Bambi (1942) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

 Title: Bambi
Year: 1942
Director  James Algar
Country: US
Language: English

Despite the enormous success of  Walt Disney's first feature Snow White (1937) the company struggled financially during the 1940s.  Fantasia and Pinocchio were failures at the box office and while Dumbo did give them a little bit of a boost, ultimately WWII really hit them where it hurt. While Bambi is well regarded as a Disney classic now, it didn't make enough for Disney to consider making more features during the war, which is why it would be their last full-length film till Cinderella in 1950.

 Bambi is a young deer hailed as the 'Prince of the Forest' at his birth. As Bambi grows, he makes friends with the other animals of the forest, learns the skills needed to survive, and even finds love.To survive as an adult he must learn to be as brave as his father. 

Deviating heavily from its original source material, a 1923 Austrian novel called Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Bambi takes you on an emotional roller-coaster as you watch one of the most frightening/sad scenes in animation and then are treated to a cute skunk named Flower. For this picture the animators used simple soft watercolor imagery and background, mainly to make each character stand out from its environment. It's perhaps the best animation Disney has made since their conception. 

Disney animators spent a year studying and drawing deer and fawns to perfect the look of Bambi and his parents and friends. Deer are notoriously difficult to humanize because of their face structure, but thankfully all that studying paid off. Each character is quite easy to relate to; it isn't difficult to understand their world from their perspective. My only complaint is that the run-time is a bit too short. Bambi would have had greater emotional impact if it had the time to go a slower pace and allowed more dramatic moments to resonate with the audience. 

Bambi is a classic that I would not hesitate to show a younger generation. It doesn't have shaky morals (such as The Little Mermaid) and isn't scary enough to scar your kids for life (donkey scene in Pinnochio) It's a very touching film that is quite memorable.