Bambi

***Bambi*** is a 1942 American-German animated drama movie. David Hand was the head director (he was in charge of other directors). Walt Disney made the movie. It is based on the book _Bambi, A Life in the Woods_ by Felix Salten. RKO Radio Pictures  sent the movie to theatres on August 13, 1942. It is the fifth movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story is about a baby deer named Bambi. He learns to grow up in the wild after hunters shoot his mother. The main characters are Bambi (a roe deer) his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his mother), and his friends: Thumper (a rabbit), Flower (a skunk), and Faline (who becomes his wife later).

For the movie, Disney changed Bambi to a mule deer. In the book, Bambi was a Roe deer. However, roe deer do not live in the United States, and Americans know more about mule deer. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield), Best Song (for "Love Is a Song" sung by Donald Novis) and Original Music Score. In June 2008, the American Film Institute wrote a list of its "Top 10"—the best ten movies—after asking over 1,500 people. _Bambi_ came in third in animation. In December 2011, the movie was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. After inflation, it is the tenth highest grossing animated movie.

This movie has a sequel called _Bambi II_.

## The story

A little fawn called Bambi is born in the woods. In his first days of life, he explores the forest around him. He makes a friend named Thumper. Thumper is a rabbit. Bambi learns new words every day. _Bird_ is his first word. He learns _butterflies_, _rain_, and _meadow_. He sees his father (the Great Prince of the Forest) for the first time. The movie first shows Bambi's childhood, such as a walk in the woods, a day in the meadow, and his first experience seeing snow.

The most famous part of the movie is the death of Bambi's mother. Bambi and his mother have trouble finding food. One day, Bambi's mother finds a patch of grass, and they eat. The audience hears scary music (Man's theme). Bambi's mother knows there is danger. She tells Bambi to run. As they run across an icy field, she screams "Faster! Faster, Bambi! Don't look back! Keep running! Keep running!".  Bambi runs away, but there is a gunshot. Bambi gets back to the den but finds that his mother is not there. He walks around, and desperately calls for her. He meets his father, the Great Prince, who tells him that "your mother can't be with you anymore". Bambi follows his father into the woods, taking one last look behind him.

The next spring, Bambi and his friends are young adults. They meet a wise old owl, called Friend Owl. The owl tells them of the dangers of falling in love. They make vows not to fall in love. However, they fall in love at first sight very soon. Bambi falls in love with his old childhood friend Faline. He happily dances in the clouds until another deer named Ronno gets in the way. He tries to get Faline to go with him, but Bambi does not want to. He gets into a fight with Ronno. Bambi wins. He goes on a date with Faline. The Man comes back and makes more trouble for the animals. Bambi saves Faline from some angry dogs.

A forest fire comes and nearly destroys everything. Bambi has trouble getting up, but his father helps him. They both make it to an island where the animals have got together. The next spring, everyone goes to see Bambi and Faline's new fawns (baby deer). The wise owl says that Bambi should be proud. The Great Prince steps down from his current place as king, and Bambi is left standing proudly. A chorus sings the song from the beginning, _Love is a Song._

## Production

Walt Disney wanted to have realistic detail in this animated movie. The artists learned from animal experts. They also visited the Los Angeles Zoo. A pair of fawns (named Bambi and Faline) were shipped from the area of present-day Baxter State Park in Maine to the studio so that the artists could see for themselves how these animals move. The source of these fawns, from the Eastern United States, gave the company the idea to change Felix Salten's Roe Deer to a mule deer. The background of the movie was also the Eastern woodlands. One of the earliest and best known artists for the Disney studio, Maurice "Jake" Day, spent a lot of weeks in the Vermont and Maine forests. He drew pictures and took photographs of deer, fawns, and the wilderness areas around them.

## Cast

- Bobby Stewart as Baby Bambi, the film's title character and protagonist.
- Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi
- Hardie Albright as Adolescent Bambi
- John Sutherland as Adult Bambi (Sources differ on whether Sutherland actually voiced Adult Bambi.)
- Paula Winslowe as Bambi's Mother and the Pheasant
- Peter Behn as Young Thumper, a rabbit friend of Bambi's.
- Tim Davis as Adolescent Thumper and Adolescent Flower, a striped skunk and another friend of Bambi's.
- Sam Edwards as Adult Thumper
- Stan Alexander as Young Flower
- Sterling Holloway as Adult Flower
- Will Wright as Friend Owl
- Cammie King as Young Faline, a female deer whom Bambi eventually falls in love with.
- Ann Gillis as Adult Faline
- Fred Shields as Great Prince of the Forest
- Margaret Lee as Mrs. Rabbit
- Mary Lansing as Aunt Ena and Mrs. Possum
- Otis Harlan as Mr. Mole

None of the voice actors are credited.

### Characters from Bambi

- Bambi, voiced by Bobby Stewart, Donnie Dunagan, Hardie Albright, and Alexander Gould, is the main character in the story. In the first movie, he is often cute and innocent. In the second movie, he feels sad because of the loss of his mother. Bambi tries to live without her. In the second movie he tries very hard to win the attention, support, and love he needs from his father.
- Thumper, voiced by Peter Behn, Tim Davis, and Brendon Baerg, is Bambi's main best friend. In the first movie, he helps Bambi learn new things, like "bird", "flower", and "butterfly". In Bambi II, he helps Bambi try to impress his father. Thumper also spends much of his time running away from his four sisters as he finds them annoying.
- Flower, voiced by Stan Alexander, Sterling Holloway, and Nicky Jones, is a bashful skunk and Bambi's other best friend. In Bambi II, Flower also helps Bambi try to impress his father and is scared of turtles.
- The Great Prince of the Forest is Bambi's father. He is voiced by Fred Shields in _Bambi_ and Patrick Stewart in _Bambi II_. In the first movie, the Great Prince is not around very much. In Bambi II, he feels that a father is not what Bambi needs, and he tries to send Bambi away rather than teach him the ways of ruling the forest. Things are not helped much by the fact that he is used to a quiet life. In spite of this, he learns how to become a loving father and friend to Bambi.
- Faline, voiced by Cammie King, Ann Gillis, and Andrea Bowen, is one of Bambi's childhood friends. She later grows up to become his wife. In Bambi II, her effect on Bambi has changed little since the first movie. Whenever she is around, Bambi mostly becomes tongue-tied and very clumsy. However, when Ronno tries to make Faline leave, Bambi stands up for her, in what looks like a back-to-back screen-shot of a very similar scene in the first film. Also, just like in _Bambi_, Ronno and Bambi have a fight, only this time much shorter. The scene is just like the scene in the first film, and the fight is broken only after Mena comes in. Ronno, still angry, bumps into Bambi causing Mena to fall into one of Man's traps. Then Bambi has to fight a pack of dogs just like he did in the first film.
- Friend Owl, voiced by Will Wright in _Bambi_ and Keith Ferguson, in _Bambi II_, is a friendly but easy to annoy old owl. Thumper and his baby sisters are always waking him up going "Wake Up! Wake Up, Friend Owl!" He will respond going "Oh, NOW what?!" (played for laughs). In Bambi II, Friend Owl is asked by the Great Prince to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi.
- Bambi's Mother, voiced by Paula Winslowe, is Bambi's main parent in the first movie. Her death made many people upset. She has the same voice as Jane Jetson from The Jetsons (1962-1989) on Hanna Barbera. In Bambi II, she is voiced by Carolyn Hennessy and is seen in a dream sequence in which she talks to Bambi.
- The Hunter is a poacher who tries to shoot Bambi. He fails, but he instead shoots Bambi's mother, beginning the most well-known scene of the movie. He is the bad guy of the movie, even though he is never seen.

### Characters from Bambi II

- Ronno, voiced by Anthony Ghannam, fights Bambi for the love of Faline and is generally full of annoyance. According to production notes, Ronno was the unnamed deer who had a fight with Bambi in the original movie.
- The Groundhog, voiced by Brian Pimental (who also directed Bambi II), is the focus of the forest's Groundhog Day celebrations. On February 2 each year, the Groundhog comes out into the forest square and says whether or not winter will last a few more weeks. He hates the job and is scared of his own shadow. He says that "my nerves just can't take it any more."
- The Porcupine, voiced by Brian Pimental (again, director), is a less important character who is very protective of his land. As the forest's troll, he takes joy in keeping animals away from his log home. When Bambi first meets the Porcupine, he leaves humiliated and in pain. When Bambi meets the Porcupine again, the Porcupine ends up being used to fight off the dogs. The Porcupine also causes Bambi to accidentally kiss Faline at the end of the movie.
- Mena, voiced by Cree Summer (who also voiced Kida in Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire), is the doe Friend Owl finds as a mother for Bambi, in order to let the Great Prince keep the forest safe without being distracted. Friend Owl found her just when Bambi and the Great Prince were beginning to bond, nearly ruining the relationship. She grew up with Bambi's mother.

## Release

_Bambi_ was released in theaters in 1942, during World War II. It was Disney's 5th full-length animated movie. _Bambi_ was released again to theatres in 1947, 1957, 1966, 1975, 1982, and 1988. It was then made available on home video in 1989. Even in home video, _Bambi_ has seen many releases, including two VHS releases, in 1989 (Classics Version) and 1997 (Masterpiece Collection Version), and a digitally-remastered and restored Platinum Edition DVD. The Platinum Edition DVD went on moratorium on January 31, 2007.

Bambi was released in Diamond Edition on March 1, 2011, consisting of a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. According to Cinema Blend, this release is set to include multiple bonus features that were not previously included in Bambi home releases: a documentary entitled _Inside Walt’s Story Meetings – Enhanced Edition_, two deleted scenes, a deleted song, an image gallery, and a game entitled _Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition_. The release also marked the first use of "Disney Second Screen", a feature which is accessed via a computer or iPad app download that syncs with the Blu-ray disc, allowing the viewer to follow along by interacting with animated flip-books, galleries and trivia while watching the movie. A UK version of Diamond Edition was released on February 7, 2011.

|Country|Premiere|
| --- | --- |
||August 14, 1942|
||August 21, 1942|
||December 9, 1942|
|Mexico|February 4, 1943|
|Ireland|February 19, 1943|
||April 15, 1943|
||June 4, 1943|
||October 4, 1943|
||January 16, 1944|
||January 17, 1944|
||March 17, 1944 (German speaking region)|
||March 17, 1944|
||September 21, 1944|
||October 12, 1944|
||November 16, 1944|
||July 24, 1945|
||October 15, 1945|
||May 17, 1946|
||December 26, 1946|
||March 3, 1947|
||March 13, 1947|
||August 29, 1947|
||September 18, 1947|
||February 11, 1948|
||April 28, 1948|
||June 14, 1948|
||June 10, 1949|
|- Argentinian inChilean Spanish|August 19, 1949 (_Bambi_)|
|Malaysia|March 16, 1950|
||December 19, 1950|
||May 26, 1951|
||July 27, 1961|
||June 18, 1969|
||December 21, 1987|

## Midquel

_Bambi II_ is a story which takes place after Bambi's mother dies, but before Bambi becomes an adult. It shows the Great Prince of the Forest having trouble raising Bambi, and Bambi not being sure if his father really loves him. The movie was released direct-to-video on February 7, 2006. While the movie was a direct-to-video release in the United States and other countries, including Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, it was a theatrical release in some countries, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, Dominican Republic, France, Mexico, the United Kingdom and some other European countries.

## Titles in other languages

- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- "xi wangzi Bambi" (Cantonese); "xiǎo wángzǐ Bambi" (Mandarin). _Young Prince Bambi_. _Note_: Bambi is pronounced "Bambay" in Cantonese. _Second note_: Early title used _班_ instead of _斑_
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Banbi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- ("Bambi, Prince of the Big Forest"; mostly known as _Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)
- ("Little Deer...Bambi")
- (_Bambi_)
- (_Bambi_)

## Infobox (movie)

- **name**: Bambi
- **image**: Bambi Logo Black.svg
- **director**: **Supervising director**
David Hand (animator), David Hand
**Sequence director**
James Algar
Samuel Armstrong
Graham Heid
Bill Roberts (animator), Bill Roberts
Paul Satterfield
Norman Wright
- **producer**: Walt Disney
- **story**: **Story direction**
Perce Pearce
**Story adaptation**
Larry Morey
**Story development**
Vernon Stallings
Melvin Shaw
Carl Fallberg
Chuck Couch
Ralph Wright
- **starring**: Bobby Stewart
Donnie Dunagan
Hardie Albright
John Sutherland (producer), John Sutherland
Paula Winslowe
Peter Behn
Tim Davis (actor), Tim Davis
Sam Edwards
Will Wright (actor), Will Wright
Cammie King
Ann Gillis
Fred Shields (actor), Fred Shields
Stan Alexander
Sterling Holloway
- **music**: Frank Churchill
Paul Smith (film and television composer), Paul J. Smith (score)
Edward Plumb, Edward H. Plumb (orchestration)
- **studio**: Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions
- **distributor**: RKO Radio Pictures
- **runtime**: 70 minutes
- **country**: United States
- **language**: English
- **budget**: $858,000
- **gross**: $267,447,150