Bambi (Disney) DVD (1 Viewer)

[Stan T]

Hey does anyone know when Disney is scheduled to release Bambi on DVD? I know they changed to releasing 2 movies a year instead of 1 a year.

Since the Star Wars Trilogy was announced for release this year on DVD Bambi will be my last Laser Disc that hasn't been released on DVD yet. I'll finally be glad to retire my Laser Disc player.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[LukeB]

I'm thinking March 2005 is most likely, since that's what the Australian Disney website says for them. Which pushes Cinderella, which was expected for March 2005, possibly back to March 2006.

 

[Mark_TS]

any date for a 16x9:b LADY AND THE TRAMP?

 

[Bill McCamy]

You may need that LD player if you have the original Star Wars Trilogy. The dvd will only have revisions of the revised '97 versions.

 

[Ernest Rister]

With the way things are going at Disney, who knows? 2005 has long been the rumour, so...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

You can be there will be a serious comparison between the LD and the new DVD when its released...whenever that may be...

dave

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm awaiting Bambi as well. It's the only VHS I'm still holding onto! (I know, I'm sad...)

One thing with these new 2 disc sets is they never have the documentary that were on the VHS in the 90's. Granted they were not the most comprihensive making of in the world, but there were short and sweet. I always miss them because they always have something on them that never show up in the extensive behind the scenes stuff that appear on the 2 disk sets.

I wish Disney would dump the crappy set top games and put these already produced mini documentaries on the first disc. I don't know any kids who actually play those games more than once anyways, where as my brother in law used to always make us wait to watch the extra documentary that was tacked onto the end of those tapes. (my brother in law was like 6 at the time)

 

[Jay Pennington]

I would like them to start over in restoring/cleaning up the movie. For the last theatrical re-release (and subsequent LD), they scanned in the whole movie and RE-PAINTED (digitally) all the colors on the characters. Since the backgrounds still had visible grain, they added fake grain back onto the characters but HELD IT whenever they didn't move. Film grain doesn't stop moving!! Just sloppy.

There wasn't anything wrong with the film, anyhow...someone at Disney in the 90s decided the didn't like cel dust. It's part of the way the film was photographed, let it go!

 

[Chuck L]

The ones that I am awaiting are:

Lilo and Stitch (of course, rumour is that it won't now be till next year in 2005 when the two disk comes out which doesn't make me happy at all...)

Lady and The Tramp

Bambi

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Not entirely true. The Sleeping Beauty SE contains the EXACT SAME doc that was on the VHS released in 1996. Peter Pan also contains the original doc. The Beauty and the Beast and Snow White VHS didn't contain any extras like this, so which releases are you talking about?

 

[Ernest Rister]

"You can bet there will be a serious comparison between the LD and the new DVD when its released...whenever that may be..."

The last laserdisc issue of Bambi was god-awful. The transfer is notorious among animation buffs as the worst modern transfer of a Disney classic on Home Video. I can only HOPE that it is different from the laserdisc.

Besides the "re-painting" referenced above, the film was artificially brightened, with a contrast level so high, you could no longer see the individual ink-strokes detailing Thumper's tuft of white fur on his chest. I had to crank my contrast and brightness level down to get something approaching a watchable image. The film was also altered in a few ways. For reasons known only to Disney, the opening credits and dedication were changed. They were originally window-boxed within a soft matte frame in 1942. For the 1997 release, Disney zoomed in on the image, effectively pushing the soft matte out of the image (why? so kids could read the larger letters?). An inking error where a mouse collects a single dew drop from a flower was "fixed". What's odd is that Disney fixed these issues, but decided not to correct Bambi notorious "disappearing raccoon baby" shot at the end of the forest fire sequence.

I'm not adverse to fixing production errors for Bambi per se, knowing its production history as I do (we're talking grown men bursting into tears when the production ran out of money, causing all sorts of short cuts and obvious errors to remain in the movie) -- but I'll take the original 1942 inking errors over the horribly flat, static, and overly-bright image of the 1997 LD. In fact, when I watch Bambi, I watch my old CAV laserdisc from around 1990 or so. Sure, it's got cel scrawl and cel storms and inking errors and what have you. But I'll take original negative artifacts over a terrible, incompetent "improved" transfer.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ernest,

You're entirely correct.

If any of you (Ernest / others) have the original LD (prior to the "restoration" of the last LD version) and would like to see it compared in the eventual DVD review (I feel this would be extremely valuable for everyone as it would show a genuine A/B between the film left in its "native" form compared against the digitally-cleaned version that ew know we'll get on DVD)...and wouldn't mind loaning it to me...please let me know. You've got time to think about it if anyone is worried about letting that (now quite collectable) original LD out of their hands, I'd be more than welcome to have someone else do an in-depth comparison themselves and incorporate it into my review...

Just thought I'd get the word out early so everyone has time to think about it. I'd hate to start asking the week the review is due!

-dave

 

[Ernest Rister]

That shouldn't be a problem. Lord knows we have time...unless Comcast succceeds with their hostile takeover bud and decides to make Bambi a free download for everyone who signs up for their high-speed internet service.

ComCastLand! The Happiest, Fastest Place on Earth!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Count me as one more interested in seeing the original version of the film, flaws and all, over a slick, redone version. I grew up with the film in its original version, and that's how I want to see it. (Though I wouldn't be opposed to Disney putting out a two disc set including both the unaltered original version in the best condition possible, and the redone version.)

 

[Ernest Rister]

A version of Bambi looking as pristine and film-like as Snow White would probably please most Disney fans, especially if they used the surviving cel animation and backgrounds for color reference.

Again, the film suffered massive budget cuts in the final months, with entire sequences lopped out, or elaborate shots - particularly in the forest fire sequence - scrapped entirely. That's why so many obvious inking and photography errors exist in the finished film -- Walt was broke. He told Charlie Chaplin, "If this movie doesn't go over, I'm finished."

So I don't particularly mind Disney restoring the film for future generations, nor do I mind the modern company making corrections that Walt couldn't afford to make in 1942 (like the disappearing raccoon). Some of you would cry foul to that, and I respect that point of view, but Walt Disney was the guy who wanted to re-photograph *all* of Snow White because of a flickering problem. Walt was the guy who threw out six months of completed work on Pinocchio and started over. If Walt had the means, he would have re-shot or re-inked certain scenes in Bambi to correct them, but he simply couldn't afford it because of tight finances. Were he around today, I think he'd jump at the chance to make Bambi as pristine as possible -- especially since, of all of his animated features, he claimed that Bambi was his personal favorite.

So for this title, fixing some of the production errors wouldn't bother me per se. What *would* bother me is a transfer as poor and sloppy and *needlessly* altered as the 1997 release (like removing the soft matte around the opening credits, and the poor "paint" job). If you're going to fix something, fix what's broken and do it right - don't go monkeying around with a movie on a whim, or try to address serious problems in a low-budget fashion.

The five Golden Age Features - Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi - make up the Mt. Rushmore of American Animation. These films should be treated as the American cultural treasures that they are. If Disney can pay through the nose to clean up Sleeping Beauty, then they certainly owe the same consideration and loving care to Bambi.

 

[Paul_Scott]

the release schedule of the remaining titles was posted a while ago.
i think Bambi should be coming out in 2005 if i recall right, witht the acceleration now.