Bambi

'Bambi gets better with age'

Disney has a long lineage of excellent 2D animated films that have all become essentially classics for the more modern generations. Thus it was sad when during Eisner's run of disney he announced the closing of Disney's animated 2-D theatrical studios in favor of going 3-D only. Then they lost Pixar temporarily, Chicken Little was released with very little likability, Eisner was fired but before leaving started a whole campaign of terrible sequels to prevous classics, Pixar was rehired to Disney, and now there is hope of Lasseter convincing Disney to reopen it's 2-D studios once again. It has already been announced that he has convinced them to start doing opening shorts for theatrical releases again. Unfortunately, the sequel campaign is still in effect churning out mediocre to terrible sequels for great films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. With a sequel for Bambi to be released soon, I felt the time was right for reviewing this classic I hadn't seen since I was 6.

My best memories of Bambi include the well-known plot points of a mother's death, a stern father, sharp and at times dark animation style and something about a furry rabbit named Thumper. After having gone out and bought the recently released 2 disc version by Disney before it went back to 'The Vault', I would have to say that there are many things about this film that are highly original, inventive, and interesting in today's light of japanime inspired animation. Upon watching the film I discovered that what I had remembered as a dark animation style was really due to an inventive way of filming the animation. The film was released in 1942 and it takes a lot of influence from real-life filming techniques. They would set up cut outs of the trees a certain distance apart and light them dimly so that the focus would be on the background where Bambi might be with his mother. Next, they would slide the camera to give the impression of walking sideways through the forest and giving the forest a depth that would be incredibly hard to capture in a traditionally all animated sequence. in this manner they were able to give depth, focus, and a sense of living to the storytelling of the camera that creates an amazing voyeuresque feel of Bambi's life. In reality the film is not that dark at all with the animated characters having very little in the way of animated shadows. All of the animated characters and open meadows scenes are well-lit and contain very cherub like animals that are cute and capture even the most stalwart warriors attention. Another odd thing about this film is in the broad range and openended feel fo the story. The story is not a traditional storyin that there seems to be very little beginning and ending to it. It takes place over three sections of Bambi's life, his birth, his teen years, and then as an adult at the very end. The point is to primarily show slices of life in a possible deer's life. Yes, the film has ridiculously overt tones of save the animals, forest, deer, etc thrown into it. But what is perhaps the most interesting and controversial part of the film is the inclusion of a male metrosexual skunk. Now, metrosexual is still a fairly new term and here is how I define it, a male that exhibits traits or characteristics in behavior that are typically attributed to homosexuals but is not a homosexual. In case you were wondering, the skunk's name is Flower and has big pretty eyes. When Flower first appeared onscreen, I couldn't believe that Disney would show a homosexual in a cartoon film in 1942. It was later rectified by Flower being the first of the three young teen trio to trot away after a girl, thus keeping to the conventional guidelines and being a point of hope for all homophobic parents afraid that their kids enjoy smelling flowers too much too often. The other most impressive part of the film is the excellent music and score by Edward H. Plumb and how well the music is perfectly timed with the animation onscreen. This is even more impressive given the limited equipment and capabilities of the time in which the film was made. The lack of a traditional plot centered around one thing makes the movie a moving opus in honor of the animals of the forest for kids and adults to enjoy at the same time. The only problem is without that traditional easy to follow storyline, the film requires a greater attention span than I had at times, much less kids today raised on the terrible likeness of Dragon Ball Z or Yu-Gi-Oh.

Conclusion:
The film is a marked contrast and seems very different in a refreshing sense to modern day animation. The simple production techniques created for the film add a certain depth and awe to the film that is hard to obtain in todays more mainstream slick market. The characters are all lovable and the growth in the characters throughout the three stages of life are wonderful. The sound and music of the film work perfectly in time wih the animation and there are even entire sequences added that could be short music videos. The topics and ideas covered either overtly or invertly are much more broad and interesting than most Disney films following this one and really surprising given its age. My only concern is the amount of attention necessary to watch the film due its wandering and epic storyline of forest creatures. That and the fact that it was the last real animated feature by the great director David Hand who died in 1986. I don't know why he didn't make any other animated films, but the loss of more of his work is beyond sad since this film holds up so well after all the years. In case you were wondering, he also made Snow White.

4.5 out of 5

Wannabe