Its's Official: BAMBI Comes to DVD March 1, 2005 (1 Viewer)

[Steve Christou]

oh deer I'm all twitterpated.

One of the greatest animated films of all time, every frame restored to 'dazzling brilliance'... thump thump thump thump thump... sorry got a bit excited there.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Well, I'll get excited when I see it. The last time Disney took their digital crayons to Bambi, the result was the worst home video transfer of a classic Disney feature, ever. Blown-out whites, digital alterations, repainted characters completely lacking in detail...oh the horror. They even monkeyed with the opening credits and removed the in-camera mattes.



I'm happy Disney has thrown that horrible travesty in the garbage and is trying all over again, but I can't get pumped until I see it. Of course, the wait will be murder.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Known deleted sequences from Bambi:

* Two Leaves

Throughout the production, Walt struggled with a particular sequence taken from Felix Salten's book...as the Fall season gives way to Winter, two leaves discuss their fate - with surprise, then denial, then acceptance. If this sounds like a meditation on death, it was. The sequence was storyboarded, dialogue was written (and re-written), actors were brought in and the audio was recorded. As was usual with Walt, staffers behind the scene thought the younger Disney brother was off his rocker, "Did you hear that dialogue of those leaves talking? What is he thinking?", etc. After struggling with it, Walt finally relented. Here is how Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston describe what happened to it:

"Time and again Walt had tried to re-create the haunting moments of the last two leaves on a tree discussin the end of their lives. Most of us felt that this memorable part of Felix salten's book was not right for animation, but Walt wanted to build that section of his film into a dramatic transition of fall turning into winter. After three years of trying, he finally decided against it.

'I can't conceive of the leaves being as effective in the picture as it was in the book," Walt said. He knew that animation was a medium of imagery and graphics and by now believed that strong artwork supported by music would do far more than hushed dialogue. Thus, the animated images of the last two leaves on a barren tree, trembling in the cold wind, then finally losing their hold on the branch that had nourished them, depicted the end of their lives in a very touching way. They swirled in the wind briefly then settled on the earth where they lay peacefully together. No one in the theater missed the meaning when it was told in such a tender, grpahic form."
- Thomas and Johnston, Bambi: The Story and the Film, pgs. 167-168

* Discovery of the Dead Hunter *

A philosophical climax in Felix Salten's book is Bambi's realization that Nature is a greater power than Man, that there is a force in the world over all animals, even Man. The book contains no climactic forest fire, but it was decided to dramatize this philosophical point with a scene showing Bambi and the Great Prince discovering the body of a dead human hunter. Walt was unsure how the human should be shown, leaning towards a silhouette. The sequence was storyboarded and dialogue was recorded. This sequence stayed in the film for the first test screening of Bambi for audiences outside of the studio. Director Dave Hand decided against Walt's idea of a silhouette form and chose the most clear and detailed drawing they had made for the test screening.

Thomas and Johnston write:

"The audience had been enjoying the show, but as the charred forest sequence came on the screen they seemed to be nervous and unsure. It appeared to be too slow and ponderous after the excitement of the fire. Suddenly, Dave's picture of the hunter appeared on the screen and four hundered people shot into the air. Walt's reaction was not just critical of Dave, he wanted the whole sequence cut out of the picture."
-Thomas and Johnston, Bambi: The Story and the Film, pg. 179

Other altered ideas:

* During the climax, Bambi was to happen across the body Thumper, who had been shot and was dying. It was later decided to have the hunters shoot Bambi, and since the film couldn't end with everyone getting shot, the scene with the gut-shot Thumper was discarded.

* A shot of Bambi's mother running and then leaping over a log, out of the frame. A gun shot sounds off stage, and her body falls limp, back into the frame, to the ground. This was later used for the panicked Quail who flies out of frame, is shot, and falls back into the frame, dead.

* Bambi returning to the snow-covered meadow, looking for his mother, only to find her imprint in the snow, surrounded by footprints, and the ominous trail in the snow where her body had been dragged away.

Lots, lots more.

 

[JonZ]

Besides the Pixar stuff, this is the only Disney animated feature Ill own.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

quote:Again, there are a lot of stupid names Disney has given all their other titles, because they can't call them Platinum (Their most requested highest selling titles) but they can't call them gold collection either, so they try to use other marketing names.

Let's not get carried away. It's not like Disney is the only DVD company to "overbrand" with marketing names.

I believe WB had one called the "Premiere Collection" that lasted for something like, oh, two or three titles around late 1999/early 2000 (My Fair Lady, The Negotiator, and I can't think of anything else) before it was ash-canned (they at least used the name again for the two-disc Looney Tunes set).

The average marketing umbrella name lasts just about as long as the average martketing VP's time in that position.

Regards,

 

[Amy Mormino]

Regarding those deleted scenes Ernest went into such fine detail on: Yikes! I though the movie in its finished form was traumatic just having with Bambi's mother's death. I shudder to think of the effect throwing in the shooting death of the lovable Thumper would have had on the audience. The audience may have cheered the hunter's death, however.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Just imagine if they'd left in the rutting scene.

 

[Steven Wesley]

Man Ernest, how do you know all this stuff?

It's great... you are a fountain of knowledge!

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Regarding those deleted scenes Ernest went into such fine detail on: Yikes! I though the movie in its finished form was traumatic just having with Bambi's mother's death. I shudder to think of the effect throwing in the shooting death of the lovable Thumper would have had on the audience."

I love Walt's work in the mid-30's-to-mid 40's. He was pushing animation into unknown territory each time out -- even something as seemingly innocuous as Dumbo broke new ground. What Orson Welles was to live-action, Disney was to animation (Welles even claimed that he borrowed staging ideas for Citizen Kane from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Both took it on the chin in the early 40's.

Bambi was a huge leap forward in dramatic storytelling in the animated medium, and I'm sometimes puzzled by the lack of interest in it as a work of serious animation. Perhaps this is because of the late 80's and 1990's marketing campaigns for Bambi on home video, which targeted very young children as the primary audience. Bambi is pretty heavy stuff - and my mind boggles at the idea of young children seeing this film in 1942. Children of today are somewhat desensitized to violence and trauma through frequent exposure to violence on TV (toddlers are being shown the Harry Potter movies as we speak). In early 1942, Bambi must have been a jolting experience for young children, proof that the film really wasn't intended for young children, but for older kids and their parents. I think it is borderline irresponsible for Disney to sell this film like a children's film, as they did in 1988.

"The audience may have cheered the hunter's death, however."

If they did, then Walt would have failed, because the death of the hunter proves to Bambi and his father that Man is an animal just as they are, and that Nature was a greater force than Man. I don't think cheers would have been the reaction Walt was going for.

To be frank, I'm actually curious about this DVD set, wondering if any of these deleted scenes and abandoned sequences will make it to the DVD - especially with the kid-centric bonus features. It will be a shame if they remain locked in the vault because Disney doesn't want to lose the kiddie toddler audience, because Bambi is not a kiddie-todler film. Alongside Fantasia, it is a testament to animation as a mature art form capable of great, mature drama, and i hope that achievement is not lost under a pile of Eisner-era corporate mush.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Man Ernest, how do you know all this stuff?"



Books. The internet is a great resource for factoids. I have found that - for knowledge and wisdom - books are still king.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I totally agree about the books. A collection of books can be a very strong supplement to DVD and LD extras to say the least.



I started a thread on the UltimateDisney forum that I've tried to bring back to life a couple of times, but it seems I can't get it rolling.



Would it be all right to discuss film-related books somewhere around here?

 

[Mark_vdH]

Ultimate Disney has posted the artwork:

 

[Ernest Rister]

Simply Awful.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Exactly Ernest. I assume that we don’t blame the artist, as he was just following orders.



No wonder Disney movies no longer have any bite or substance, given this is their direction.

 

[Ernest Rister]

The design is poor for a number of reasons -- the header "Bambi" completely obscures the body of the deer, making this, essentially, a floating head cover. The artwork also fails to reflect the content of the overall film in any substantial way. It looks like they are going to once again market this as a film for toddlers.

The design of the head is extremely off-model and it looks like they based it on the cover of the 1997 video release, not the actual 1942 production artwork.

 

[RomanSohor]

my only real issue with this cover is that Bambi's head is severly off... just doesn't look right. Other than that I kinda like the design

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

It looks more like Rudolph with soot on his nose than Bambi.

I think the thing that seems the most off is the coloring, which looks like modern digital comic book coloring, but nothing like the design of the film itself. Ah well, as long as the contents are OK...



Regards,

 

[Mike Frezon]

I look at that cover and say..."where's Bambi?"



Why can't they just use original artwork? Doesn't Disney think its good enough? Why have someone try to make up something new. Its really beyond me.



Here's a pic of Frank Thomas doing some sketches for bambi. Whatever was on that drawing pad (even a coffee stain) would've been more suitable.







That cover looks more appropriate for that in-production direct-to-video sequel that's being talked about.

If anyone wants to compare colors (as posted by Ken above)...

 

[Douglas R]

quote:Simply Awful.

I agree. Surely Disney could produce something more classy for collector's instead of this design which seems to have been produced for the kiddie market.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Ick. At least we know that the film itself is a classic, if not the packaging.