Review of Bambi II (2006) by Andy G — 22 Feb 2009

I started this week off watching Aladdin. I ended it watching Bambi II. How depressing is that?

All in all, this wasn't a terrible movie. I did, however, remove it completely from the first/ONLY Bambi, which is my favorite of the Disney old school. It made sense to do this. For example, Bambi's mother just died. Even if he didn't completely understand this, he was awfully cheery the following day. Next, the Great Prince's majesty is totally destroyed in this film; the oh so subtle love he had for Bambi is a little too "dadlike" here. Patrick Stewart does a good job voicing him, but... "I was just like you..." are you kidding me? Who wrote this? I didn't have a problem with the side characters; Thumper & his sisters, Flower, and Feline all acted like kids would, except this time 2000s kids instead of 1940s ones. But including Ronno was dumb; again, it takes away from who he was in the first movie while also turning him into the typical bully clown.

So yeah... that's a lot of criticism for a movie I'm gonna give 3 stars to. But it's criticism I recognize and choose to accept. Bambi 2 was made over 60 years after the first one, after all. And even if it's just milking in on the original's endearing character, it does a better job than most. The animation is a lot better than, say, the Aladdin sequels; Bambi for the most part still looks like Bambi, and the Great Prince looks great. The music also sounds just like the original's score, save for the random Alison Krauss song here and there (better they chose her than the Jonas Brothers...) And the story was a cute, entertaining father/son affair. Disney got surprisingly creative with some plot points (the deer decoy, looking for a replacement mom), so props to them for that.

Ultimately, I can't believe that I saw a Disney sequel, so it's a nice feeling that the likability needle was consistently hovering over the positive values. Feel free to watch it, just be sure to separate it from the all-time classic.

"...A Prince does not woo-hoo.".