‎Bambi (1942) directed by David Hand, James Algar et al • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Bambi

1942 Directed by David Hand, James Algar …

A great love story.

Bambi's tale unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns about life, love, and friends.

Donnie Dunagan Peter Behn Stan Alexander Cammie King Will Wright Hardie Albright Ann Gillis Tim Davis Sam Edwards Sterling Holloway Otis Harlan

Alternative Titles

Walt Disney's Bambi, Bambi 1, 밤비

animation family drama

70 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 6

A firm favourite of my oldest daughter of seven. She has been harassing her four year old brother about watching it. Today he caved and asked if they could watch it.

There is something uniquely magical about what happens to kids' faces while watching these gorgeous hand drawn images. A smile, a frown, fear, but always eyes wide open flicking across the screen trying to take everything in and actually succeeding as the images are fluid and calm. They were transfixed for the entire seventy minutes.

Afterwards, as per usual, my daughter started a reenactment of the entire thing. When I asked my son what he thought he said just two words.

'People suck.'

Truer words have rarely been spoken
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 8

Here are some reasons why Bambi is the greatest animated film ever made:

- It shows life in all its little imperfections and grand tribulations.

- The amount of joy, humor, tears, and discovery to be found within its tight 70 minute run-time is indescribably beautiful.

- The characters are layered, fully-formed, and crafted to perfection.

-The animation is second to none, showcasing subtle details and landscapes that blow me away after every viewing.

- The classic themes are as potent and wonderful as ever.

- A scene involving death is the most emotional scene in the history of animated cinema.

- The music is breathtaking, especially in the "April Shower" sequence.

- This movie has Thumper. Enough said.
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 5

100

The greatest animated film in the history of the medium is now out of the Disney Vault. Let's celebrate.

t.co/LjZUKvcevx
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★★ 5

Bambi is, and probably always will be, my favourite Disney film. By conventional standards, even for the time, it has a weak plot. Essentially it is just about a young deer trying to survive; there is no real character arc beyond the natural progression of growing up, maturing and experiencing first love, whilst the antagonist stays off screen and is never defeated. But what makes this film work is that it puts all the little moments front-and-centre, with the exception of the mother getting shot and the climactic fire (hopefully I haven't spoiled the film for anybody), the film is all about the moments of first friendships and experiencing a world anew. These scenes are so beautiful not only in…
Review by feedingbrett ★★★★ 12

Included In Lists:
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Essentials -#66

Review In A Nutshell:

It seems maturity and wisdom has opened my eyes to Disney’s classic gem as Bambi was another film that I felt previously was a disappointing entry in their filmography. I was distant due to its lack of a narrative arc and the inability to provide memorable music; which is still a problem this time around but my feelings towards it is not as sour. The classics simply were a different breed to the beautiful and charming Disney animated films I grew up with, their stories felt more frank with its message, putting that in the forefront rather than the story. When I was younger, I didn’t care…
Review by Justin Peterson ★★★★

(Walt Disney Animated Series)

Classic Disney's most masterfully simplistic film.

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

I have no idea how I missed seeing this as a kid, but it is interesting to see it from a fresh perspective as an adult. Bambi is Disney's 5th animated feature and tells the story of life in the forest for a young deer. Over the course of just an hour and a few minutes, this family film does a great job of showing Bambi's growth from learning to walk and talk, to standing by his father's side as a mature young adult deer.

I was really impressed by how well the animation still holds up, especially with…

Recent reviews

Review by jmccle49 ★★★½

Cute film. Better than most older Disney films.
Review by Jacob

The type of film I imagine myself returning to as I get older, gaining new perspective every time. I find it funny that The Lion King's distortion of nature (having been filtered through Shakespeare to be a literal monarchy) is more closely associated with the phrase "The Circle of Life" when Bambi presents a far more authentic image of natural cycles. At every point of death there is life and with every life there is death; these natural functions are never destabilized. There is drama but it is a drama which has always existed rather than one alien. This, of course, refers to Man. The musical merging of sound and image into one cohesive entity we saw with Snow White…
Review by Goran Lowie ★★★

"What happened, Mother? Why did we all run?"

"Man was in the forest."

Doesn't hold up as well as I'd hoped from a narrative/thematic aspect, but remains a beautiful work.
Review by Eigen ★★

The same guy who wrote the book this disney classic is based on also wrote very very very nasty pornography.
Review by Ryan ★★★½

It's a very charming movie in the Disney canon, but there really could've been more to it. I think it could've benefited more from a longer runtime. I do appreciate the background designs in the winter scenes and the times where the movie gets pretty intense tho.
Review by Iain MacKinnon ★★★★

There's really not much of a story here is there? It's very clear that the Simba growing old quickly and then re-meeting Nala scenes are taken directly from the Bambi/Faline scenes here.
Review by Gabriel 📽🎞 ★★★★★

"Your mother can't be with you anymore."
- The Great Prince of the Forest (Fred Shields)

That line alone defines one of the most traumatic, terrifying and dramatic scenes in all of animated film history and cinema history as a whole. It was a scene that prompted generations to become vegan and vegetarian and to give up hunting altogether and fight for animal rights.

This film is gorgeous in storytelling, tone and art, from the Chinese watercolour-like painted backgrounds to the beautiful music in terms of songs by Frank Churchill and the score by Edward Plumb.

Man's motif is still spine-chilling to this day. This villain was in AFI's 100 film villains list ranking above Freddy Krueger and the Terminator.

It is my favourite animated film of all time by Walt Disney and my favourite among all animated films. Thank you, Walt. Your genius still lives on.
Review by DaleKey84 ★★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

𝘉𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪 is the most beautiful animated film Walt Disney worked on. Using the multiplane camera that was invented for the studio, the backgrounds have great depth which is complimented well by the movie's timeless score. The opening couple of minutes showcase multiple layers of immaculate art.

The majority of 𝘉𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘪 takes place during the first year of his life. He learns from his mother and friends for the first few months, before he is allowed to visit the wide open meadow. It's here that he learns the danger of man, as a hunter shoots at multiple deer as they try to escape. Eventually they make it to winter, which Bambi enjoys at first but then starves as there is no…
Review by Jonathan Ben Cavy ★★★★★

Animation perfection. Circle of life drama in the form of a children's cartoon. Also a political metaphor. This was 1942 after all