Whoa, bros before does, emo eyeliner!

While Bambi was in development, World War II was likewise developing across the world, and by the time Bambi was released in cinemas on 14 August, 1942, the United states had been at war for less than a year with no end in sight. It seems in a lot of ways Bambi was trying to give the world some relief from the horror of war yet still warn against the ever-present threat of violence. In that, Bambi succeeds beautifully. It tells the story of a life from birth through adulthood, from innocence and wonder through loss and pain and maturity. Years later Walt Kelly would remind us that “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Bambi told us that too, though perhaps more heavy-handedly.

The plot of Bambi is simple: a young fawn, a whitetail deer, is born in a forest of friendly talking animals and grows up to learn that his first days of innocence are far too short-lived and that life is hard.

Video

Bambi in its new Diamond Edition on Blu-ray is the best I’ve ever seen it. This was yet another milestone in proving the artists working for Disney were the best in the business, and now with this enhanced digital restoration for the 1080p release, it’s like we’re looking at a brand new film. My only complaint is that Walt Disney and company didn’t anticipate my needs as a 21st century entertainment consumer, and ignorantly wasted some square feet off the sides of my wide screen television. With the recent Blu-ray release of Snow White, the otherwise black edges were filled in with painted artwork applicable to each shot, like the illustrated gutters we see in Bill Willingham’s Fables comic series. I saw some advertisements that showed Bambi playing with similar gutter artwork, but I never did find how they get switched on if indeed the final release contained them at all. So I was stuck with black gutters alongside this oddly 4×3 (aka 1.33:1) aspect ratio. Still: Beautiful.

S’up?

Audio

Likewise, the audio for this version of Bambi is the best ever. This time on the Diamond Blu-ray we get 7.1 DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, so the restored music is the best we’ve ever heard it. I’m not a fan of the old-timey ahh-ah-ahhhhhh intoning vocals that hypersweeten seemingly every moment like the carmel in a Take-5 candy bar, but the instrumental and lyrical parts are fantastic. The voice acting is great for the younger versions of the characters, but the voice changes post-winter seem jarringly abrupt, and frankly I want to call a time out and have Andrea Romano recast the principle characters’ adult voice actors. Think about this when you watch Bambi again and you’ll realize how right I am.

Special Features

Disney’s done it again with packing amazon amounts of extras in just one 2-Disc Combo Pack. Here’s what’s in store:

Disc 1:

• Feature Film (New Enhanced Digital Restoration)
• Disney View 16×9 Full Frame Viewing Experience (I have no idea where to get to this. I was not thrilled with the menus in this release)
• Introduction by Diane Disney Miller
• 2 Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes (I thought I’d seen one of these before. The Twitterpated song? Was this shown on the Disney Channel or something?)
• Inside Walt’s Story Meetings (Enhanced Edition – Imagine if Walt & co. made a podcast and released it after the movie debuted. It might sound something like this meeting transcript)
• Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge Game
• Classic DVD bonus Features
• Disney Second Screen (This is yet another proof that we are living in the future! My flying car is still on back-order, but this is amazing. Start the movie with Second Screen enabled, then get out your iPad or laptop, point it to the URL disneysecondscreen.com and then enter your DisneyMovieRewards magic code. Your iPad or laptop will sync to the audio if it has an enabled microphone, then you’re watching the film, and getting interrupted by cool facts, original storyboards, and other stuff the whole time! It’s an ADD Disneyphile’s dream! If you’re the type that can’t even watch normal TV without IMDBing the actors to find out where else you’ve seen them, this is the sort of thing for you. Some day, every movie and TV show will ship like this, but for now: Bambi Second Screen. Enjoy it.)

Disc 2:

• Feature Film (from the Digitally Enhanced new version, so it’s clearer, just not HD)
• Intro by Diane Disney Miller
• Inside Walt’s Story Meetings (like we see on the Blu-ray)
• DisneyPedia: Bambi’s Forest Friends (someone hand me a small child AND a toothbrush)

Overall

I’ve learned a terrible truth about Bambi. As an adult male who enjoys venison regularly, this is not the terribly heartwrenching movie I remember from my youth. It’s very sweet. No really, I mean VERY sweet. I mean this is the most cloying, saccharine, OMFG-I-need-to-brush-my-teeth sweet movie that ever was. That said, the artwork is beautiful, the animation as always is beyond first class and into what I call “Disney-class”–the pinnacle of excellence in animation and sound for its generation and probably the next as well. Little kids and the most innocent among us will love this film and like most Disney releases, it’s only available for a limited time, so get your copy by clicking the Amazon link below now!

ComicsOnline gives Bambi Diamond Edition 4 out of 5 terrible truths about growing up in the forest.

Get your copy of Bambi at Amazon now!

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