Bambi

Bambi; animated adventure, USA, 1942; D: David D. Hand, S: John Sutherland, Hardie Albright, Bobby Stewart, Donnie Dunagan

In a forest, a doe gives birth to a baby deer, Bambi, while all the animals rush to see the little creature. Bambi quickly starts to talk and makes friends with rabbit Thumper and skunk Flower. With time, autumn arrives, and then winter, while some evil hunters shoot Bambi's mother. Bambi grows up into a big deer and falls in love with Felina. But the hunters return and attack the deer. Still, Bambi and Felina save each other and get twins.

"Bambi", the 5th feature length animated film by Walt Disney studios, alongside all its tenderness and emotions doesn't even touch the knees of their first film, masterwork "Snow White" from '37. The reason for that lies in the fact that "Bambi" is simply a film for little children, a too simple and too undemanding flick that seems overstretched despite its running time of only 67 minutes. The music, and a few deeper philosophical sparks about the ever repeating cycle of time and life, and contemplation about innocent animals at the mercy of humans, or even life in general at the mercy of random whims of the cruel, cold world, deserve the biggest credit for the rehabilitation of the empty story where nothing is going on except for such events where Bambi learns how to walk or wrongly thinks that a butterfly is a bird. The thin story snaps out of lethargy mostly when the hunters show up: the first time, they kill Bambi's mother (that sequence became infamous and some kids were shocked by it) and the second time, towards the end, they even wound Bambi, which brought a dramaturgic vertical that was until then missing.

Grade:++