DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Bambi - Absolutely Recommended!!! (1 Viewer)

[Ernest Rister]

* The pop in the foreground plate seems to have been smoothed over, but again, going to have to look at it again

It's still there. Blink at the wrong moment and you'll completely miss it, but it's still there. The waterfall still shimmies just not as badly as in the original film.

There are other little minor alterations, mainly in the form of color correction -- watch the hues change when Friend Owl makes his first appearance in the opening multiplane shot. That's brand new.

 

[Joe Cortez]

Loved the review. I'm looking to pick this one up by the end of the week (better late than never).


Isn't "Fantasia" one of the scheduled Platinum titles? In any case, if Disney does re-release this film on DVD, I hope they restore the bits they cropped out during the Pastoral.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Yes, Fantasia is now one of the 14 platinum titles.

 

[Moore Maxx]

I thought there already was a sequel to "Bambi" called "Bambi vs Godzilla". A 30 second animated short I have as an extra on my VHS copy of "Hardware Wars".

The Disney sequel can't be any better then that.

Maxx

 

[ZacharyTait]

Great review!

I watched this today and I was blown away by how good it looks. It seriously looks like it was drawn yesterday. Kudos to LDI for their fantastic work on this. I can't wait to watch it with the commentary.

 

[Craig Beam]

I gathered the whole family up last night (and believe me, the boys ---both 11--- grumbled extensively when I dragged them away from their X-box) and we watched BAMBI. Everyone, even our little 4 year-old, sat through the entire thing, utterly transfixed. This has never happened before, no matter what's on. Someone invariably gets bored and leaves, or falls asleep, or gets distracted by the cats, or whatever. Not this time.

Afterwards, I turned to my fiancee and said: "See? I'm not crazy."

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Wasn't Toy Story II originally one of these "cheapquels?" The exception that proves the rule, perhaps!

 

[rich_d]

First things first ...

Wow!

Don't know what is going on but I think it goes beyond the level of clean-up and the grain issue. Looking at the lines and curves of the images ... they just look amazingly sharp. Yet when people (through computer software) try to make lines and boundaries sharper they often make it worse.

So how the heck did they do this?

I'm overstating it, but it looks at first blush like we just received a 1998 animation film released on DVD, albeit one with attention to background art etc.

I mean look at that scene where leaves are falling from the sky and then leaves falling into the brook.

For those that have commented that it is like looking at painted images between glass I know what you mean. I haven't formed an opinion on that one. Nor the audio.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Wasn't Toy Story II originally one of these "cheapquels?"

No, actually. It was originally *planned* to be a straight to video release during early development, but after working on the project for a while, John Lasseter felt the story and the script and preliminary work were all so strong, TS2 deserved the production values of a theatrical release. They petitioned Disney, saying they thought the script was good enough to warrant theatrical release, and Disney agreed, and hence the budget increased, the scope of the film's design increased. Early work was tossed out and done over again. The TS2 that you know and love is not a mere direct-to-video film released to the big screen, a'la the box office bombs Peter Pan 2 and Jungle book 2.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Oh my gosh.

One thing I have really loved about my DVD collecting is that I have used it to go back and revisit a lot of the Disney films I loved as a kid - and see a few I never did.

Bambi was one I had never seen. When they announced the change in Platinum release dates, I had actually been planning to hire a VHS copy of the flm and watch it, but I decided to wait for the DVD. From memory, it has been something like two years since then, which is a long wait.

It was worth it.

The film itself is beautiful, detail astonishing, colours vivid and bright. An incredible job. After watching it, I was describing the multiplane camera to my flatmate, and showed her the Disneyland episode on the "Behind The Scenes" Treasures release where the multiplane is shown. They show several scenes from the film on that show, and it was almost impossible to watch. It really hit me what a truly stunning restoration job has been executed on the film.

And the film deserves it. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it. I adored every moment. The character animation was incredible, almost unmatched, incredible artistry. Knowing what I do about the pressures imposed in the making of the film (thanks, Ernest, for all the information you discuss in these threads), it's astonishing how perfect the resulting film proved. I had really high expectations, and was worried that it would not live up to them. It exceeded them, and with such ease I felt bad for expecting so little from it. Incredible film.

 

[Ernest Rister]

It's no Rock-A-Doodle, but it's pretty good.

 

[Mike Frezon]

That Thumper is a pisser...

 

[BrettB]

Young Thumper is cool as hell.

I'm not sure how long it had been since I'd seen this but it was too damn long. What a fool.

Such a beautifully simple and simply beautiful film.

David, I had already read your review but I went back and re-read it after watching the film. You nailed it.

 

[ScottR]

Great dvd, but why would they go through the trouble of restoration and then not include the original RKO logo?

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Agreed. I've never really been one that has been too bothered by logo replacement, but for some reason it just seemed wrong in front of Bambi.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Would have liked to have seen the original RKO logo myself (wasn't that there on Snow White?)

I'm so glad you all are enjoying this DVD as much as I am. I may try to watch it again tonight with friends if I get enough work done on my Incredibles review!

-dave

 

[Ernest Rister]

Would have liked to have seen the original RKO logo myself (wasn't that there on Snow White?)

For the Snow White DVD, it was included as a bonus supplement. The opening title card for Snow White was re-done after Disney left RKO in the early 50's, and the DVD uses that card. The RKO logo version appears as a bonus feature.

The last Disney animated feature with an RKO logo was Peter Pan in 1953. The last Disney live-action feature to use an RKO logo was (I think) Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue in 1954.

 

[Mike Frezon]

David: you big tease!

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, I finally got to watch this Thursday night and this quote sums up my thoughts pretty well.


Plus, I listened to the audio commentary reenactment and it is now one of my favorite supliments on any DVD. Good stuff. Working on disc 2 now.

 

[Keith Paynter]

The classic Marv Newland BMG short is available on one of the Spike & Mike Twisted Animation DVD's.