User Reviews

If you talk to anyone about what film messed them up mentally as a child, Bambi is a guarantee to be in that list. Who hasn't named this film as one of the saddest movies of all time? The funny thing is, this is a children's movie! It's made by Disney! I'm convinced that Disney had to tear us down just so they could build us back up, my goodness, we are Disney Marines! Bambi is one of the training videos to make us tough, because if you can make it through this film without crying that proves that you have no heart and are dead inside. Bambi despite being one of the saddest movies of all time still has a lot of heart and is one of the best in the Disney classics. With it's beautiful animation, charming characters and breathtaking story this is a movie that no one should miss.

In a forest thicket, a doe gives birth to a fawn whom she names Bambi. After he learns to walk, Bambi befriends Thumper, a young rabbit; then, while learning to talk, Bambi meets a young skunk whom he calls "Flower". After Bambi has completely learned how to talk, his mother takes him to the meadow, a place that is both wonderful and frightening. Bambi's mother warns him that deer are unprotected in the meadow as there are no trees or bushes to hide them, so they must take great care for their own safety. Bambi and his mother go to the meadow and discover a patch of new grass, as they eat, his mother senses a hunter and orders Bambi to flee. As they run, gun shots ring out. When Bambi arrives at their thicket, he discovers his mother is no longer with him. He grows up and learns the way of surviving being an adult deer.

I do have one small problem with the film, after the tragic scene where Bambi's father tells him that his mother can no longer be with him indicating that she's dead, you're tearing up painfully and then all of a sudden it cuts to this wonderful magical music with birds and flowers! What kind of a mind screw is that?! "Be sad, be painfully sad, you are so sad that you want to fill an ocean with your tears of sadness…NOW BE HAPPY", I just don't get that part. However all that aside, Bambi is still a good Disney film, but it is a hard one to watch. I still think kids are a lot stronger than adults give them credit for, like I said, this movie may be a tear jerker, but it's a wonderful story of friendship and coming of age. Disney doesn't hold back when it comes to delivering a good message, bad things do happen, but we can still be a good person and live life like it was meant too. I recommend Bambi to anyone, it's a good movie with a lot of heart, just have a box of tissues ready when you watch it.

8/10

As yet another film my aunt had on VHS, we took some time this morning to view it. I was expecting plenty from a film I hadn't seen for almost 13 years, but I did believe it would hold up. So what do I think?

I have to admit that this film did confuse me a bit with its scripting choices, such as the utilization of "twitterpated" to describe undeniable infatuation. For some reason, it felt slightly mature for Disney to make that choice, although we already had Pleasure Island and drunken hallucinations in the 2 preceding films of what I would call the Nativity era of Disney (or, the first 5 years before their 7 years of packages). I liked the acting and did find some of the humor to work, but I noticed that some parts of the film, such as a few scenes with Thumper and/or his sisters, were a tad too mean-spirited. One of the biggest disappointments of this film was the death of Bambi's mother; while it is indeed an emotional scene, it abruptly cuts away to Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song. I can understand how Disney thought that perhaps audiences might not desire such melancholy in the middle of WWII, but it was really distracting and overall was not done well as a death scene. I do have to say one good thing about it, though, in that it was a mistake I found Disney improved significantly upon 39 years later. The animation is above and beyond the standards of the Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry-infused 1942, with particularly fluid animations for the fire and also the perfect balance in the scenery between colorful and subdued. It was a sight to look at. Aside from the main song being the improper way to respond to one of the more iconic death scenes in Disney movies, I did overall think the music was above passable.

I am sure that children and their grandparents would appreciate this movie, although they'll probably take the death of Bambi's mother and how it is cut away much harder than I did. For the common viewer, it's overall worth your time for its animation, music, and humor. I'll say it is definitely the right kind of film to conclude an era of actual movies.

Released 10 months after Dumbo in 1942, Bambi ends the Golden Era, with a bunch of Package films that would take up the rest of the decade.

This film is about a newborn deer (Bambi) learning the basics of life, and experiencing the triumphs and tribulations of the life of a deer (like man hunting deer and other animals) until adulthood.

The characters in Bambi are not humanized animals, like in other Disney films. Bambi is the young, naive deer who has to get taught how to survive, and becomes a mature man in the end. His friends (the skunk and rabbit) are cute and supportive friends. His mother is a wise deer.

The characters do not burst into song, and I don't believe that there are any songs, just an amazing score. The animation is top notch, and the best of the era; you feel like you are in the forest, and there is so much detail. This film is not ranked higher because the cutesy scenes drag on for too long, and you can easily tune out at times.

I you want to watch a short, beautiful nature film, this is the film to watch.

Hard to believe that "Bambi" is already 70 years old and yet no other pieces of animation ever came close to it. You can mention "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King", any Disney's acclaimed masterpiece, still, nothing can beat the good old animation drawn by hand and on that level, watching "Bambi" is like admiring the 'Mona Lisa' of Animation. The American Film Institute recognized "Bambi" as number three in its Top Ten Animated films right after "Pinocchio" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". I guess, the pioneer deserved the top spot if only because without "Snow White", there wouldn't have been "Bambi".

And the progresses made between the two films are tremendous; look closer to the animal designs, in the former they look like animated creatures from short cartoons, while "Bambi" doesn't focus only on aesthetics but also on scientific exactitude. The film doesn't forget to be simply Animation, but the realism of the landscape, the drawing, everything makes it hard to believe that it was made only five years after "Snow White". "Bambi" is a tribute for the inspiring level of perfectionism that elevated its animated movies at the same level of Hollywood's greatest masterpieces, it's a tribute to Disney's ambitions as a true film-maker, as he never took anything for granted. Every successful film was an encouragement for making a better one and after "Bambi", it was naturally impossible to make something better. It's not surprising that the film closes what we refer now as Disney's Golden Age.

I don't want to make "Bambi" sound only like a technical achievement, after all, even as a kid, my eyes and my heart were grabbed by the story. But now, as a grown-up, more familiar with today's animated films, I see "Bambi" with constant marveled eyes, I can turn off the sound and never cease to be amazed by how it look, or I could close my eyes and simply let myself transported by the music. "Bambi" would never work today, because animated films are marketed for a different audience, eager to see fast-paced action, hilarious sidekicks, lager- than-life villains and catchy songs. These are the must of Animated films and it's interesting to note that "Bambi" handle these elements with a sober maturity that would put most kids to sleep now. I can't believe I'm saying this, me who is 40 years younger than the film.

"Bambi" was made in a time where people had a reason to see movies that was beyond the idea of entertainment. Audiences wanted to be transported in another dimension and to be emotionally engaged, their eyes marveled by a dreamlike world that transcends the banality of their life. Just look at the beginning of "Bambi", certainly the most haunting of all Disney overtures. From the first frames, it feels like a camera is filming a forest, it's a long traveling shot in a foggy, misty, dark setting we would never leave until the end. The audience is respectfully invited to penetrate the world of Bambi, quietly discreetly, until the first animals wake up to see the New Prince, then we follow them with excitement. "Bambi"'s opening sequence echoes the beginning of "The Lion King" in a much more intimate way, and when we discover the newborn Bambi sleeping beneath his Mother, we share the same impression than the animals.

In many ways, "Bambi" reminds of "The Lion King" and vice versa, but while "The Lion King" was a sort of Disney take on typical Shakespearian themes, "Bambi" doesn't embarrass itself with a specific plot, but for me, what has often been pointed out as a flaw happens to be the film's most defining force. "Bambi" doesn't tell a story because "Bambi"s main protagonist is not Bambi, but Time, Time is as present as Man although both can't be seen, and the whole film consist for us to witness the passing of time in Bambi's. Bambi is the central character but not the core of the film, which helped to deal with a story without needing pointless foils. His best friends, Thumper and Flower are real friends not supporting sidekicks. "Bambi" is a movie about time, inviting us to contemplate time's effect on animals, nature. The way each season is portrayed through music and colors is simply magical.

And "Bambi" ends just like it started, it's indeed the 'circle of life' with a scope so large that we can't even talk of a coming-of-age story: from the beginning, Bambi learns how to walk, to talk, he discovers this strange feeling we call love. And the toughest lesson the Prince of the Forest had to face is the one forever engraved in the traumatized minds of generations of children and adults. "Bambi" doesn't have a plot, which makes every piece of action absolutely powerful. After the first entrance of Man that interrupted the deer's ballet, there is one 'bang' that warns us about his presence. And when the Mother, who tutored Bambi for the two thirds of the film, feels Man's presence, she immediately covers her son by running behind him. The last shot of Bambi jumping followed by the fatal sound is one of the most brutal, shocking and admirably powerful displays of violence in a film, and the sadness that comes after the beautiful sacrifice is impossible to describe.

This is the most disturbing death in a Disney film, and probably in any film, a necessary pivotal device in 'coming-of-age' stories but never equaled with this intensity. Disney created a villain even scarier because he was off-screen and his presence only identifiable with an ominous theme, doesn't that ring a bell to you, cinematic fans? Well, I guess no one can review "Bambi" without evoking the most characteristic and memorable part of the film, but needless to say that "Bambi" is more than that, a unique experience to be enjoyed because there would never be another film like it...

this was my favourite film as a child and i watched it over and over again then.. it's still one of my favourites and i reckon it's the best of the classic Disney animated films.. the music just evokes so much emotion and my favourite bit is when Bambi roams in the woods with Faline, coz it just makes ya wished ya found the girl u're meant to be with.. the characters, scenes are drawn so beautifully, u wish they'd go back to that classical style again once in a while coz it's just so beautiful.. what is so memorable is the way the transition of the seasons is depicted, from the birth of Bambi in the spring, and then being in the meadow in the summer, the leaves falling in autumn, the struggles through the cold of winter, finding love in spring..

i wish they'd revert back to this classical format of animation coz u do get sick of the CGI based animated films of the present which really tend to focus more on the CGI rather than the story itself.. whilst there have been some great ones like Shrek, Chicken Run, Toy Story, A Bugs Life, i find the others have been just monotonous.. and really nothing like this classic..

watch Bambi if ya wanna have shed a little tear abt youth.. or finding love.. or the beauty of life..