Walt Disney animation studios history

Chapter 5: Bambi

While Dumbo only took around a year and a half to make thanks to its simplicity, the next movie was artistically the opposite of what the elephant achieved, as it was realistically complex and took the studio several years to produce. That film was Bambi.  based on the 1923 novel Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten.

The movie presents the life of a deer named Bambi from his birth all the way up to his adulthood. During his time in the forest, while he is the next to become the Great Prince, he spends his time discovering the world around him and playing with his friends like a rabbit named Thumper and a skunk named Flower. However, during his time growing up, he also goes through some hardships, especially when Man is in the forest. But no matter how old he is, he always learns from either his mother or Friend Owl about life, death, and love.

It all began when, in 1933, a certain filmmaker got their hands on the book and was inspired to turn it into a feature film.

And we all know who this man is, right? It was none other than Sidney Franklin, the producer and director at MGM. He wanted to create a live-action adaptation of Bambi, but after trying some test footage, he realized that the camera could never do justice to tell this story. Then suddenly, he had an idea to make the best out of this novel. Maybe you couldn't film an adaptation, but you could certainly draw it and at the time, there was no better person who can make better animations than the artists at Disney. So in 1937, Franklin sold the film rights of the book to Walt and he immediately sprang into action to make Bambi his next animated feature. In fact, he originally wanted Bambi to be his second movie. However, as soon as he got into it, there were several obstacles that even his crew weren't ready to take on. There was the tone of the book being a little too dark compared to the light-hearted standards that Disney was known for, other productions like Pinocchio and Fantasia took bigger priority to make, and the artists were not trained enough to realistically animate forest animals like deer. Sure, they drew some for Snow White, but the focus on capturing realism there was entirely on the humans, while the animals still look more like cartoons than something believable. It wouldn't be until 1939 when production officially began, but only at a steady pace while the company was handling other projects. Many different characters were proposed for this movie, but a lot of them either had their roles cut down or never appeared in the finished film. There was Thumper's dad who was supposed to appear along with Thumper's siblings having a role as prominent as his, a chipmunk and a squirrel that were a comedic duo, and some insects like ants, grasshoppers, and bees that would have brought more life to the forest. But eventually, they were all taken out because they didn't give much to the story, or Walt and the writing team wanted to keep the focus onto Bambi, Thumper, and Flower. But even when the film has those light-hearted and charmingly funny moments, there is one scene in particular that the public to this day often first associates with this movie