A Few Words About A few words about... Walt Disney's Bambi... (1 Viewer)

[Jay Pennington]

Yes, that's what we're on about.

And it's compounded by the fact that the Academy ratio is a wee bit taller than that of a 4:3 TV screen, so without windowboxing, some of the image is cropped to begin with.

 

[Sean Campbell]

I picked this up yesterday ( region 2 edition ) in a store in Dublin. Believe it or not, it was the first time I'd ever seen the movie and needless to say, I thought it was a fantastic piece of work. It's certainly up there with Fantasia and Pinocchio as a 'true' masterpiece. I'll be watching it again tonight, this time with the 'production meeting' option. With dramatised readings of the production notes plus intermixed artwork, this feature is the next best thing to having a commentary.
BTW, there is no 'border' around the opening titles.

 

[EnricoE]

i dunno what to say about this film as i never saw it and the interest in seeing it wasn't and isn't that great. i don't dismiss this film as a true classic but for some reasons it just doesn't work for me. the same can be say ed about casablanca. but reading mr. harris comments about the animation of this film i surely gonna see it someday and who knows maybe i'll like it.

before someone starts to bash me, let me say this: i do love classic films such as lawrence of arabia or spartacus.
anyway, it's a good thing that disney takes cares for it's "old" classics and keep people like me the chance to see these films in the way they where meant to be

 

[TedD]

OK, I went digging through my archives and found a couple of frames from a 35mm print of Bambi. This was obviously from a re-release 'cause it's Eastman color and has lost the cyan layer totally.

http://webpages.charter.net/tvdias/Bambi.jpg

However it should answer the question concerning the matting of the main titles, which were certainly done for a video transfer.


Ted

 

[Edwin-S]

It's not meant to be a bash but how can you say a film doesn't work for you when you haven't even seen it. I could understand the comment being made if you had watched the film at least once.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The matting in the earlier captures is video-based, but you can make out a "spotlight" effect on the titles in the 35mm frames.

Here's one of the frames with some color correction in Photoshop:



With "enhanced" color levels, you can see it a lot better.

 

[EnricoE]

i saw parts of it and was simply bored. then all the talk about the death of bambi's mother just made me sick. thats why i didn't gave this film any chance to see it in full.

 

[Brandon Conway]

It's only 75 minutes long. You should try giving it a shot again.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Enrico,

Just by the by, the novel Bambi was written by the Austrian Siegmund Salzmann, who later wrote under the name Felix Salten. He penned Bambi in 1926, lived in Vienna until 1939, and then fled to Switzerland to escape the Nazi purge (Hitler banned Bambi and the book became a popular subject of Reich book-burning). He did not live to see the Germany post WWII, and he died in Switzerland in 1945.

You indicate that you reside in Germany -- you might find this analysis of Salzmann/Salten's Bambi interesting

http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/ressubj/speccol/lenski/may.htm

Here is an excerpt:

Published as an adult allegory in Austria, Bambi was reviewed as a book appropriate for children's audiences when it was released in the United States.4

In fact, Disney's version of Bambi may have been created more for adult audiences than children. It, too, depends a good deal on cultural allusions about the negative aspects of human society. Neither the book nor the film looks favorably at man. Both Walt Disney and Felix Salten created animal fantasies depicting contemporary society in unfavorable ways. Both presentations contained sharp criticisms of humanity.

Although it is obvious that Salten and Disney immediately gained critical attention with their stories, there is no reason to believe that they hoped to spark audience outrage. In both cases, however, when Bambi was released, it caused strong emotional responses that resulted in censorship. The author's book was banned in his homeland; the American Rifleman's Association made a public statement against the film's depiction of hunters and asked that the film be prefaced with a pro-hunting statement (Newsweek 70). Because both men broke with traditional cultural attitudes about victims and hunting within their countries and produced stories that condemned their societies' values, they were risk-takers who used allegory to go beyond traditional cultural values. In both cases early criticism looked upon their productions as innovative and controversial.

During the 1940s, book and film critics proclaimed both stories as noteworthy. Furthermore, they noted their popularity with U.S. youngsters. Two children's librarians in New York state surveyed the circulation figures in their libraries in order to identify a set of books that students "read with eagerness and affection" (Williams and Wilson 1492). The first book listed for grades 7-9 was Salten's Bambi. They explained, "The primitive simplicity of the story, the sympathy aroused for the hunted animal, the gentle strength of the deer make this a present and probably future classic" (1494). Disney, they found, was also popular with youngsters. They argued for his productions, saying,

"Perhaps his books are not arty enough for the idealists, but they represent a half-way stage in the child's appreciation, when shapeliness and cuteness are his notions of beauty. And who can say that he is wrong? Bambi will be art in a hundred years, and Scamper the Rabit [sic] from "Bambi" will be as famous as Ernest Shepard's Mr. Toad in "The Wind in the Willows." (1496)

Indirectly, Disney paid tribute to Salten's book in his 1937 article. As Disney explained the filmmaking process, he acknowledged the need for a good story arguing, "if the story is weak, good color, music and animation cannot save it" (255). However, he also alluded to his need to produce a different kind of story for a visual audience when he wrote,

A subtle idea may be intriguing, but is doomed to fail before an audience. All our business must be direct and obvious. Our technique has not reached the point at which we can successfully express subtleties through drawn action, and be sure of the result (260).

A Jew born in Budapest, Hungary in 1869, Siegmund Salzmann was living in Vienna when he wrote his animal allegories for adults. His animal allegories all contained allusions to politics. Of his books, only Bambi, written under the pseudonym of Felix Salten, has had lasting universal appeal. Originally, Bambi did not fare well in Europe. First published in Vienna in 1926, Bambi was banned by the Nazis ten years later. Although it was unavailable in Austria and in Nazi occupied lands during Hitler's reign, it has remained available to American audiences since Simon & Schuster released their translation in 1928. When the book was released in the United States, William Rose Benet's review called Salten's depiction of man's hunting a "holocaust." Though he was not alluding to Hitler's treatment of the Jews, he pointed to Salten's use of allegory. He considered the book neither fact nor fiction; he said it was a book written to depict "catalytic murderousness from the point of view of the wild animals . . . " (1032).

Still, though he praised the book's descriptions, he concluded, "with all its virtues, it does not, as a whole, leave an indelible impress upon the mind one feels it might" (1032).

Salten's book is largely reflexive and subtle. Much of the drama is described. There are few scenes of conversation; usually the scenes hold large descriptive passages of the animals' action, indirectly implying the animals' emotional responses to past, present, and future conditions. For instance, when the deer are gathered and discussing Him, Salten interrupts the conversation and interjects,

"They listened curiously to the many stories that were always horrible, full of blood and suffering. They listened tirelessly to everything that was said about Him, tales that were certainly invented, all the stories and sayings that had come down from their fathers and great-grandfathers. In each of them they were unconsciously seeking for some way to propitiate this dark power, or some way to escape it (125)."

Salten reveals time passage through the animals' introspective thoughts about the past in comparison to the present. Change in conditions is observed rather than acted out. At one point, Salten writes that winter has set in:

"Bambi noticed that the world was changed. It was hard for him to get used to this altered world. They had all lived like rich folk and now had fallen upon hard times. For Bambi knew nothing but abundance. He took it for granted that he would always have plenty to eat. He thought he would never need to trouble about food. He believed he would always go about in his smooth, handsome, glossy red coat (111)."

Episodic scenes tie the characters together. While the characters become familiar, no character gains the reader's empathy. Bambi is closest to being a sympathetic character since he is the story's central character, but his conversations are always cautionary. Throughout, conversation alludes to the encounters with Him. In the "romantic scene" between Faline and Bambi, Salten includes bits about community loyalty, family deaths, and past betrayals. He writes about the tamed deer in this meeting, alluding to his trust for Man and subsequent death:

"So you recognized me again?" Faline replied.
"How could I help recognizing you?" cried Bambi. "Didn't we grow up together?"

Faline sighed. "It's a long time since we've seen each other," she said.

Then she added, "People grow to be strangers," but she was already using her gay bantering again. They remained together.

"I used to walk on this path with my mother when I was a child," Bambi said after a while.

"It leads to the meadow," said Faline.

"I saw you for the first time on the meadow," said Bambi a little solemnly. "Do you remember?"

"Yes," Faline replied. "Gobo and me." She sighed softly and said, "Poor Gobo . . . " (163-164).

Salten's Bambi is an allegory of the Jewish struggles in Europe between World War I and World War II, and its voice and social messages allude to the oncoming cultural/ethnic holocaust of the Europeans Jews.

-- excerpt from lecture by Jill May, Professor of Literacy and Language, Purdue University, 1995


At the very least, Enrico, see the film as a possible gateway to leading you to read Mr. Salzmann/Salten's book, "Bambi: A Life in the Woods", which is a tremendous work of imagination, philosophy, and politics. I have to suffer with reading the book in its Enlgish translation version. Being able to read the book in its original German must be something, indeed.

 

[Ira Siegel]

EnricoE, I salute you as an individualist. As much as I disagree with you (hey, Casablanca was my favorite movie of all time long before the AFI lists), kudos to you for speaking your mind.
As for Bambi's mother getting killed, heck, many Disney characters hardly knew their mothers.

 

[EnricoE]

ira, the thing that makes me sick is always the talk about the death scene of bambi's mother. just a few weeks ago this scene had a big run here on german television as one of the saddest scene in a motion picture. and wherever you go you'll always here "i cried when the mother died". don't get me wrong, i have feelings too and there are some scenes in movies that makes me feel very sad, example: schindler's list - girl with the red coat.

i don't wanna disrespect this film or casablanca in any way and if people like or even love these films, thats fine with me

 

[ZacharyTait]

"You didn't cry when Bambi's mom died?"

"Yes, it was so sad when the guy STOPPED DRAWING THE DEER!"

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

As far as I'm concerned, if a production error takes you out of the watching experience then it's fair game for updating. That's the rule of thumb used in the restoration of old Doctor Who stories, despite the wishes of some fans that all production mistakes be left in.

 

[EnricoE]

well, the day has come i never thought possible: i bought the dvd of bambi which i'll watch later today. gonna post my thoughts of the movie later on ...

 

[oscar_merkx]

That is a great find Ernest

Cheers

 

[EnricoE]

now that i've watched bambi i wanna share my thoughts about this film...

first of big kudos to disney home entertainment for this well done restoration of the film. the films looks wonderful and it was a joy to watch it (from the technical point of view). for the movie itself i don't have much good words. ok, lets start with the good things: the animation is well done and it hasn't aged a bit. this is really good work done by the animators and walt disney. i'm very impressed!!! and that's it for the good points for this film.
now the bad points: the music score was the most annoying score i've ever had to her in a motion picture. there are just a handful of scenes that are without music and they where very short. i just wished the music would've stopped but of course it didn't. someone must've had the brilliant idea to put music almost everywhere, no matter what. sure this may have worked over 60 years ago but for me it just didn't. personally i think that lesser and i mean a lot less music would've worked much better, but that's just me
the story of the movie was very predictable and confusing at the same time. actually for one instance. the skunk "flower" as it was introduced i thought it was a girl which was very flattered by bambi's expression of calling her flower. all the way she reacted stated that she was a girl. but when the spring arrived in the movie and we met flower again for all sudden it's a male skunk. i certainly didn't get it!!!

so how does this classic compare to newer disney films like one of my favorite: the lion king? honestly bambi has no chance! the lion king is much better all the way through. bambi get's a score of 3 out of 5 while the lion king gets all 5.

will i watch bambi again? not anytime soon for sure. maybe in 5 years or even in 10 or maybe never

 

[JeremySt]

A little late to the party, but I finally viewed this DVD for the first time. The quality of the presentation and the supplements make this a truly stunning DVD. The production notes version and the documentary make for some truly amazing content. I can only hope Pinnochio gets similar treatment.