Review - Disney's Bambi (1942)

The next installment of the Disney Animated Feature Fest, this review is for Bambi (1942).

Bambi is a relatively basic coming of age story deeply entrenched in “SQUEEEEEE!”

Seriously, it’s hard to find the story behind the adorable animals. During the majority of the movie, I was so distracted by the fuzzy baby animals, it was hard to care about the characters in any way other than that they were so cute. I literally didn’t want Bambi to have bad things happen simply because he was helpless. It’s not fantastic story telling, but it does the job adequately. Unlike other Disney movies, this one is purely for the kids. There is typically something for the adults in a Disney movie, but this one directs itself right to the little ones.

And that’s okay. There are other qualities to the movie I did really like. The color scheme shifts wildly, not because of the season or the weather, but in order to illustrate Bambi's psychological state. It’s traditional theater lighting in animation, setting the tone and following the feeling of the players. The music is also enjoyable. The choral work is extremely effective, particularly on songs like 'Love Is A Song' (Oscar nominated), 'I Bring You A Song' and 'Little April Showers.’ Jamie wouldn’t stop talking about Little April Showers.

For the most part, Bambi takes place during the infancy of the title character, Bambi, the Little Prince of the Forest. We watch as he gets his legs, learns to talk and make friends. This all happens slowly, and turns basically into small vignettes in the young deer’s life. This includes 3 run-ins with ‘Man.’ The first is where Bambi is introduced to the Meadow and also his father. In this scene, he meets future wife Faline and also sees manly prancing deer on parade. After this, Man comes in and ruins everything The second run in happens after a long, hard, oddly realistic winter, when Bambi’s mom watches him scarf down on some spring grass. Man comes in and shoots her. Oddly, I didn’t cry when Bambi’s mother is killed by a hunter like I thought I would. It wasn’t as sadly set as other death scenes, I suppose. Or maybe it’s just a known fact that Bambi’s mother didn’t hear the one with her name on it and I remembered what happened.

Anytime Man is in the forest, we hear a very foreboding underscore. It’s only 3 notes played over and over, but it effectively does its job. It succeeds in the third Man sequence especially, as this is the one that is the creepiest. Instead of showing the quiet fear of the deer, it focused on the psychological fear and anxiety of all the animals. Man comes back in droves and goes on a killing spree, bullets ring out everywhere and whomever has the gun really needs lessons. They’re just shooting willy nilly, but it’s enough to induce a panic One haunting moment is where there are three quails hiding in the brush, one starts to panic, and succumbs to instinct to fly, rather than stay in the brush. Hers is the only dead body we see.

Bambi moves relatively slowly for a 64 minute film. Whereas Dumbo moved like a rocket, Bambi slows down. Probably because there is no real plot to speak of. Though, the part that moved really quickly was the puberty-in-the-forest. All of a sudden, Bambi, Thumper and Flower are grown up and ready for the ladies. In turn, Flower finds another Flower, Bambi once again finds Faline and Thumper ends up with Santa Claus.

Overall, Bambi was fun, but relatively unsubstantial.  There are a few realistic lessons we do take away from the movie:

1) Animals do not live in nuclear families. Bambi lives with his mother only, his presumptive father is off in the background.

2) Animals often go hungry in the winter.

3) Male animals must be prepared to fight rivals as a prelude to mating.

4) Man (here assisted by vicious canine lackeys) is easily the most dangerous predator to animals.

5/10

Review - Disney's Dumbo (1941)

My brother Jamie and I are embarking on a quest to watch the entire sequence of Disney animated features in order. I decided to catalog my thoughts during the process. This review is for Dumbo (1941).

This is one ugly duckling story that is worth watching over and over. As a child, I did. I remember sitting in the living room of my grandparents house, watching this and Winnie the Pooh over and over. It’s only about 60 minutes long, but as a child, I remember it being much much longer. However, that’s probably because Disney packs in the entire story and moves at a pace that could assist a NASCAR racer.

Because Dumbo doesn’t say a word, his entire persona is portrayed through astonishingly emotional silence. Through his sweet, adorable demeanor, he smiles and flirts and cries and He’s his own silent movie in world of talkies. I think this is one of the most important aspects of the movie. If Disney had given Dumbo a voice, the movie would have been cute, but completely different, and I think it’s the better for what it is.

After his mother is violently locked up for protecting her baby, Dumbo is all alone in the world…. until Timothy Q. Mouse shows up, Dumbo’s personal, less sophisticated, but likeable version of Jiminy Crickett. He’s more than Jiminy though, and Disney wins it here, because not only does he give Dumbo a voice, he gives Dumbo an ally. There is a scene where Timothy scares the gossipy, bitch elephants because they were shutting Dumbo out. He rolls up his sleeves, marches into the Pachyderm Circle of Bitch and scares the crap out of them.

Though, if I’m honest, I do wish some of the elephants had been male, so women were not portrayed as either sweet mothers or rude, gossipy, vainglorious and self important bitches. But I was actually less offended by that than I normally would be.

Probably because there are plenty of other male characters who are just as bad. The Ringmaster is an out and out douche and the clowns are drunk jerks trying to make a mint off of Dumbo’s ears. When all of these characters get their comeuppance, I was so satisfied and smug. Cheering and calling to the TV, I realized that the writing was so good, and through the portrayal of Dumbo as an innocent victim (he’s JUST A BABY, YOU HEARTLESS JERKS!)  being ridiculed by those who should accept him, that Disney had reeled me in incredibly effectively. I didn’t even see it coming.

All the characters, are painted with broad, memorable strokes. Even the Jim Crow crows and all their uncomfortable associations. It was a little difficult for me to watch without cringing slightly. But it should be pointed out that the crows are not only the film's cleverest characters (both in terms of thought and language), they are also the only ones except Timothy to show any sympathy whatsoever to the little elephant; after all, they are outsiders themselves. The sequence is a play on a stereotype, that can't be denied, but it almost seems that it is an attempt to revise that stereotype into something positive and sympathetic, since the crows have character development (as opposed to the racial stereotypes in Fantasia where it was simply stylized entertainment). The real situation I was truly surprised about was the faceless black men who raised the circus tent singing gospel-like working songs. I suppose, though, it really represented the working black men of the time, free but unable to get ‘dignified’ work, trying to shrug off the ‘sins’ of their parents and grandparents, descendents of the slaves, the ones no one wants to talk about.

The design is beautiful and deceptive in its simplicity. While it may lack the incredibly detailed quality of Snow White and Pinocchio or the overstuffed, pretentious one of `Fantasia,' the style of Dumbo is elegant, vivid, and occasionally grotesque in ways that recall not only classic circus posters but also Paul Cadmus paintings and vintage `New Yorker' cover art. For all its dark story elements, the film presents a rosy-hued portrait of old America that must have seemed very comforting as audiences prepared for the unforeseeable terrors of another World War. (A `Dumbombers for Defense' poster in the film's epilogue and German born and Nazi sympathizer Herman Bing voicing the cruel and violent Ringmaster are some of the more poignant references to an increasingly unsteady world situation.)

The songs and score are flawless. Sung by an all male group, with close, fantastic, almost barbershop quartet-ish harmonies, and the show-stopping, ultra awesome nightmare pink elephants keep things from getting too artistically conservative--and, just like the rest of the film, it still thrills no matter how many times I’ve seen it. Baby of Mine, however, continues to be one of the most beautiful sequences in animation history. Heartbreakingly, Dumbo and his mother have contact only by touching trunks, through the bars in the window of her cell. The song plays as she cradles him in her trunk, and when Dumbo leaves she can't see him, and she stretches her trunk as far as she can out the window to try and reach him, and OMG SOBBING.

Dumbo presents a story that everyone can identify with- the importance of having someone to look after you, fitting in, being the outsider, and accomplishing something over odds with the world. I loved every minute it.

10/10.