Bambi

For 1942 this movie was adorable. It brought memories of when I saw it the first time when I was small. It was cute, exciting, sad, funny. A perfect animated movie.

Usually, I don't write a review on my opinion of the movie. Usually, I just review the product itself. But I wanted to say a little something. Bambi was never one of my favorite movies growing up. Because of this, I haven't seen this movie in decades. I never even owned it on DVD. Well, times change & I decided that I must collect all of Disney's classic animated features on Blu-ray. So, I had to get Bambi. But am I glad I did. See, I've always been into the art of animation & nobody did it better than the classic Disney artists. And Bambi may be one of the best animated movies of all time. Okay, on to the review. After Disney's stunning release of "Alice in Wonderland", I knew that Bambi would have the same care & quality put into it's remastering. And I was right. It's pristine! Not a spot of grain, dust or any kind of particle. The colors are duller than "Alice", but of course this is the way the original film was. It's a more natural palette, because that's what the film is about, nature & life & death & rebirth. The sound on the disc is wonderful as well. I don't think I ever noticed the beautiful music before I watched it on Blu-ray. Bottom line, is that this release is perfect, as far as the film is concerned. Let's talk about the extras. There are a few behind the scenes & deleted scenes. Most of these are from the DVD release, which I never owned, so they're new to me. One of the Blu-ray deleted scenes is a song called "Twitterpated". Whoever they got to sing the version on this disc is horrible & the song itself is not so good either. Glad it never made the film. Another deleted scene is one from the book. It's about 2 autumn leaves holding on to a branch & having a conversation about life & the unknown afterlife. This deleted scene is semi-animated with a Flash type of animation. The scene itself is a great one, but I'm also glad it didn't make the film. It wouldn't have fit in & probably would have slowed the film down. As usual, with their classic Disney Blu-ray releases, Bambi also has the useless Disney View, which thankfully, you don't have to use. This is where the black side bars can be filled with similar colored paintings, to fill your widescreen TV. The logic behind this is so stupid. For years, we all had 4:3 (square TV's) & when we watched movies that had a different aspect ratio, we watched it with black bars on the top & bottom, in a letterbox format. Sure, people who didn't care about film complained about this & were happy to watch the movie with parts of it chopped off. So, finally, we get widescreen TVs that get rid of, or diminish the black bars. But when watching 4:3 films, we get black bars on the sides. We're not losing any of the film at all & are seeing it at it's regular size. I really can't think why anyone would care that there are black bars on the sides, but apparently, Disney does. So, they fill up the screen, taking away from the film itself. It's my belief that anyone who watches these films with Disney View on should just stop watching movies all together. With Bambi, Disney gives us a new feature called Disney's Second Screen. With this feature you can sync your Apple iPad with your Blu-ray player. While the film plays on both your TV & your iPad, you can play games or read trivia on the movie (I guess). Just another distraction from watching the film itself. Another useless waste of space on the Blu-ray, that maybe 1% of the people who buy this Blu-ray will ever use. I would complain, if the movie itself wasn't perfect. Bottom line, buy it. Well worth it.

Bambi is one hour and ten minutes and was released in theaters on August 13, 1948. The story tells of a baby deer named Bambi who loses his mother to a hunter and is brought up by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest. An adult Bambi falls in love with Faline who is a female deer and has to fight for her against a male deer. At the end of the movie Faline has twins and Bambi is standing next to his father overlooking the forest. Basically that is the cliff note version of the movie. The movie itself is less then a thousand words and in any scene there is not that much dialogue. In the two disc DVD set there are some interesting tidbits. I the first disc you get to hear the story meeting that went on about making Bambi; I don't know if they are the real voices or just actors. Walt Disney sounds like Walter Cronkite. In disc two the most important one is the Backstage Disney and you learn story behind Bambi. One thing the bunny Thumper was not in the original book but was added in midway into the development of the film for comic relief. This is the first and only animated Disney where a non villain is killed in the movie. Due to World War II and other reasons Bambi lost money in the theaters and thus the next six films were the infamous package films. This is the first Disney film where all the songs are sung off screen and not by the characters themselves. Bambi was nominated for three Academy Awards for Original Song, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and Best Sound, Recording. There are more interesting facts in this two disc DVD set. Bambi is a great movie to watch and gets an AAAAA+++++. DVD FEATURES Disc 1 Play Bambi: Inside Walt's Story Meeting Scene Selection 1) Set Up 2) Audio Options a. English b. French c. Spanish 3) Captions Sneak Peeks 1) Cinderella 2) Chicken Little 3) Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest 4) Lilo & Stitch: Stitch has a Glitch 5) Growing Up with Winnie the Pooh 6) Disney Princess 7) Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 8) Porco Rosso 9) The Cat Returns 10) Jojo's Circus Disc 2 Preview Disc 2 Deleted Scenes 1) Winter Grass 2) Bambi's First Snow Games & Activities 1) The Forest Adventure a. Play Game b. Game Index 2) Disney Pedia: Bambi's Forest Friends 3) What's Your Season? Personality Profile 4) Disney's Storytime: Thumper Goes Exploring 5) Virtual Forest Backstage Disney 1) The Making of Bambi: A Prince Is Born a. Story Telling the Tale b. Characters: Drawn To Nature c. Actors Giving Voice To Animals d. Art Design: Impressions of the Forest e. Music: Nature Symphony f. History: Back to the Beginning g. Play All 2) Restoring Bambi 3) The Legacy Continues: A Sneak Peek at the All - New Bambi Movie 4) Disney Time Capsule: 1942 The Year of Bambi 5) The Art of Bambi a. Still Frame Gallery b. Slide Show Gallery i. With Docent Audio ii. Without Docent Audio 6) Tricks of the Trade (excerpt) 7) Inside The Disney Archives 8) The Old Mill: Animated Short (1937) 9) Original Theatrical Trailer (1942) Index VHS FEATURES Previews 1) Hercules 2) George of the Jungle 3) The Hunchback of Notre Dame 4) Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece

When I heard that most of Walt Disney's classic films were "Going back into the Disney Vault," I knew that I had to hurry up and try to order a few that I had grown up with. "Bambi" certainly being one of them; I can recall very vividly sitting down in the leaving room and watching it on VHS. This timeless Disney classic even made its way into my first grade class at one point and the harrowing scene where all the animals in the forest were trying to escape the forest fire set by the evil hunters eventually triggered a discussion about what usually starts forest fires in real life. All kidding aside, watching this classic film on DVD with a renewed perspective, I can say that even though it's been many years since I've viewed this film, I can still remember key plots in this story very clearly. Maybe it's because I watched it so many times growing up that you never truly forget such a heartfelt story in the first place. The two-disc DVD set comes with a new special features disc that highlights the incredibly long and arduous process of bringing this timeless tale to life on the big screen. "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" reveals the collaborative work between Walt Disney himself and many other studio executives as actors and current Disney experts narrate the actual conversation that took place more than sixty years ago set against key scenes in the film as they play out on screen. It's very similar to a director's commentary that would be included in today's blockbuster films. Another very informative behind the scenes segment is "Time Capsule: The year of Bambi". Hosted by Patrick Stewart renowned for his performances in (Star Trek: The Next Generation, A Christmas Carol and the TV movie mini series Moby Dick.) Stewart has recently lent his wonderful acting prestige to the new release of "Bambi 2" where he plays Bambi's father. It's nice to see such a wonderful actor like Stewart getting involved in more family friendly film endeavors. Moving on, Time Capsule examines the era in history where "Bambi" found its way into the hearts of millions around the world and provided audiences with an easy momentary escape from the fears and troubles of World War II. Finally, in "The Making of Bambi" we get to meet the surviving actors of the film and learn how they lent their original talents to a movie that would be destined to become a legend. An interesting fact that I found most insightful was that the former actor who voiced Bambi in the original film later went onto command entire army regiments during his more mature years in adulthood. If you have kids who are dying to watch a great Disney movie or just want to relive a more innocent time of your childhood for nostalgia, "Bambi" is definitely worth getting. As for me, other great classics like Pinocchio, Cinderella and The Lion King are on my "to do list" to check out on DVD.

I've always wanted to own this special movie. I think it might possibly be the first movie I ever watched.

Multiple animals are shot to death in this movie. Excellent thing for children to see.

From the first few moments of the new DVD of "Bambi", as the camera weaves through a forest, you realize you are in for a treat. Recently, on another Disney DVD, they had a documentary about the camera that Disney Studios created to achieve this shot. It contained different levels of glass on which the various parts of the forest were painted. The levels of glass could move up and down, side to side, giving the illusion of a camera panning through an actual forest, weaving between trees. This shot is simply remarkable. On the DVD, it is also restored, giving the shot the illusion of a photograph. As the camera moves into the thicket, all of the other forest creatures are excited. The new Prince has been born. Soon, we see Bambi, a new fawn, sleeping at his mother's side. As the other animals approach, Bambi wakes up and tries to stand on his wobbly legs. As he grows, he meets Thumper, a rabbit, and Flower, a skunk and they have all manner of adventures together. "Bambi", originally released in 1942, is one of the Classics that Disney himself worked on. It is a beautiful film to watch. All of the backgrounds were rendered by hand and some appear to be so lifelike they can pass for photographs. Because the film was restored for this DVD, these pictures are bright and clear, and might have been animated yesterday. Yes, animated films have a reputation of hordes of talking, fuzzy animals, and that certainly holds true in "Bambi". What is refreshing here is that the characters aren't annoyingly cute. Also, the film is balanced nicely with scenes of darkness and menace. For every cutesy scene, there is a scene of Bambi and his mother walking through the winter landscape looking for food. For every scene of twitterpation, there is a scene of Bambi and his mother running from hunters. "Bambi" is not a perfect film, but it comes close. My one complaint is that the film appears more episodic than Disney's other classics. This is partially mandates by the story. The film follows the course of Bambi's life from one season to the next. But the film appears more episodic than necessary because each season is broken up by a short piece depicting leaves falling, snow melting, etc. "Bambi: The Collector's Edition" follows a long line of high quality, fun and informative Disney DVDs. The Disney DVDs of the classic films are truly encyclopedias on disc. They always contain the absolute best quality of sight and sound, using the best quality print they can find. Often, they have restored the print. They also contain tons of archival footage. Perhaps the stand out in the "Bambi" package is called "Inside Walt's Story Meetings", a new documentary hosted by Patrick Stewart (more on him later). While preparing this DVD, they found transcripts of the story meetings during the making of this film and have created a new documentary out of this material. Can any aspiring or working filmmaker not watch this? This is fascinating stuff that will surely educate anyone with an inkling to learn more about film. Disc Two contains a lot of other archival material and Making Of stuff. Previous Disney DVDs have been organized in a way that seems to fit. The film and the `family friendly' material were on Disc One. The more educational and archival material were on Disc Two. In "Bambi", they have not used this formula. The film and "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" are on Disc One. The other archival material and `family friendly' games and material are on Disc Two. I am not sure why they changed this, but it seems odd. Disney is a company that has a well-built marketing machine. Just about everything is made or released with some other promotion or goal in mind. "Bambi" is being released on DVD to generate revenue for the company, but also to promote the new Direct to DVD film "Bambi and The Prince of The Forest". Of course, there is a preview for the new film on the disc. It appears that the story of the new film is an elaboration of a brief sequence in the original. The new film depicts the relationship of Bambi and his father (Patrick Stewart) after the tragic events in the original film, but before Bambi grows up. From the few scenes in the trailer, they have captured Bambi, Thumper and Flower well, but the backgrounds appear stale and two-dimensional. "Bambi: The Collector's Edition" is a definite must have. If you have kids, you need to expose them to what quality animation looks like. If you are an aspiring filmmaker, you need to have access to the encyclopedia of information contained on the two DVDs. If you are an adult, you will want to relive the moments that moved you when you were a child.

Bambi is unquestionable a masterpiece. It's one of the best pictures in the Disney catalog and one of the best pictures ever made. It's simple coming-of age story is so pure, so fill with heart and so honest that you can't help but stare in awe throughout its all too brief 70 minutes. Bambi is filled with moments of joy, sadness, danger, courage, love that helps the story be so timeless as it is. A story so excellent as this one is accompanied by some of the best work of animation that have ever come from Disney. The backgrounds are simply amazing and the characters are so well drawn that you have a sense of reality that not many animated films had. A fantastic score is also one of the many great additions that make Bambi the great classic movie that it is. This film represented the end of the golden age period when the five movies released by Disney until that time (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi) pushed the boundaries and made animation an art form of unquestionable beauty. Following the excellent BD sets of Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, Bambi is the third movie in the Diamond line and the results are spectacular. Disney is a master in restoring its classic films and Bambi is no exception. The picture is so pure, so clean, so detailed that you will see much more that you ever had before. No artifacts, edge enhacedement and other issues are encountered in the picture. An oustading restoration for an outsatnding film. Likewise, in the audio department, Bambi has been given a new 7.1 Dts-HD HR audio. While this High Resolution audio is not losseless (as the Master Audio), is very effective and I don't think Bambi could hear any better. Dialogue is crisp and clear and the score sounds magnificently. Also the restored mono soundtrack is included. When I first pre-order this set, I watched in dismay that this Diamond will only have 1 BD instead of two like the other Diamond titles. Well, let me tell you that I don't think there's a need for another one. The first thing that you will encounter in the bonus features department is the new "Disney Second Screen". This features syncs the movie with an app in your laptop or ipad and you can watch the movie while additional information appears in the computer. I have to say that this feature is quite entertaining and makes you dive better into the film. The only problem is that the movie goes real fast so you may miss some features but the good news are that you can watch this things on your own without the film (although is not quite as entertaining). Then you have the "Inside Walt's Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition". While this feature appeared in the Platinum DVD, this Enhanced mode is way better. As with the Hyperion Studios and Beyond Beauty material in the previous Diamond title, this is a new interactive way to learn more about the making of Bambi. Several actors reenact the parts of Walt and the others involved in the film and you are literally transported in time and is like being in those meetings with them. Simply amazing. Then you also have two new deleted scenes, one newly found song "Twitterpated (which I think was good it stayed out of the movie) and an interactive art gallery. Carried from the Platinum DVD is the fantastic making-of documentary "The making of bambi: A Prince is Born", a excerpt of a Walt Disney TV show where he explains the use of the multi-plane camera, the animated short "The old Mill", two deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer. The only things that I miss from the Platimun are the time capsule featurette and promotional art gallery. A DVD is also included with the film in SD. It looks better than the Platinum but nothing compared to the BD. Bambi is a film that should be in every film collection and this Diamond Edition is a perfect way to own it. With an amazing restoration that brings new life to the film and fantastic and inmersive bonus material this is a must-own release for a must-own movie. Bambi is a timeless classic that I wholeheartely recommend to everyone. Hurry and just buy it!! PD: You should know that this Diamond Edition of Bambi like the Diamond editions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Beauty and the Beast, comes in two packagings: one in BD packaging and the other in standard DVD packaging. However, both contain the same things: one BD and one DVD. If you want the 2-disc DVD only edition you'll have to wait until April 19.