Quote:
Originally Posted by Ernest Rister
The charm of childhood gives way to flat out terror, death and violence, while visual poetry is mixed in throughout the film. There are comedic and romantic sequences, but they're there in counterpoint balance. Bambi himself gets shot. It's an odd thing people block out the fright and violence in the film, and seem to only recall fawns and bunnies and skunks. Dialog is held to a bare minimum, and even then, Walt felt there was still too much dialog and wished they had cut the dialog down even more and relied more on the acting, movement, and visuals to carry the picture.
Bambi II is a gab-fest, and not exactly inspired gab at that.
Sorry, I'm very protective of that film. I think Pinocchio is the best of the Walt animated features, but I'd tag Bambi as number two in a death match with Fantasia. Walt himself felt he was never going to top Snow White, so tried different things, and those first five animated features are a wonder. Bambi pushed limits in what audiences would accept in animated drama -- in one instance, they went too far and boarded a sequence where Bambi and the Great Prince come across the dead body of a hunter killed in the forest fire. It stayed in the film in storyboard fashion through the first assembly which was previewed for the studio employees, and when the shot appeared, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said "500 people shot straight into the air". Walt cut the scene. Never animated, but the boards exist. Walt was holding true to his statement that he wasn't making movies for children, he was making movies for audiences.
You can't compare Bambi II to anything like that. Bambi II *is* a film made for a demographic, like many of the direct-to-video titles. They're the equivalent of made-for-tv animated babysitters. ("Kiddo, we have to do our taxes, here's Lady and the Tramp II. Now sit here and watch the puppy and be quiet for 80 minutes...")
Maybe I'm just being intractable, but if you have the balls to make a sequel to Bambi -- one that is supposed to take place in the middle of the original film -- brother, you better bring it.
"A young prince does not say...woo-hoo."
Ugh...*click!*
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This is a pretty good defense, on the opposite end with me Bambi was never really one of my all time favorites, so the sequel didn't bother me quite so much. I do stand by what I said about it being the best looking of the direct-to-video sequels though. Both films are in reality gorgeous. I suppose I'm a tad more lenient
Let's be kinda honest, Bambi 2 isn't really all sunshine and lollipops and cutesy for its entire length. I guess I'll spoiler this even though both films are several years old.
[Show spoiler] It features its own moments of darkness. I mean the sequel opens right after the events of his mom's death, there's the entire sequence where he hears what he believes to be his mother calling him out in an open field, only for it to be a deer call and having dogs chase him, a doe almost falling victim to said dogs with the dogs then hunting Bambi in tall grass ala The Lost World: Jurassic Park, of all things. Plus open for interpretation but Bambi also technically kicks one of those dogs to its death (the other dies too). They may not compare to the originals death of Bambi's mother, the forest fire or the one bird being shot down, but the darkness is there, especially in that deer call scene.
Plus, around the first time I watched Bambi in the 90s, I also read the book Bambi...and that book is a lot more traumatic. I've actually never revisited the book for that reason, however I vividly remember the hunter's body in the book. I had to look it up just now to confirm it, but that whole sequence is in the book.
Edit: Looking back, it seems that Bambi 2 took things from the book as well, the hunter's call in particular.
Anywhoooooooooo, come November, I will become pretty much addicted to Disney Plus.