Bambi

Sorry this post is so late in the week. Things at work got a little hectic and I was still trying to figure out exactly how I felt about the movie.

The story starts out with Bambi the deer being born. As the other animals run to great him, a rabbit stomps his foot against a log to wake up an owl, the character who never seems to age throughout the entire story. Bambi wakes up and everyone says hello to him, welcoming him to the world. There is a montage of Bambi trying to walk and talk, his first word being "bir-duh." We meet Thumper, the rabbit who woke up the own, who laughs at Bambi trying to figure out the world. When Thumper says something he shouldn't, his mother says "Thumper, what did your father tell you?" I find it interesting that the mother cannot discipline. And since we do not see the father during the entire movie, we must assume that the mother raises while the father disciplines. But while there is no job to go to, I cannot figure out why this is the case. We also meet Flower, a skunk that Bambi names.

Bambi's mother (who gets no name, sooooo lame) loves him and tries to teach him about the world. They go to the meadow to graze and play in the grass. Bambi tries to venture out but his mother stops him, explaining that the meadow is a fun but dangerous place. As they go out cautiously, Bambi's mother says that everything is fine. Bambi runs out and enjoys the fun and the sun. He meets Feline, a female deer, and they play and romp. As they're playing, Bambi notices all the other male deer who are fighting and running. He notices the Great Prince, aptly named because he is the oldest of them all. The deer hear man in the forest and they all run. Bambi gets separated from the pack and the Great Prince guides him back to his mother.

We get to see the changing of the seasons with a lovely mixture of blowing leaves and the introduction of snow. Cue the slipping and sliding on the ice (that will probably be later used in 101 Dalmatians). Bambi and his mother are hungry and so they go a-hunting for bark. As the snow begins to melt, they find some new grass that is growing on the meadow. They hear man and Bambi's mother tells him to run and not to look back. He does and we hear a shot that we know to be her death. Bambi is unaware of this and runs back to find his mother when she does not show up behind him at the place where they reside. He gets back to the meadow and the Great Prince tells him "your mother cannot be with you anymore." Bambi's head drops in sadness and the Great Prince says "come with me, my son." This part bothered me and I think it has to do with the attempt to introduce parental duties into a world where female animals get knocked up and that's that. I'm not sure why I have a problem with Disney trying to inflect that parents should take care of their children, but maybe it had to do with the fact that it all felt so forced, so fake.

We next see Bambi as a grown deer. We hear his voice and realize that it has been a few years. We meet an older Thumper and Flower and the old owl explains that it's spring and that everyone gets "twitterpated" in the spring. They all say that nothing's going to happen to them and of course, in turn, they all fall in love. Flower with a lady skunk, Thumper with a female rabbit and Bambi with Feline. Bambi and Feline play and then a different male deer leads Feline away from Bambi even though she protests. For this reason ALONE I would never let my young children (you know, the non-existent ones) watch this movie. The fear of the rape that could have followed upset me more than Bambi's mother dying. Bambi fights with the other deer, as he saw others do on the meadow with his mother, and his rage finally allows him to overthrow the other deer.

Feline and Bambi walk off into the wilderness and fall asleep together. Bambi is awakened and sees that "man is in the forest again," as the Great Prince puts it. The following scenes deal with the chasing of the deer by very scary dogs and a fire that destroys almost the entire forest. We see that a lot of the animals in the forest do not make it out alive, although we do not see them die, we just see the sparse numbers that come out.

The next scene shows Thumper and his children thumping to wake up the old owl as Feline has given birth. We see her with two babies as Bambi and the Great Prince look on. The Great Prince turns and walks away and the final shot is of Bambi towering over a rock, the big protector.

Now, I cannot figure it out. Having never seen the movie I always thought that Flower was a female skunk. I can't decide if it's because of the soft voice, the demeanor or the mannerisms, but to me, Flower always seemed to be a female character. Later on, we find out that in fact, Flower,Thumper and Bambi are all male. My question is only why the voices needed to be so soft. Does this point to the fact that children are angelic like women or that little boys are so much like little girls that it doesn't matter? It really bothered me that when we meet them later and they're grown, Flower is male because I really understood him to be female.

I really actually disliked the movie. I thought it was poorly told, badly animated and all around just ugh. I felt like there was so much more they could have done with it, but don't ask me what as I'm not in that business. Sweetie kept trying to tell me that this was made off the profits of Pinocchio (not a lot of profits initially) but I don't think it should have mattered. Disney was the kind of guy who put his house up for collateral when building Disneyland. He could have hired someone to animate it better. I felt that this was Disney's worst movie to date (going from Snow White to Bambi) and that it was sub-par by Disney standards. I'd venture to say that Disney (old and new) thought so as well since there is nothing in the parks that is Bambi.

Next week is Saludos Amigos. I'm excited!