Bambi: Platinum Edition

Bambi represents Walt Disney at his most mawkish. The quintessentially cute American cartoon, it is hardly surprising that so many people decry the studio's output as syrupy if this is their frame of reference. Yet that in itself is not necessarily a problem, and indeed there has never been a finer maker of syrup than Disney. This is a film that has practically become synonymous with the Disney "house style", and furthermore it set the template upon which every subsequent "animal" or "nature" film from the studio would be based. The storyline is more or less common knowledge by now. The forest has a new prince: Bambi, a young deer, and all the animals are filled with joy. We watch as young Bambi grows up and learns all about the wonders of the forest, under the vigilant gaze of his mother... until she is killed by a human hunter, and Bambi must face up to the very real dangers that face him in the wide world.

While most praise Disney for his sense of story, it is clear from offerings such as this that his primary focus was on imitating real life in infuriatingly obsessive detail. Although the primary characters are drawn in a typically exaggerated cartoon manner, their movements, and the effects animation, conform painstakingly to real life to the extent that, much of the time, Bambi feels more like an exercise in technique rather than in storytelling. That's not to say that the story isn't strong, and indeed Bambi contains a number of moments that have become iconic pieces of cinematic history - and justifiably so. The death of Bambi's mother is truly a classic moment, and one that must have been genuinely shocking for 1942 audiences accustomed to viewing animation primarily as a medium of lighthearted comedy - all the more so because of the harrowing, matter-of-fact manner in which it is treated. There is no extended scene of Bambi bawling as emotional music swells: instead, his father quietly tells him "Your mother can't be with you any more", and they walk off into the snow.


It is disappointing, therefore, that the first act spends so much time setting up the world of the film to be as close a match for reality as possible, and that the final act, in which the forest is plunged into chaos as a result of the arrival of Man, is so heavy-handed in its condemnation of human intervention. Of course, no-one could ever accuse Walt Disney of subtlety, even if he was capable of a relatively light touch where absolutely necessary (such as in the afforementioned scene in which Bambi's mother dies). However, since most of us have the sense to realise that hunting as a sport is sick and depraved, the scenes in which it is repeatedly drummed into us that Nature=Good, Man=Bad seem unneccessarily ham-fisted.

For all of these complaints, however, there is much to like about Bambi. First of all, the film's range is highly commendable. Like the later (and inferior) The Lion King, it preaches a "circle of life" message: one to which all the creatures of the forest belong, and which emphasizes that, although there is death, there is also birth, and that in the grand scheme of things all creatures, great and small, merely constitute a tiny portion of the great tapestry of existence. The fact that the film begins and ends with birth scenes that directly mirror each other (another technique cribbed in The Lion King) underscores this in a clear and down-to-earth manner. The enigma that is Bambi's father is also well-handled. While some have criticized the fact that this supposedly revered figure is so detached from the rest of the forest creatures that he is content to linger in the distance and only show up when Bambi is in real danger, he works extremely well when viewed from the perspective of a God-like figure.


Furthermore, as previously mentioned, the technical aspects of the film are excellent. The backgrounds are wonderful - a combination of rich realism and a decidedly painterly technique - and the animation, both of the characters and the various visual effects, has a smoothness that is virtually unheard of in this day and age. The heavily stylised fight between the adult Bambi and a rival stag is also masterfully handled in its use of rich primary colours, silhouettes and harsh lighting. Films like Bambi, Lady and the Tramp and Fantasia are proof that a great many techniques died with that particular generation of animators, and it is sobering to think that much of the technical wizardry pioneered by the Disney studio in the first half of the 20th century is gone for ever.

Disney's films tend not to inspire lengthy essays and evaluations, and as a result this review is somewhat shorter than normal. Bambi is, overall, a fine film from a technical standpoint, but unfortunately this is very much an example of the visual artistry taking precedence over the plot. The studio has been responsible for plenty of other films that are more even-handed than this in terms of the balance between technical prowess and storytelling, and while I would urge all animation devotees to see Bambi, it is far from the out-and-out classic it has been made out to be.


DVD Presentation

This 2-disc Platinum Edition is the first ever release of Bambi on DVD. Presented in its original Academy aspect ratio, the film looks decent overall but has been subjected to an extremely rigorous digital clean-up process that produces some rather nasty artefacts. Chief among these is the fact that large areas of the screen look unnaturally static, frozen in much the same way that the "pause" function works. Fine grain patterns frequently jar, only to abruptly begin moving again, creating a noticeably disconcerting effect. Furthermore, in a number of shots, parts of the screen that should be static "swim", with parts of stationary backgrounds seeming to slide around. Other than these problems, however, the image looks fantastic. The colour reproduction is absolutely perfect, there is no discernable edge enhancement, and barring a handful of unfocused shots, the level of detail is fantastic. It's a shame that so much noise reduction was applied to the image, because if more effort had been made to maintain the inherent grain structure, this would have been a reference quality transfer.

Two audio tracks are featured on the UK release: a new Dolby Digital 5.1 "Disney Enhanced Home Theatre" mix, and a cleaned-up version of the original mono recording. The US release also features an alternate Dolby Digital 5.1 mix without the "DEHT" tag, but past experience has taught me that the DEHT mixes merely sound slightly louder than their non-DEHT counterparts, so I doubt that we're missing anything particularly important. In any event, the mono track is what really matters, as it presents the film in the manner in which it was meant to be heard. The 5.1 track, in comparison, sounds highly ludicrous as it blasts the music and sound effects through all five speakers in a manner that seems wholly inappropriate. Both mixes are understandably constrained by the age of the source material, but I seriously doubt that the film has ever sounded this good before, and as a result I expect that most people will be very pleased with the audio.

None of the bonus features are subtitled, which is disappointing, although not entirely surprising, given that Disney has always had something of a varied track record as far as subtitling extras is concerned.


Extras

In terms of bonus content, Disney's Platinum Edition releases have been rather variable so far, ranging from solid (Aladdin) to downright mediocre (The Lion King). Thankfully, Bambi is closer to Aladdin than to The Lion King in terms of the quality of the extras, although as usual Disney have seen fit to include a number of pointless child-oriented activities and promotions for substandard cash-ins.

The only extra on the first disc is a 70-minute feature entitled Inside Walt's Story Meetings. In lieu of a more standard audio commentary, this interesting feature uses the detailed records taken at Bambi's various story pitch meetings as a source for what Walt Disney and his various crew members actually said. Their dialogue is narrated by a multitude of different voice actors, set to a combination of photographs, concept art and final film footage, and although at times the vocal performances stray into the realm of pure silliness, this is on the whole a very interesting and unique way to present the information. I was disappointed not to see a full audio commentary, such as the excellent one by animation historian John Canemaker on the Dumbo DVD, but this is still a nice piece of work in its own right.


Disc 2 kicks off with two Deleted Scenes. Introduced by present-day Disney animator Andreas Deja, these two scenes are presented in storyboard form with some rather grating voices narrating the dialogue.

A selection of Games and Activities has been provided for the kids, and to be absolutely honest I just don't have the patience to write about each and every one of them. The Platinum Edition collection was supposed to be a serious range for genuine animation devotees and collectors, filled with informative bonus features placing these important films in their proper historical context, not a series of virtual babysitters. Still, if you happen to have a screaming infant in need of placating, you might like to plonk them down in front of the What’s Your Season? interactive game, the Bambi’s Forest Friends DisneyPedia, or Disney Storytime: Thumper Goes Exploring. I frankly doubt that any child would actually be entertained by these, however.

The Making of Bambi: A Prince is Born is a 53-minute documentary that delves into the actual development of the film. Featuring interviews mainly of present-day Disney personnel, including veteran animator Andreas Deja, art directors Ric Sluiter and Cristy Maltese, producer Don Hahn and Pixar's John Lasseter, but also including a number of Bambi veterans, including story artists Mel Shaw and Joe Grant, background artist Tyrus Wong and a roster of animation historians, as well as archive interviews with animators Eric Larson, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Marc Davis, this is a very interesting piece that does a great job of explaining what the team set out to do with the film, its main themes and a number of the technical aspects. Broken down into six separate sections relating to the story, characters, voices, art design, music and the historical context of the film, this is one of Disney's better production documentaries.

Restoring Bambi is an absolutely fascinating featurette that shows the process by which the original negative elements were digitized and remastered for this DVD. The narration, by Patrick Stewart, whose voice can be head in the upcoming Bambi cheapquel (more on that in a moment), is overly pompous and self-appraising, but the actual content is excellent which, at the end of the day, is what matters.

Up next is The Legacy Continues: A Sneak Peek at the All-New Bambi Movie, something that I really don't feel should have been included on this DVD, as it sullies the tone by attempting to place this cheaply-produced straight to video knock-off in the same class as the original film. It's sad to see great animators like Andreas Deja working on projects like this, but regrettable, with Disney management having killed off 2D feature animation, this seems to be the only sort of job someone like him can get that still allows them to work with a pencil rather than a mouse.

Disney Time Capsule: 1942: The Year of Bambi runs for four minutes and gives a fairly straightforward account of what was happening at the time that Bambi was released. There's nothing particularly revelatory on offer here, but it does give a brief glimpse of some of the war-related cartoons created by the Disney studio, which are available in their entirety on the Walt Disney on the Front Lines set.

The Art of Bambi is split into two sections: a straightforward still frame gallery, which features a large collection of concept drawings, storyboards, backgrounds, posters, character designs and behind the scenes photographs; and a slide show, which offers a condensed selection of the images in the gallery, some with optional voice-over narration explaining the purpose of the various images.

Tricks of the Trade is a brief featurette, presented by Walt Disney and orignally aired on television in 1957, which discusses the Multiplane technology used to create the various multi-level backgrounds on display in the film. This material is an excerpt of a much longer programme, available in its entirety on the Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio set.

In Inside the Disney Archives, Andreas Deja goes behind the scenes to the Animation Research Library (popularly known as the Morgue by Disney employees, but don't tell anyone), where he looks at various pieces of original artwork used in the development and production of the film itself.

Rounding out the package are the 1937 short cartoon The Old Mill, which served as early testing ground for many of the techniques put to use in Bambi, and the Original Theatrical Trailer, complete with wondefully over the top stentorian voice-over.


Overall

While Bambi has tended to be somewhat overrated, it remains an important milestone in animation history and is presented here on a 2-disc DVD set that is, for the most part, very satisfying. Although the amount of digital tomfoolery that has been applied to the transfer is quite saddening, the quality of (most of) the bonus materials is top notch. Overall, I highly recommend this latest addition to the Platinum series.

Bambi is released on 14th February 2005.