character with so little.

Baby wants to thump, baby wants to thump

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the antagonist, if there truly is any at all, is simply man himself – ‘man’ is a terrifying word in the world of Bambi, whenever it is uttered, animals shake and cower. Like the Great Prince, an atmosphere around this “character” is created with so little, even less here, as we never even see or hear man, he is simply a concept; as a faceless villain, man is even more frightening, we never see the face of evil, just its devastating effects. This leads to many tense and honestly, genuinely quite scary moments throughout the film as the animals struggle to survive in spite of their faceless enemy; one in particular that left an impression on me is when a group of birds are hiding in the tall grass to avoid the hunters. One bird grows progressively more and more frightened that the hunters will find them and decides to make a break for it and fly away, the other birds try to warn it not to, as the hunter will surely spot and shoot it if it goes out into the open; the other bird seems to know this is true, but is too frightened to listen to reason. The situation is tense to the point of being suffocating and the sense of fear and claustrophobia continues to grow thanks to the building rhythm of the music, three strong chords that come faster and faster as man inches closer and closer. You really feel the desperation of that bird, which is slowly driven mad by its fear, finally crying ‘I can’t stand it any longer!’ before it flies away and is of course, shot. The scene is honestly quite horrific and almost feels like it’s out of a horror movie; if the central theme of Bambi is life and growth, then man represents the opposite: death and destruction. 

This leads to the darkest and most pessimistic moments of Bambi, and there are a few besides this one; Bambi is mostly lacking in the whimsy and magic of the earlier Disney films, while still hopeful and sweet by all means, it is far more serious and grounded and so, does not shy away from tragedy. The most famous of these moments is the death of Bambi’s mother; Bambi has little time to mourn for her, there are no last words and no final goodbye, she dies unceremoniously off-screen and Bambi is simply told by his father (quite coldly, I might add) ‘Your mother can’t be with you any more.’ The harsh reality of this scene is shocking to see in a Disney movie and at the time a great deal of audiences and critics rejected it, but I believe this  is a naive attitude; to fully serve Bambi’s theme as a story about life, the film must acknowledge the seemingly senseless tragedies that populate it. In life, not everything that happens is fair or righteous, we do not always get to say goodbye, no-one gets to live forever and some die long before their time; Bambi is mature enough to accept these truths, grim as they may be, and refuses to shy away from them, it has a sense of integrity about its portrayal of woodland life and so rejects the idea of sugar coating it. For this, I have a great deal of respect; clearly, despite the success ofSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney had not quite shaken off the misconception that animation was “kid’s stuff” and continued to rail against audiences who refused to accept maturity and realism in an animated film. Perhaps it is not the death of Bambi’s mother that repulsed audiences, but rather, the fact that we are responsible for it; Bambiholds a mirror up to its audience, it shows how destructive man can be towards nature and for reasons as petty as sport. I don’t know if Disney intended to explicitly criticise hunting here, or was simply trying to fairly acknowledge all aspects of a deer’s life, including the fact that hunters are a constant danger they must face. Either way, the film’s depiction of man is a strong and fearless one and I certainly don’t think it would be unreasonable to take the film’s message as, at the very least, a request for us to take a look at ourselves and consider being a little more respectful towards life and nature.

Who would have thought Birdemic 3 would actually be scary?

The film is, unfortunately, a little let down by its music; though the orchestral score is good and used well, with the rhythm of the music often matching Bambi’s movements and creating a fitting atmosphere for each scene, the songs fall pretty flat. I’m not so sureBambi needed songs, but I suppose Disney felt obliged to make it a musical, as this is what they were known for; this leaves the few songs it does have feeling a little out of place. “Little April Showers” is a pretty nice song, nothing special but it’s at least quite fun to listen to; I think there are only about two other songs in the film and I honestly can’t remember how they go at all, they are very uninspired, don’t have much to do with the plot and hardly feel necessary. If I had to guess, I’d say the songs are possibly supposed to encapsulate the feeling of each season and represent the progression from one to the next and set an atmosphere for the next section of the film, but if this is their intent, I don’t think they are particularly successful. It hardly ruins the movie or anything, but this is pretty disappointing and does affect my view of the film as a whole, if only by a little; like I said, I would have preferred if there simply had been no songs at all, rather than this, but what can you do.

I’m out of dumb jokes so here’s a picture of a baby skunk awwwwww you guys it’s so cute you guys awwww

Bambi is a film without agenda or bias, only truth – it strives to portray life as accurately as possible, from its happiest moments to its harshest and in my mind, it more than achieves its goal. There is a quiet dignity to Bambi, it is not loud, flashy or showy, it does not need larger-than-life characters, goofy slapstick, silly songs or extreme animation to hold your attention; that is not to say that Disney films that use these things are bad, or even thatBambi is the best of them all, there is just something I respect about its ability to stand on its simple story alone, without any crutches. It may not be the most exciting or complex of the Disney films, but it doesn’t need to be, it is elegant in its simplicity and never cheapens itself or betrays its intent. Bambi is ultimately a story of maturity and so, aptly, it stands proudly as one of the most mature films that Disney has ever produced.

Other Thoughts

• One rare misstep that really pulls you out of the movie is that after the incredibly dark and sad scene where Bambi’s mother dies and he walks off with his father, it just transitions to this incredibly bright and happy song about birds in love! The transition is actually so ridiculously jarring its hilarious.

‘Well I guess I have to accept that my mother’s dead, years of grief and mourning await me as I try to make sense of this meaningless trage- OH LOOK BIRDIES YAAAAY’

• I don’t know why but this is the funniest thing in the world to me.

The most amazing shot in film history

8/10