|Directed by||Supervising director|
|Produced by||Walt Disney|
|Story by||Story direction|
|Music by||Paul J. Smith (score)|
Edward H. Plumb (orchestration)
|Distributed by||RKO Radio Pictures|
Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama movie. David Hand was the head director (he was in charge of other directors). Walt Disney made the movie. It is based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. RKO Radio Pictures sent the movie to theatres on August 13, 1942. It is the fifth movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story is about a baby deer named Bambi. He learns to grow up in the wild after hunters shoot his mother. The main characters are Bambi (a mule deer) his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his mother), and his friends: Thumper (a rabbit), Flower (a skunk), and Faline (who becomes his wife later).
For the movie, Disney changed Bambi to a mule deer. In the book, Bambi was a Roe Deer. However, roe deer do not live in the United States, and Americans know more about mule deer. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield), Best Song (for "Love Is a Song" sung by Donald Novis) and Original Music Score. In June 2008, the American Film Institute wrote a list of its "Top 10"—the best ten movies—after asking over 1,500 people. Bambi came in third in animation. In December 2011, the movie was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
The story[change | change source]
A little fawn called Bambi is born in the woods. In his first days of life, he explores the forest around him. He makes a friend named Thumper. Thumper is a rabbit. Bambi learns new words every day. Bird is his first word. He learns butterflies, rain, and meadow. He sees his father (the Great Prince of the Forest) for the first time. The movie first shows Bambi's childhood, such as a walk in the woods as a newborn, a day in the meadow as a week old fawn, and his first experience seeing snow when a few months old.
The most famous part of the movie is the death of Bambi's mother. Bambi and his mother have trouble finding food. One day, Bambi's mother finds a patch of grass, and they eat. The audience hears scary music (Man's theme). Bambi's mother knows there is danger. She tells Bambi to run. As they run across an icy field, she screams "Faster! Faster, Bambi! Don't look back! Keep running! Keep running!". Bambi runs away, but there is a gunshot. Bambi gets back to the den but finds that his mother is not there. He walks around, and desperately calls for her. He meets his father, the Great Prince, who tells him that "your mother can't be with you anymore". Bambi follows his father into the woods, taking one last look behind him.
The next spring, Bambi and his friends are young adults. They meet a wise old owl, called Friend Owl. The owl tells them of the dangers of falling in love. They make vows not to fall in love. However, they fall in love at first sight very soon. Bambi falls in love with his old childhood friend Faline. He happily dances in the clouds until another deer gets in the way. He tries to get Faline to go with him, but Bambi does not want to. He gets into a fight with this deer. Bambi wins. He goes on a date with Faline. The Man comes back and makes more trouble for the animals. Bambi saves Faline from some angry dogs.
A forest fire comes and nearly destroys everything. Bambi has trouble getting up, but his father helps him. They both make it to an island where the animals have got together. The next spring, everyone goes to see Bambi and Faline's new fawns (baby deer). The wise owl says that Bambi should be proud. The Great Prince steps down from his current place as king, and Bambi is left standing proudly. A chorus sings the song from the beginning, Love is a Song.
Production[change | change source]
Walt Disney wanted to have realistic detail in this animated movie. The artists learned from animal experts. They also visited the Los Angeles Zoo. A pair of fawns (named Bambi and Faline) were shipped from the area of present-day Baxter State Park in Maine to the studio so that the artists could see for themselves how these animals move. The source of these fawns, from the Eastern United States, gave the company the idea to change Felix Salten's Roe Deer to a mule deer. The background of the movie was also the Eastern woodlands. One of the earliest and best known artists for the Disney studio, Maurice "Jake" Day, spent a lot of weeks in the Vermont and Maine forests. He drew pictures and took photographs of deer, fawns, and the wilderness areas around them.
Cast[change | change source]
- Bobby Stewart as Baby Bambi, the film's title character and protagonist.
- Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi
- Hardie Albright as Adolescent Bambi
- John Sutherland as Adult Bambi (Sources differ on whether Sutherland actually voiced Adult Bambi.)
- Paula Winslowe as Bambi's Mother and the Pheasant
- Peter Behn as Young Thumper, a rabbit friend of Bambi's.
- Tim Davis as Adolescent Thumper and Adolescent Flower, a striped skunk and another friend of Bambi's.
- Sam Edwards as Adult Thumper
- Stan Alexander as Young Flower
- Sterling Holloway as Adult Flower
- Will Wright as Friend Owl
- Cammie King as Young Faline, a female deer whom Bambi eventually falls in love with.
- Ann Gillis as Adult Faline
- Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
- Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
- Mary Lansing as Aunt Ena and Mrs. Possum
- Otis Harlan as Mr. Mole
Characters[change | change source]
Characters from Bambi[change | change source]
- Bambi, voiced by Bobby Stewart, Donnie Dunagan, Hardie Albright, and Alexander Gould, is the main character in the story. In the first movie, he is often cute and innocent. In the second movie, he feels sad because of the loss of his mother. Bambi tries to live without her. In the second movie he tries very hard to win the attention, support, and love he needs from his father.
- Thumper, voiced by Peter Behn, Tim Davis, and Brendon Baerg, is Bambi's main best friend. In the first movie, he helps Bambi learn new things, like "bird", "flower", and "butterfly". In Bambi II, he helps Bambi try to impress his father. Thumper also spends much of his time running away from his four sisters as he finds them annoying.
- Flower, voiced by Stan Alexander, Sterling Holloway, and Nicky Jones, is a bashful skunk and Bambi's other best friend. In Bambi II, Flower also helps Bambi try to impress his father and is scared of turtles.
- The Great Prince of the Forest is Bambi's father. He is voiced by Fred Shields in Bambi and Patrick Stewart in Bambi II. In the first movie, the Great Prince is not around very much. In Bambi II, he feels that a father is not what Bambi needs, and he tries to send Bambi away rather than teach him the ways of ruling the forest. Things are not helped much by the fact that he is used to a quiet life. In spite of this, he learns how to become a loving father and friend to Bambi.
- Faline, voiced by Cammie King, Ann Gillis, and Andrea Bowen, is one of Bambi's childhood friends. She later grows up to become his wife. In Bambi II, her effect on Bambi has changed little since the first movie. Whenever she is around, Bambi mostly becomes tongue-tied and very clumsy. However, when Ronno tries to make Faline leave, Bambi stands up for her, in what looks like a back-to-back screen-shot of a very similar scene in the first film. Also, just like in Bambi, Ronno and Bambi have a fight, only this time much shorter. The scene is just like the scene in the first film, and the fight is broken only after Mena comes in. Ronno, still angry, bumps into Bambi causing Mena to fall into one of Man's traps. Then Bambi has to fight a pack of dogs just like he did in the first film.
- Friend Owl, voiced by Will Wright in Bambi and Keith Ferguson, in Bambi II, is a friendly but easy to annoy old owl. Thumper and his baby sisters are always waking him up going "Wake Up! Wake Up, Friend Owl!" He will respond going "Oh, NOW what?!" (played for laughs). In Bambi II, Friend Owl is asked by the Great Prince to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi.
- Bambi's mother, voiced by Paula Winslowe, is Bambi's main parent in the first movie. Her death made many people upset. In Bambi II, she is voiced by Carolyn Hennes, and is seen in a dream sequence in which she talks to Bambi.
- The Hunter is a poacher who tries to shoot Bambi. He fails, but he instead shoots Bambi's mother, beginning the most well-known scene of the movie. He is the bad guy of the movie, even though he is never seen.
Characters from Bambi II[change | change source]
- Ronno, voiced by Anthony Ghannam, fights Bambi for the love of Faline and is generally full of annoyance. According to production notes, Ronno was the unnamed deer who had a fight with Bambi in the original movie.
- The Groundhog, voiced by Brian Pimental (who also directed Bambi II), is the focus of the forest's Groundhog Day celebrations. On February 2 each year, the Groundhog comes out into the forest square and says whether or not winter will last a few more weeks. He hates the job and is scared of his own shadow. He says that "my nerves just can't take it any more."
- The Porcupine, voiced by Brian Pimental (again, director), is a less important character who is very protective of his land. As the forest's troll, he takes joy in keeping animals away from his log home. When Bambi first meets the Porcupine, he leaves humiliated and in pain. When Bambi meets the Porcupine again, the Porcupine ends up being used to fight off the dogs. The Porcupine also causes Bambi to accidentally kiss Faline at the end of the movie.
- Mena, voiced by Cree Summer (who also voiced Kida in Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire), is the doe Friend Owl finds as a mother for Bambi, in order to let the Great Prince keep the forest safe without being distracted. Friend Owl found her just when Bambi and the Great Prince were beginning to bond, nearly ruining the relationship. She grew up with Bambi's mother.
Release[change | change source]
Bambi was released in theaters in 1942, during World War II. It was Disney's 5th full-length animated movie. Bambi was released again to theatres in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was then made available on home video in 1989. Even in home video, Bambi has seen many releases, including two VHS releases, in 1989 (Classics Version) and 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and a digitally-remastered and restored Platinum Edition DVD. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2007.
Bambi was released in Diamond Edition on March 1, 2011, consisting of a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. According to Cinema Blend, this release is set to include multiple bonus features that were not previously included in Bambi home releases: a documentary entitled Inside Walt’s Story Meetings – Enhanced Edition, two deleted scenes, a deleted song, an image gallery, and a game entitled Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition. The release also marked the first use of "Disney Second Screen", a feature which is accessed via a computer or iPad app download that syncs with the Blu-ray disc, allowing the viewer to follow along by interacting with animated flip-books, galleries and trivia while watching the movie. A UK version of Diamond Edition was released on February 7, 2011.
|Brazil||August 14, 1942|
|United States||August 21, 1942|
|Argentina||December 9, 1942|
|Mexico||February 4, 1943|
|Ireland||February 19, 1943|
|Australia||April 15, 1943|
|Trinidad and Tobago||June 4, 1943|
|Sweden||October 4, 1943|
|Venezuela||January 16, 1944|
|Portugal||January 17, 1944|
|Switzerland||March 17, 1944 (German speaking region)|
|Luxembourg||March 17, 1944|
|Guatemala||September 21, 1944|
|Honduras||October 12, 1944|
|Turkey||November 16, 1944|
|Canada||July 24, 1945|
|Czechoslovakia||October 15, 1945|
|Soviet Union||May 17, 1946|
|Norway||December 26, 1946|
|Denmark||March 3, 1947|
|Hong Kong||March 13, 1947|
|Finland||August 29, 1947|
|Netherlands||September 18, 1947|
|Italy||February 11, 1948|
|France||April 28, 1948|
|Poland||June 14, 1948|
|Austria||June 10, 1949|
|- Argentinian inChilean Spanish||August 19, 1949|
|Malaysia||March 16, 1950|
|West Germany||December 19, 1950|
|Japan||May 26, 1951|
|Hungary||July 27, 1961|
|Lebanon||June 18, 1969|
|Kuwait||December 21, 1987|
Midquel[change | change source]
Bambi II is a story which takes place after Bambi's mother dies, but before Bambi becomes an adult. It shows the Great Prince of the Forest having trouble raising Bambi, and Bambi not being sure if his father really loves him. The movie was released direct-to-video on February 7, 2006. While the movie was a direct-to-video release in the United States and other countries, including Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, it was a theatrical release in some countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Dominican Republic, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom and some other European countries.[source?]
Titles in other languages[change | change source]
- Albanian: Bambi
- Arabic: بامبي (Bambi)
- Armenian: Բեմբի (Bambi)
- Azerbaijani: Bembi
- Basque: Bambi
- Belarusian: Бэмбі (Bambi)
- Bosnian: Bambi
- Bulgarian: Бамби (Bambi)
- Catalan: Bambi
- Chinese: 小鹿斑比 "xi wangzi Bambi" (Cantonese); "xiǎo wángzǐ Bambi" (Mandarin). Young Prince Bambi. Note: Bambi is pronounced "Bambay" in Cantonese. Second note: Early title used 班 instead of 斑
- Croatian: Bambi
- Czech: Bambi
- Danish: Bambi
- Dutch: Bambi
- Esperanto: Bambi
- Estonian: Bambi
- Finnish: Bambi
- French: Bambi
- German: Bambi
- Galician: Bambi
- Georgian: ბემბი (Bambi)
- Greek: Μπάμπι (Bambi)
- Hebrew: במבי (Bambi)
- Hindi: बांबी (Bambi)
- Hungarian: Bambi
- Icelandic: Bambi
- Indonesian: Bambi
- Irish: Bambi
- Italian: Bambi
- Japanese: バンビ (Banbi)
- Javanese: Bambi
- Kannada: ಬಾಂಬಿ (Bambi)
- Klingon: Bambi
- Korean: 밤비 (Bambi)
- Latin: Bambi
- Latvian: Bembijs (Bambi)
- Lithuanian: Bembis (Bambi)
- Macedonian: Бамби (Bambi)
- Malay: Bambi
- Malayalam: ബാംബി (Bambi)
- Maltese: Bambi
- Marathi: बॅम्बी (Bambi)
- Norwegian: Bambi
- Occitan: Bambi
- Persian: بامبی (Bambi)
- Polish: Bambi
- Portuguese: Bambi
- Quechua: Bambi
- Romanian: Bambi
- Russian: Бэмби (Bambi)
- Serbian: Бамби (Bambi)
- Sicilian: Bambi
- Sinhala: බම්බි (Bambi)
- Slovak: Bambi
- Slovene: Bambi
- Spanish: Bambi
- Swedish: Bambi, storskogens prins ("Bambi, Prince of the Big Forest"; mostly known as Bambi)
- Tamil: பேம்பி (Bambi)
- Telugu: బ్యాంబి (Bambi)
- Thai: กวางน้อย...แบมบี้ ("Little Deer...Bambi")
- Turkish: Bambi
- Urdu: بمبی (Bambi)
- Ukrainian: Бембі (Bambi)
- Vietnamese: Bambi
- Welsh: Bambi
References[change | change source]
- "The Little Foxes: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
- Barrier, J. Michael (2003). "Disney, 1938–1941". Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press. pp. 269–274, 280. ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0.
- "Bambi". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- "The 15th Academy Awards (1943) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
- "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. June 17, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
- Walt Disney Collection: Walt's Masterworks — Bambi.
- The Trouble with Bambi: Walt Disney's Bambi and the American Vision of Nature by Ralph H. Lutts: From 'Forest and Conservation History' 36 (October 1992)
- Maurice E. Day, Animator, 90; Drew Deer for Movie 'Bambi': Obituary in the New York Times, published May 19, 1983
- Tom Heintjes (May 24, 2012). "Animating Ideas: The John Sutherland Story". Cartoonician.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
- Wray, James (February 26, 2005). "How They Restored Bambi". Monsters and Critics. Archived from the original on February 3, 2008. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- McCutcheon, David (September 29, 2006). "Disney Closes the Vault". IGN. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- "'Bambi (Two-Disc Diamond Edition)' Blu-ray Fully Detailed". High Def Digest. December 10, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
- Grabert, Jessica (December 8, 2010). "Bambi Returns From The Forest on Blu-Ray". Cinema Blend. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
- Snider, Mike (February 24, 2011). "Second Screen creates a 'Bambi' for multitaskers". USA Today. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
- Lawler, Richard (December 8, 2010). "Disney announces Bambi Blu-ray/DVD combo for March 1st, debuts new Second Screen PC/iPad app". Engadget. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
- "Bambi – Diamond Edition Double Play (Blu-ray + DVD)". Amazon.com. February 7, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
Other websites[change | change source]
|Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bambi|