Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Bambi (1942)

Directed by James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright

Starring Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey, Peter Behn

Author

Made back when Disney made real classics. The sheer spectacle of the integration of music with high-quality color animation was enough to woo audiences back then, and the films were not yet ruined by toy merchandising, the abuse of pop songs, fast cuts, and commercialism in general. Unfortunately, today the quality of the animation is only slightly better than Saturday morning cartoons. It’s neat how people (and cartoon animals) talked in the 40’s.

The story of a young forest animal’s rise to manhood, a lot like Lion King. Let me get this straight, lions are kings and deer are princes? But not much of a story or drama overall, and not much of a character arc for Bambi. Amazing that fathers (for both Bambi and Thumper) were leaving the home and neglecting their children way back in the 40’s. Thumper getting twitterpated (where the hell did they get that word) was great. I would have liked to see more of Thumper. Great tension when Bambi sees the Prince of the Forest. And the battle scene, with it’s quick cuts, harsh music, expressionistic lighting, and violent colors was great.

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