Marc Davis was also involved in production, though not as a supervising animator. If you have Spotify, there is also a great little interview with Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas on the Bambi album that is well worth the 6 minutes. Yes, some of the Nine Old Men were involved! If you missed the Nine Old Men talk, check out my post on Pinocchio. The four men I’m speaking of were the supervising animators here: Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston and Eric Larson. ANIMATIONįour of my favorite animators were the leads on Bambi. It’s also an amazing score in that it leads your emotions without being overwhelming, an important aspect in a film that is trying to not have the main animal characters constantly speaking. It’s subtle, but as the danger grows, so does that portion of the music until it has overpowered the happier portion of the score. In the scenes where there is danger, there is a musical undertone that cuts into the happy or excited main theme. The music is also amazing because of the foreshadowing. During the rain scene, for example, the raindrops make different sounds when they fall on certain leaves (until the downpour starts, then it doesn’t matter). The music beautifully complements the animation, often down to the very second. The team of Frank Churchill and Larry Morey from Snow White was behind some of the music, particularly the Academy Award nominated Love Is a Song, while Edward Plumb assisted with the Score.Įdward Plumb also worked on Dumbo and would work on Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and The Three Caballeros. He and Frank Churchill seem to have made a good team on this one. All the music is performed by a choir and takes place off screen no one who sings is actively part of the film.īambi was also nominated for three Academy Awards in 1943, Best Sound, Recording Best Music Original Song (Love Is a Song) and Best Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. The music in Bambi is unique in that it is, according to IMDB (and my own hearing and memory) one of the only Disney movies that does not have the main characters sing at least one song. I will give it this though: Disney and his team did manage to capture a very realistic and beautiful setting. The addition of the adorable animal sidekicks and their highjinx serve to put some humor in a story that, really, is a little terrifying at times. I see his point, but I would argue that overall, Bambi is not really a cozy film. He puts it this way, “when as a child I first saw the film, I responded to the sentiment and the cosiness of it all” (Bailey 1982: 153). Some of the animals are less realistic Bailey calls attention to the baby animals in particular, but they work. Not only did Disney animators study and sketch real deer, they also used as many colors as necessary to create a beautiful, serene forest landscape. His argument goes that Bambi was, for the most part, heavily grounded in realism. This is nothing new, things usually go through a long period of development and planning, but if the film had been slated to be released in 1939 or early 1940, that is a bit of a longer stretch.Īdrian Bailey also calls Bambi a masterpiece, and that makes sense this was the first Golden Age of Disney Animation after all. According to Adrian Bailey in Walt Disney’s World of Fantasy, Disney gained the rights to the story of Bambi by 1936, and they started working on the film in 1937, although it was not released, as I said earlier, until 1942. I think the confusion stems from the fact that Bambi was supposed to be released before Pinocchio. Regardless, I apologize and we’ll backtrack to 1941, and Dumbo, next week. This is incorrect Bambi actually came out in 1942, while Dumbo had a 1941 release. And, of course, if you have any thoughts, burning or otherwise, please share in the comments! BACKGROUND By The Walt Disney Company (Trailer), via Wikimedia CommonsFirst, I was led astray by at least one film historian where I could have sworn that I read that Bambi was released before Dumbo. If you want to skip to the parts that interest you most, feel free. We’re back to the normal format, so, as usual, I have labeled each category. Welcome to Revisiting Disney! Today, we’re looking at that movie which, honestly, ranks very high on the list of “Most Traumatic Film Experiences Ever” for most of us, Bambi! Like The Land Before Time would do years later, this film makes everyone want to hug their mothers and causes you to wonder, did Disney hate children?
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