Review of Bambi (2013) by Todd A — 02 Jun 2011

Easily the most impressive visually out of the ones I have reviewed so far. Bambi managed to do a great job capturing how the different animals would move and react to their environment. The deer in particular were very well animated, but the main problem with the Bambi film is that it is about as interesting as watching a pair of deer walk around in my back yard.

You could say that I may be a little biased in this regard, after all I grew up in a well forested area where deer were pretty much regarded as rats with hooves, so you can guess my sympathy for them may be a little limited. Bambi just has no story past being a fast-forwarded look at a baby deer growing into a buck. You may argue that it is a coming of age but there is NOTHING that this film does that the Lion King would not later come along and do far better.

Unlike the majority of the Disney films, this movie really didn't have the feeling that it was made for both adults and children. Instead it played out as if targeted to a very young audience, especially with the "cute" factor cranked all the way up to maximum. I have no problem with films targeted towards younger audiences but from Disney, I'm used to seeing much larger range from them.

The Story is very simplistic. A prince named Bambi is born and the audience watches as he goes through various phases of learning and discovering to become a full-grown buck. Past that there really isn't much else, it is like the film exists solely to show off the very high quality animation of that time period (and it is VERY impressive animation at that).

This film shared many of the problems that Snow White had. Like that film, Bambi relied too heavily on instrumentals rather than comprehensive dialogue, limiting the flow of story and characterization. Unlike Snow White though, it does not carry the same historical significance and comes off as being far duller.