Bambi: How Disney Plays with Nature | Big Joel
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
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Hey everybody, in this video, I talk about Disney's 1942 film, Bambi. The movie is obsessed with nature. It uses both its characters and its animation to send one clear message: "nature is important and great." In this video, I look closely at Bambi to figure what, exactly the film means by the word "nature," and I explore what it's trying to say through its depiction. 
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I also never looked at Bambi as a 'happy animals ' movie because the mother's death overtakes all of that I suppose in the mind of a child. That and the relationship with the father was strained , so the movie always had this sad tinge to it for me.
No matter that’s the image people see in Bambi. And he’s a laughing stock of Disney’s reputation. Also, how much Disney merchandise do you see of adult Bambi?(but we get both cub and adult Simba)
That’s even exactly why people make fun of Bambi for being “cute little mama’s boy”. There was never a time when Disney didn’t stop doing stuff that earned it its said reputation.
Relationship with his father is strained. Like mine with my father loool 😂
I Don't know… Bambi's mom dies by the end of act 2. it does overtake the remaining of the movie, but not bambi's childhood, which I remember as "happy animals the movie". It's cute, it's artistic, it's beautifully animated, it's well-scored, it's plotless, and it's quite nostalgic.
I Don't really remember the end however.
For me, it wasn’t really sad, but kind of dark and creepy.
I loved watching Bambi when I was too little to understand a lot of diologue. It had beautiful music, captivating atmosphere, and lovable characters. As an artist, I continue to admire this film. It’s one of Walt Disney’s best works of art.
I agree. For me, it's a tossup between this and Fantasia.
Big Joel I look forward to seeing more videos. 👍
I also am an artist and I totally agree, this film has to be the most artistically beautiful of all of the Disney animated films. Simple yet beautiful to watch. It was always my favorite, ever since I was a small child, and I've been drawing since I was old enough to pick up a pencil. It always appealed to me artistically.
Maria D'Angelo Lol. We had the same childhood. I started drawing when I could hold a pen snd my parents didn’t know what to do with me since neither of them draw. So movies that impacted me artistically were Bambi, Little Mermaid, Anastasia (Fox film), and Spirit (Dreamworks). Especially Spirit, where the bonus features had an animator talk to me and show me the steps of how to draw a character. With the spark of animation on youtube in the last few years, I once again have been inspired to create. That’s why I changed my youtube name, in hopes of soon uploading once I learn a bit more about the technology behind animation.
Big Joel Bambi is a awesome film
Also, Disney was super-committed to showing nature in all its glory for many decades to come. Their representation of nature was often staged (poor, poor lemmings) but it was almost a mission of Disney to show nature in film form as much as possible. Not in animation to this extent before or after Bambi, but certainly in documentary style.
their books got this too
Every time I think about what happened to those poor lemmings, I bawl my eyes out
Walt and his studio spent an uncountable number of man hours studying the movement of all kinds of forest animals for this movie. They paid great attention to the detail behind those water drops and the way the wind moved. He even developed a whole new camera for filming the different layers of the forest. Walt wanted to show off his artistic and story-telling skills with Bambi, that's for sure, but there was obviously more to it.
The script for Bambi was super thin because there were hardly any spoken words. About 1000, give or take, if I remember right. This placed the entire movie on pure performance. Walt challenged himself on creating characters that connected to the audience so much the viewers would cry when it was time for Bambi's mother to die or fear for Bambi's life in the fire.
To me the story itself is about life. How it continues on despite the death and destruction that occur. It rebuilds itself because that's the natural order of things. Of course, it is also about the love and care we need to take regarding the natural world. And your idea of the 1940 family status is plausible, though I believe it to be a retrospective outlook. I hardly think that's what Disney was initially thinking when he decided to adapt this movie.
What stands out to us looking at it from our time, like the "family values" may have been so "natural" or given to the creators at that time that they maybe didn't even reflect on i? I'm not sure as I didn't live then. If they felt family values were threatened so they wanted to enforce them or if they were just taken for granted?
@@frida507 i dont think its a matter of whether they felt threatened about the nuclear family. Like op said, the nuclear family is a retroactive idea that was coined much later on.
Walt knew what he was doing when he decided to make a distant father figure, and he knew that that kind of relationship would be relatable to the young audience he was making this film for.
Here I would defend joel's analysis, because even if hes using terminology that is only retroactive, its still a valid interpretation of the decisions that the studio decided to make in its production.
@@andresabantoenns9697 I didn't live then so hard to know... some culture reflects the time and some may want to shape the future, and in that case maybe reflect the IDEAL of the time. Especially children's culture I guess.
In the original Felix Salten's novel, there is a theological component about what nature is, changing through the seasons in an endless cycle. In the forest, Man is always referred to as "He" and it is believed He takes the lives of animals because perhaps he provides life. Believing this, Gobo, a friend of Bambi, happily approaches a hunter thinking he will not hurt him, despite Bambi's warnings to not approach him. Of course, he is shot dead, as Bambi's mother before him. After the fire, the animals find the burned corpse of the hunter, realizing that he´s not the one who gives or takes life, but someone beyond him and all of them. This part of the novel was going to be in the movie, but animators told Disney they could not draw a corpse, and Disney had to accept it.
I think Disney's vision is closer to Salten's orignial - both fought in World War I - and I think even more than if the public related it to the American world of the 1940s was for a purely circumstantial reason. Gone With the Wind, the most successful film in the history of cinema, also told the story of a happy world destroyed by war, and about a protagonist surviving to it. On the other hand, Bambi didn't cover its production budget, and Disney was forced to do something as different as Saludos Amigos the same year, and propaganda and musical films the years after, to survive a long crisis, until Cinderella in 1950. But Bambi transcends time; today's hunters hates it, the death of Bambi's mother continue traumatizing children, from its time to this days. Manga´s God Osamu Tezuka saw it more than 80 times, and soviet filmmaker Eisenstein praised it. It's not a small thing.
I read the book also and was surprised to find that Walt kept fairly close to the original concept, or as much as he could with the restrictions placed on movies at the time. Especially when I know that he loved to toy around and 'enhance' aspects of other adaptions the studio did. (mostly for the better)
I wonder how pleased he would be with Bambi, Pinocchio, and his other war time movies and the high regard we see them as today? It was thanks to WW2 that those films opened to such dismal numbers in the 1st place. The Amigo movies weren't that bad, rather an inventive animation style for the times. I guess we have WW2 to thank for those also as they came out as a result of Walt's good-will tour of South America.
The book was not meant to be with Disney. It was originally sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, only for poor specials effects at the time failed them and and MGM worker suggested Disney, but didn’t know they target kids merchandising. And the author had a hard time in the end. Soon after the film not only did he l, but due to being in exile from Nazis in his country he sold rights to the character name.
And also how much Disney stuff do you see of adult Bambi? Disney makes things cutesy with some of their films. It’s probably also the reason they made Bambi a midquel instead adapting the second book, Bambi’s children.
This is an enlightening comment! Thanks for sharing it.
*many of todays hunters hate it. Many really don't care. Some love it
@@acspectator8636 I think you're taking that comment I made too seriously. Yes, Disney markets the cuter fawn Bambi, but Disney's marketing is far and away from Walt's original artistic direction, most companies with their creative teams are (hence why executives are often so despised). They don't use adult Bambi because the most iconic parts of the story aren't about adult Bambi (compared to the Lion King where everything is building up to the final climax with adult Simba, while with Bambi it's just another flow of his life). Notice how little merchandise there is of Faline as well for example, because the most memorable moments are more with Thumper and Flower, despite them arguably having less screentime. The one exception appears to be Thumper's girlfriend who is inexplicably really popular in merchandising (though even she appears to be aged down to fit the rest of their marketing).
I think ultimately the reason Bambi is shrugged so often is that it was ambitious and aimed towards those besides the passive market, it was an art piece. If you don't appreciate a film for its art and undertones then all you have is at face value, and that is why so many sadly assume Bambi is just an hour long schmaltz about a cute little deer. Notice many fans who aren't primarily animation/art/film enthusiasts tend to prefer more modern counterparts like The Lion King or even its own follow up, Bambi 2, because outside that department there's more of a conventional story and character arc for them to understand, even if it isn't nearly as revolutionary a film as the first Bambi.
MORE DEER PUNS!
I'd never really considered how the year played into this film, but once you pointed it out-especially with the mother-child family relationship-it's unmistakable. I only saw Bambi a few times growing up, but your video caused me to notice the extreme and profound attention to detail in the animation, and this now reminds me of some of studio Ghibli's films from the 80's and 90's which I enjoy partially because of their specificity. I'll have to re-watch Bambi soon with a new perspective. Good work!
I have no idea how you haven't gotten massive traction yet. This is quality content, man.
Polnaszek5 If you want to see quality content look up KaptainKristian
Byron Scholar I’m already subbed
Polnaszek5 Thought you might be haha
Well, he’s only started making videos, like, six months ago. Right? But I blame youtube for thinking it knows what people want to watch.
ArtLover Animation Kristian's first video was as good as his most recent even. He was obviously doing something similar previously.
There's an interesting thing abt the early movies that you've honed in on which is that Disney's early movies cribbed a lot from Romantic era fairytales (or the re-creation of those fairy tales) which are stories which tried to recreate the feelings of the aristocratic era, an era where lack of agency is a given. Snow White and Bambi are both stories where characters aren't the protagonists of their own lives, and the stories see that as kinda good. That could never be done in our post-modern era
First cousin incest moral panic is funny to me in a video that references the Lion King - a movie that elegantly glosses over the fact that Simba and Nala are most likely half-siblings.
Incestious relationships are not that much of a big deal in the animal kingdom (or old egypt for that matter...) anyways, but nevertheless it would have been the real life reason Simba would have been forced to leave his Pride.
The lionesses stay toghether, but young lions are forced into the wild on their own until they are strong enough to take over a diffrent pride.
Some build little 'teenager gangs' or even lifelong attachments to other lions during that time, leading to dual headed prides sometimes.
And just to end this comment on a cheerey note, after having ousted or killed the former pride leader the new lion will kill all of the cubs in the pride, so that the lionesses become fertile faster again. They will even calculate back and kill cubs that are born shortly after their arrival as they reconize them as not their own. Mufasa presumably had a lot of 'circle of life' speeches prepared to help him sleep at night.....
Hmm, I don't know if I presented it as a moral panic, more like a fun tidbit. I mean, people married their cousins a fair amount in the time this book was written, I think.
I didn't mean it in a bad way, like I said I just found it amusing. :)
I think it was mostly the way you were saying: 'And evryone is just coll with it...I guess', implying there's reason to not be cool with it.
1st cousin marriages are just much less scandalous over here. ;)
Haha sorry if I came off as confrontational there. It's interesting that first cousin marriages aren't totally taboo in all countries. I didn't know that.
You didn't come off as confrotational, it's all good! :)
Thanks for replying anyways, it's nice to see a creator engage with their audience like that.
Also, yeah first cousin marriages are perfectly fine in Europe, Canada and Mexico among other countries as well.
Personally, I still don't think doing it excessively is very healthy in the long run, but as long as you don't repeatedly intermarry within your own family over generations (like european nobility...eherm) it should be fine from a health standpoint.
The story ended up with birth of two deer siblings. There could be a part 2 with a more disturbing incest.
Bambi is still my favorite disney film, probably because it is so unlike the others. It's not about good and evil, angst or a once in a lifetime romance. It's about the passage of time, the changing of seasons and heart. As a child you can watch it for the colorful and happy parts, but as I've gotten older I appreciate the artistry and grace with which the movie depicts and embraces nature and change.
It's interesting to think about the context the artists were creating in, and how that subconscious (or conscious) nostalgia and representation of American life leave their fingerprint on Bambi. You did a good job putting into words some things I hadn't considered before.
This is my favorite Disney movie, and loved the novel as a kid. It made me sad, because the novel made it even more apparent about how humans disrupt their natural lives.
They even wrote about leaves falling and not understanding why and where they went. And being scared of the unknown. Made me have deep little kid thoughts lol
I always looked at Bambi more as a coming of age story- you know , idealized childhood, realizing the world is not as simple/loving as you thought it was, and eventually taking your rightful place in the world. I did not stop to reflect on how it does this differently from Lion King, though. I am grateful for your review because it makes me rethink what I took as a given.
I love your dry humor and the way you phrase your points! ^^
I'm reminded of Nostalgia Critic's take on the moment right after the mom's death. Even if his show is meant to be funny, his message was still that this moment was somehow a failure on the movie's part to follow a more rigid rule on what's "good" or "correct".
For personal enrichment I prefer your style of "okay they did that thing, what model of analysis would extract the most meaning out of it?"
I could more or less copy+paste this on your The Room video. To regurgitate from corny orientalism and that one Cowboy Bebop episode, your analysis is like water that fits around its object.
I just found you today and I finally feel like I have found "my people", no longer will I be alone in analyzing the rhetoric of shows that I find nostalgic as hell. Thank you!
The scene were the quail gets shot was literally the only thing I could remember from the movie up till like... today. I stg that was the strongest emotional impact a movie has ever had on me lmao.
My problem with the "nuclear family " argument is that people are forgetting one thing: the characters are animals. Male deer don't take an active role in caring for their young while female deer will live together in large herds with their offspring, and in the case of females, does will live with their own daughters forever while never seeking out their sons. Bambi's father being distant and his mother being loving is a humanized model of nature. "Bambi" challenges its viewer (and in the case of the book its reader) to look through the eyes of an animal, but the modern viewer projects human family dynamics onto it.
I'm going to suggest something crazy, but if you're interested in seeing how the family dynamics of "Bambi" could have played out differently, I'd actually watch the direct to DVD sequel they made (it's actually a midquel but it's titled like a sequel). It takes place between the mother's death and Bambi's adulthood, showing his relationship with his father. It shows how family is not such a rigid concept whether you take the "see through the animals" approach or "see humans in the animals" approach.
(Though it copies a lot of scenes from the original and doesn't understand that the original was more about visual storytelling than dialog and characters... so it doesn't shut up)
Hmm I think this is a really interesting comment. If Bambi wanted to be a perfect reflection of the way nature actually functioned, you're right, Bambi's dad would be distant. But I guess I would ask you the question: Why does Bambi seem to monogamously date Faline? Deer in nature are deeply polygamous, often taking multiple partners in a single mating season. Why did they exclude this aspect of deer life and not the distant father aspect? I argue that it's because deer being polygamous would feel icky and foreign and deer fathers being absent would be familiar and digestible.
Selective animal behavior and nature? Don't forget that the monogamous behavior is also part of the book, which is more accurate about the brutality of nature. Said book shows a detachment Bambi feels toward his mate; he becomes distant from Faline for no apparent reason unless you think, "Oh, mating season is over." In the end Bambi sees their two fawns, but doesn't seem to fully grasp that they're his children, or he just doesn't care. (I've never read the sequel "Bambi's Children." I've heard it's bad)
Thumper is also problematic. On one hand he has a lot of siblings and children, just as rabbits produce children in large litters. But on the other hand he also ages as slowly as Bambi does and doesn't seem to live in a warren. Also, during the winter the film shows that some animals hibernate while others don't (ironically skunks don't hibernate). An interesting detail that doesn't really go anywhere, but helps establish that nature is different from our society. Humans don't hibernate in winter. We adapt to winter and don't have to worry about going hungry, as Bambi and his mother try desperately to look for food before… mommy killing scene.
Both films in general though have a public reputation with some people seen it as just a cutesy colorful baby animals franchise. But the adult Bambi being a badass would be a transition to all that by fighting(rapist stag Ronno and hunting dogs) and walking off with gunshot wounds.
I think an issue is that while Bambi tries to be an art/nature piece primarily, making enjoyable characters is just intrinsic to Disney's usual film making. It just wouldn't be them without the touch of whimsy and sentimentality. Even throughout the making of the film, Walt insisted Bambi was an 'actor' and many creative methods for scene and character building were through relating them to humans (eg. the ice skating scene). Thumper is probably the most blatant contradiction, since he was initially a more minor character that the creative team grew more and more attached to, and since the film, Disney have been trying for decades to play on his star appeal with merchandise, comics, books, and even a planned movie and TV series. I could assume the leash from the film's format prevented that fully taking off however, since Thumper still didn't have as much personality to play off of for whole stories compared to say, Timon and Pumbaa or Tigger.
Bambi 2 (that was incidentally made by a few of the Lion King's creative team) sort of cuts the formalities and gives everyone a human personality and drive, since by the point in time it was made all Disney's works were by reflex character pieces. What is interesting is that, despite a lot of contemporary scenes and dialogue, there are several parts that really try to mimic the original, if superficially. It's a film that definitely understands the ethics of classic Disney storytelling but not quite the original Bambi's storytelling (though since this wasn't completely consistent to begin with, one could argue there's still some successful connecting moments, hell a lot of Bambi 2's premise lampshades how the first broke its own rules).
Probably the most optimistic way to view it is less as the series trying and not quite managing to be a nature piece, and more the same story cleverly done through different storytelling approaches. Where Bambi (1) is a character perspective piece, Bambi 2 is a character study piece.
@@antifagoat6591 given that the Bambi film takes place in North America (with Bambi being a mule deer rather than a roe like in the book), Thumper would almost certainly be a cottontail rabbit. Unlike European rabbits, cottontails don't have warrens (they don't even dig, relying on brush and abandoned burrows for shelter), and are solitary.
Excellent analysis Joel, as always! Before now, I hadn’t really thought about Bambi’s lack of focus on character. However, now that I think about it, it’s amazing that the film is able to convey so much emotion, despite the fact that it doesn’t have much of a story, and doesn’t really delve into how the characters feel about everything. The film is, at times, heart-warming, romantic, terrifying, and desperately sad. As a child, it certainly influenced my view on hunting, and nature. I found the scene with the hunters to be almost traumatic.
As far as the animation goes, it also seems different from other Disney films, even ones from the same period. It looks like they’ve used watercolours in the background. Do you know if this is the case? The animation helps to lend the film an ethereal, detached quality...in fact, it’s as if the animation mirrors the script!
Anyway, thanks again, for yet another seriously underrated video! You’ve, once again, helped me to see something familiar in a totally new way.
Dude, your videos are brilliant
Bambi is one of my all time favorite animated Disney movies, along with Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty. The animation and music are so heavenly and beautiful, they actually make me cry.
I think it's interesting to note that (if i'm not mistaken) the reason they chose not to show the Hunter is because they didn't want to outright vilify him. So the Hunter's moral standing was intentionally ambiguous.
1) I want to see more videos from this channel on early Disney films. This and the Snow White one are both excellent. 2) I think it'd be super interesting to compare/contrast Bambi to Princess Mononoke. Both are very much about nature, and whether or how it can be changed.
i love the fact that you don't downplay the deer puns at the beginning, i wish more people would do that and actually own up to it like you did.
Your lack of subscribers disturbs me...
Mandalorian crusader Did you avoid saying "your lack of subscribers disturbs me" just to fuck with my head?
B. O'Dell That’s actually a good idea... I will now steal your suggestion and edit it. Thank you
I really enjoyed this, another great video of yours.
You spoke of other Disney movies focusing on nature earlier? I'd say that Brother Bear, Pocahontas & The Fox & The Hound also discusses the importance of nature.
In Kipling's books the law of the jungle is the main theme and the law of the jungle is sacred. It can however be destroyed by the red flower(fire) by forces of man.
I always saw her as a single mum
I never noticed how painfully idealized Bambi's version of nature is. In Bambi nature is this heavenly place were the animals play, everyones friends and they never get eaten. It assumes me because I like animal documentaries and the running theme in those are normally: "life's a bitch and nature is the biggest bitch of all". Haha, Bambi should have been natures version of a hot pocket.
On the Bambi VHS tape, there's an extended behind-the-scenes mini documentary that talks about how much work the artists put into studying nature to get everything perfect for this. For the water droplets in the rain scene, they studied drops of milk falling into a bowl. They brought live deer into the studio to study. It's probably on youtube somewhere; totally recommend watching it if you can find it.
Bambi will always be a favorite film of mine. The music, the art, the almost documentary style following of one character. Also, Bambi 2 was awesome and made me really appreciate Bambi’s father.
I am absolutely in love with your analysis of these videos! So in depth and such attention to detail and truly discovering the true meaning behind them. Would love to see you do more of these old disney movies!!
The movie that taught me to love nature❤ This had such an impact on me as a child, along with Fantasia. Some of the older Disney is gold
I love your narration style, its very easy to understand and everything you say makes a lot of sense
I think this is one of my all-time favorite video essays. You really hit the nail on the head here!
Holy fuck I cried of laughter twice. Once with the deer puns and then at the audible promotion. It was unexpected and you delivered it so well. I can't believe it.
This was SO GOOD! I love your essays so much, I'm SHOOK
aww thanks so much!
Big Joel I didn't think it was a nature film
i love the felix salten book- especially the gorgeous chapter about the two leaves falling in the autumn. Great video- love how you related the themes to the time- i had never thought about how a young man growing up in the 40s would have related to this- makes so much sense!
how is there always a new 5-year old Joel Video on my timeline? This never stops (i love it)
I love video essays. Yours was awesome, thank you for providing me a new perspective into this classic movie
what a fantastic essay, you really brought out aspects of this movie that I've never considered in a compelling and convincing way. I've just discovered your videos, and I'm very, VERY impressed with your thoughtful, well-developed, and in-depth analysis. Your language conveys abstract thought with enough visual and conceptual evidence to back it up. Fantastic work, I look forward to watching all of your video library and keeping up with your future work.
Thank you!
Okay I just subscribed because I really love your videos. They give me a different perspective of the Disney movies and I love the amount of thought put into these videos.
I would love more of these! These are my favorite videos of yours
whatever helps you sleep at night, Mufasa. I'm so in love with your channel. You have a gift for articulation
I've been waiting for for a book that I can listen to, thank you Biggie Joel, I welcome you with my heart
I really like this idea of looking at Classic Disney films, this and the Snow White video were just lovely. Please do more!
Your observations are brilliant.
This is so indepth and accurate for its length. I'm impressed.
Excellent analysis of this beautiful film!
help me i'm binge watching your entire channel for over a week
This is such a great video, thank you
I really appreciate your videos buddy! Easily digestible, good content, and you don't push ideas. I really appreciate that you don't force your views on the content or see it through a particular lens.
Is it strange that this film never made me feel sad as a child? It really didn't bother me when Bambis mom died, I felt too distant from her. On the other hand, in the fox and the hound, when the old lady leaves Todd alone in a forest and sings to him I cry every time (even now). I never understood why people found Bambi to be so sad. Great video btw
It is the literally "the circle of life" but from the eyes of a deer
Best audible plug in I’ve come across.
This is some wonderful content, I love your truthfulness and seeming optimism of what the film is trying to say. I really enjoy it. And by the way, I recommend you make something about the last Jedi, you’ll rocket to stardom. Something from what I see you deserve. Live the dream!
Your content is really good! Audio and editing could be better but you're saying interesting things that I've never heard before. Kudos!
Yeah haha, that audio on this one is a bit of a nightmare. Thanks for watching, though!
"Drip, drip, drop
Little April showers
Singing a song as they
Fall on the ground..."
I think I may have driven my parents insane considering how many times I played that song over and over.
I remember a kind of melancholy that settled over me once the mother had died. She didn't need to be mentioned I suppose to a child of 6. Her absence constantly reminded me of what had been there.
The distant father really left an impression on me. Both my parents had to work full time, but there was a kind gulf that I felt between myself and my father.
Joel I don't know how you do it, but your questions always seem insightful to me and open up questions of my own that weren't there before.
Those messages you came up with at the end are all great
I love these videos to no end
this video essay is incredible?????? how do you not have more views/subscribers??????
I adore how you structure your videos: to display an underlying message in a popular movie with evidence and structure without personal attachment. Even in other video essays, the message or themes are muddied by opinion. When you described how Bambi celebrates the nuclear family of the 1940's and nature's perfection, you don't state whether these two ideas are "good" or "bad." You did the same thing in the last video of yours i watched: A Close Look at The Lorax. I was surprised at the messages, too, and I'm glad other people are picking up on this.
You analyzed this movie very well. Nice work.
idk why i watched this. that movies is just too sad to me. i used to love it as a kid but i haven't watched it since i developed the 'no matter how many times i watch a movie its not going to change - bambis mother will always die'
Yeah, the movie really is sort of a bummer. Even excluding that scene, there's this constant weird melancholic sense. Idk. Thanks for sticking with my video though, haha.
haha yea it does have that feeling - i forgot most of it but that scene with the bird you showed i was like - yeah. yeah. thats why i haven't re-watched this - honestly very beautiful movie.
loving all your videos!
Wonderful execution.
Bravo.
I had never thought about the relationship dynamic between his family in that way before. It completely makes sense given when it was released.
Bambi was one of the first movies I saw when I was little, after my mom and dad got divorced. Dad was pretty distant to my sister and I, but would have stepped up if mom had died or something (or at least his mom would have).
Anyway, I always identified with this movie as having a single mom family dynamic because of my experience when I saw it. But given when it was written, divorce was taboo, so the 40s style nuclear family dynamic makes more sense.
Great video, thanks
Great vid man. Gonna subscribe because MAN you deserve way more and i know it will come.
Aww thank you so much!
Great work
what an interesting perspective. Too bad i already have audible and a really old copy of bambi that was printed before the movie came out. Ive never gotten around to reading it but I think i might have the inspiration to do so now. Thank you for all your thoughtful videos
I will share this video!
Funny thing: I loved watching animal documentaries as a young kid. So until now, I never read bsmbi's parents as a monogamic pair. I always assumed the "father" was just the male that reproduced the most, so he was probably the father of all the baby deers that appeared (yes, I assumed Bambi ended up with his half sister, but it is common in nature).
I was confused why he decided to care for "bambi" specifically, but I assumed he did it to all the children that lost the mother.
Wooah... Thanks to your video I realized things I had no idea! even though it's my favorite movie :3 excellent analysis!!
I'm in love with this interpretation
His mother is nourishing...
Brilliant Freudian slip 😁
1:41-1:49
*smashes subscribe button XD*
You really deserve more subscribers!
How dare you steal my name >:(
AAA haha
No they don’t
this was a great video about Bambi. i respect the movie a lot more than any other film about nature. the artists studied animals and really knew a lot about animals. it had more passion, and a show don't tell, unlike the lion king. Bambi is deep, serious, but a great movie nonetheless. my god, the backgrounds are a masterpiece too. and i'm glad Disney was not afraid to show death. you had every point on this video. you deserve a round of applause for this my man!
Honestly, I'd be so interested in seeing how you work through your ideas. I mean, it applies to all of your videos, but especially here because- as you mention several times-- this is an inherently barren topic, or movie, to talk about. There is not a lot of moving parts to play around with. As such, I think it really takes some creative thinking to narrow down on that.
Love your vids dude keep it up
I beg you to do one of these on Sleeping Beauty. It's my favorite Disney film (tied with Fantasia), and I think it'd be interesting to compare it to Snow White: In a span of 21 years, what changed in Disney's depiction of roles in the genre?
I always had an idea to write an essay about how the movie depicts the relationship Aurora has with the plot and how the music in the movie foreshadows later events. Whatever you want to explore in it though I would be thrilled to see.
I'm really enjoying your channel. I'm doing a series of video reviews of Disney films, specifically from a feminist perspective, and I appreciate your deep takes on the film that include the feminist dimension. A lot of feminist academic takes on Disney movies before the Disney Renaissance don't really tackle the films head on so much as talk about the larger cultural context of Disney as a storytelling business. If my own take on Bambi ends up taking inspiration from your review, I'll be sure to give you a shout-out. I just started reading the book, myself. I like its whimsy!
The part about comparing Bambi's mother's death to Mufasa's is interesting. I know when I was a kid, I found Mufasa's death a real tearjerker, but I couldn't see what the big deal was with Bambi's mom. I think a lot of people related to Bambi more than Disney really wanted people to do. I think they were just going for the ups and downs of a deer's life, and I took its atmospheric cues, but maybe its anomalous storytelling nature without the individualistic focus on the protagonist is hard for audiences to interpret when most movies are individualistic. Honestly, I think the individualistic nature of The Lion King makes it superior as a story if not as an awe-inspiring depiction of environments.
Another way you could look at the Bambi film is through racial coding or lack thereof. You don't have black-coded characters like Big Mama from Fox and the Hound or the crows from Dumbo. So, is this a world free of racial strife or a racist utopian vision of white-only America?
Ooo I didn't even think about that. Literally the two prior Disney films used racial caricatures, so their absence is really interesting. Be sure to send me your reviews!
Thanks. My next Disney review would be of Dumbo, and I have reviews up of the first three animated films: ruclips.net/p/PLEsjBwH8it7giI1NRFLUw4xYBg31PLvND (Bear with me. My production value improves across them.)
GoingRampant maybe some people can identify with a protagonist that don't have individual focus, because life just happens to you. At least sometimes and especially as a kid that don't have a lot of power to change their circumstances
Are you using academic, feminist theory or are you some college chick who likes to walk around topless ‘cause it’s empowering?
I've graduated and don't go topless, but I fail to see how the two are mutually exclusive. I think people should be allowed to walk around topless, regardless of gender. For a long time, it was considered obscene for men's nipples to be shown in public. They were literally airbrushed out of images and bathing suits included shirts for full body coverage (you might recall seeing weird striped outfits in old Goofy cartoons, for instance?). It took men protesting outside topless (because they thought it was empowering), being *arrested* for it, and making a ruckus for laws to be changed in the late 1930s. I think every man has the right to walk around topless, and I don't think that this right should be exclusive to men. I don't walk around topless myself, but I 100% support the women who do, and I honor the men who fought for the men's right.
Citation: web.archive.org/web/20120410190812/www.gallimauphry.com/beefcake.htm
Wow! This was captivating and quite impressive. Shared with friends! :~D
Great Work! Keep it up.
I love the way you talk. You sound constantly surprised by your own words.
Bambi's mom doesn't get to me that much, but that scene with the quail unravels me.
This video is great , once i was watching it with a friend and she asked me why i repeat bambi so much if its kinda boring, and i couldn't explain her what you said on the video. Which sums it perfectly.
(I would suggest you a better thumbnail to attract more people, cause the video is very good)
thanks, and thanks for the advice. Anything specific you think I should change about them?
Maybe change the solid color background, to something more eyecatching, some blured background of the movie, behind the character and the title or something like that :)
Hmm yeah, I'll definitely consider that. Thank you!
I figured out who his voice reminds me of. He sounds the squirrel in the the tree episode of Adventure Time. It's his little pauses and the emphasis sometimes on the last word of a sentence.
That scene with the birds is honestly scarier and more disturbing than the scene where the mom dies, in my opinion. Great video! Your work is very insightful; I think you might have made a subscriber out of me!
Honestly the first time i heard that buck wild line it made my day man....
Loved your analysis! Do you have any recommendations on similar animated films with a nature focus from this era? I already know of The Old Mill
That pheasant scene is absolutely the most terrifying thing ever put on screen.
jesus this guy is one of the most brilliant analitics i've ever watched
Hii great page ☺ Keep it up!
Bambi is one of my personal favorite disney movies. 🦌
What a great video essay! :) I read and loved the Bambi book as a very small child. My mother always had a lot of old books around the house, and it was one of them. It would be interesting to go back now the read it as an adult. I love your theories, and I would vote for the third one being the most likely: nature and the forest represented an ideal state of being, the idealized way that Americans liked to see themselves, the family unit, and children. The hunters and forest fires then represented the outside enemy-- Germans, Japanese, etc.
The biggest reason why I think this theory makes the most sense is the fact that this film was made in the middle of WWII. And not just that-- the film was planned out and created during the exact time period when there was so much uncertainty about whether or not the US would enter that war. The movie came out in 1942; it was already well underway in December 1941, when the decision to go to war was made after Pearl Harbor. So it pictures that state of indecision, of innocence under threat.
Okay, you're basically an inspiration for other people making video essays! ;) Thanks again for this one, and hope to see many more.
We next to nothing of adult Bambi but both versions of Simba.
Love this shit. Youre about to blow up man
Wow. I don't know what to say about this video. It's amazing.
that's beautiful!
i'm sure people loved it in the 40s. exactly what they needed.
still what we need today. i feel like bambi is really simple and lovely.
That poor lady pheasant getting shot still gets me so sad!
You've really put a lot of thought into this. For me, it's always been about activism, and protecting our natural world.