Bambi (1942)

Tagline: Walt Disney’s multiplane technicolor feature.

Bambi movie storyline. The last of the classic, early Disney animated features – a ‘coming of age’ tale of a young male deer growing up in the world to be a magnificent stag. Taken from a Felix Salten tale, Bambi first learns to walk and adventurously explore his world under the watchful eye of his parents, dealing with trivial problems, such as walking on ice with his new friends, Thumper (a rabbit) and Flower (a skunk).

In one of the more heartbreaking scenes in film history, Bambi’s mother is killed by a human hunter, and suddenly the young fawn is forced into adulthood, led away by his stag father – (“Your mother can’t be with you anymore. Come. My son”). Bambi must deal with a devastating forest fire, and he learns to court a doe named Faline, as well as fight other bucks for her attention. Bambi is not only a charming tale, but also uncompromising, recalling an earlier Disney film with surprisingly dark themes and scenes, Dumbo (1941). The doe-eyed characters would become the chief inspiration for anime characters in Japan.

Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten. The film was released by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942, and is the fifth Disney animated feature film.

Directed by: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright
Starring: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey, Peter Behn, Thelma Boardman, Janet Chapman, Jeanne Christy, Dolyn Bramston Cook, Marion Darlington, Donnie Dunagan, Ann Gillis
Screenplay by: Felix Salten
Produced by: Walt Disney
Art Direction by: Tom Codrick, Robert Cormack, Lloyd Harting, David Hilberman, John Hubley, Dick Kelsey, McLaren Stewart, Al Zinnen
Music by: Frank Churchill, Edward H. Plumb
MPAA Rating: G for all audience.
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Release Date: August 21, 1942