The Bambi-Godzilla War

The Bambi-Godzilla War is a 2026 British independent epic kaiju slasher crossover film directed by Dan Allen and written by Rhys Warrington and Amy Jump. Produced by Jagged Edge Productions and distributed by Umbrella Entertainment, it is a horror reimagining of Felix Salten's 1923 coming-of-age novel Bambi: A Life in the Woods and a reboot of the Godzilla franchise, and is currently the 39th Godzilla film, the first installment in the Childhood-Kaiju Joint Universe (CKJU), the first crossover film from Jagged Edge Productions and the first Godzilla film to be completely produced by a British film studio, as well as the first in the franchise to be produced independently and the first in the franchise's Londinium era. In addition to featuring Godzilla and a vicious, bloodthirsty iteration of Bambi, the film additionally features other Toho kaiju including Rodan, Mothra, Baragon, Biollante, Destoroyah, and Kamacuras to name a few and sadistic reinterpretations of other public domain children's characters including Rapunzel, the Big Bad Wolf, the Cheshire Cat, Sleeping Beauty, Mowgli from The Jungle Book, and Pinocchio again to name a few. The ensemble cast features Roxanne McKee, Tom Mulheron, Joseph Greenwood, Samira Mighty, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Nicola Wright, Alex Cooke, Ewan Borthwick, Catherine Adams, Big Tobz, Adrian Relph, Luke Cavendish, David Ambler, Jackie Chan, Chris Cordell, Yui, Marcus Massey, Allen, Judi Dench, Elizabeth Olsen, David Tennant, Alechka Nasyrova, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Keith David, Lora Hristova, Tanishq Raikwar, Frederick Dallaway, Philip Philmar, Toby Wynn-Davies, Lewis Santer, Javier Botet, Josh Brolin, Chrissie Wunna, Kelly Rian Sanson, and Belinda Fenty. In the film, single mother Xana and her son Benji team up with a secret organisation to survive and save the people of England following a car wreck caused by an unfortunate encounter with Bambi, who will destroy anything and anyone in its path and, along with other monsters such as Rapunzel and the Cheshire Cat, is at war with an army of kaiju led by the omnipotent Godzilla.
The film was announced in November 2022, as The Bambi-Godzilla War: Chapter One. Allen, who previously worked with Jagged Edge Productions as the director for their 2021 film It Came from Below and their 2020 remake of Unhinged, came on board to direct in August 2023, and a month later Warrington and Jump signed on to write the script, which takes inspiration from Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), Cujo (1983), Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), The Ritual (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and its direct sequel Avengers: Endgame (2019), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), and Captain America: Civil War (2016). In 2024, Jagged Edge Productions shortened the title to The Bambi-Godzilla War. Filming began in January 2025 in the English countryside and Hokkaido, with a large ensemble cast including McKee as Xana and David as the voice of the Cheshire Cat. The production lasted until July 2025, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel, Dawn of the Bambi-Godzilla War (2027). Additional filming took place in Scotland, the Kantō region, Hiroshima, and Leicester Square.
The Bambi-Godzilla War premiered at Vue West End on October 29, 2026, and began a three-day limited theatrical release in the United States by Fathom Events on October 31, before a wide release in the United Kingdom and Australia by Umbrella Entertainment on November 6, with Toho releasing it across Japan thereafter on November 12. The film received universal acclaim, with several critics calling it the best Godzilla film to date and Jagged Edge Productions' only good film overall; they praised its story, characters, dark tone, balance of suspense and emotional weight, thematic profundity, direction, screenplay, characters, social commentary, kills, action sequences, and production values, particularly the visual effects, special effects, prosthetic makeup for characters such as The Big Bad Wolf, creature designs, and especially the Pinocchio puppet created exclusively for the film, although its lengthy runtime received criticism. It was also a financial success, grossing $140 million against a production budget of $10 million, and won seven out of ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Director for Allen and one for Best Visual Effects, among many other accolades.