Cloaked Critic Reviews Bambi

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!

"Bambi"...this movie is the one, I feel, really solidified Disney's iconic PC image. This is the movie that really put Disney on the map as being a source for wholesome family-friendly entertainment. It's sweet, mild-mannered, unoffensive, heart-warming...and painfully boring! I know some people might claim that "Pinocchio" or "Dumbo" were the first ones to paint the aforementioned public image...but those movies (while sweet and heart-warming) could hardly be described as mild-mannered and unoffensive...and no, I ain't talkin' about the singing crows ("Dumbo" had a hell of a lot bigger problems that racial stereotypes)! However, to their benefit, those movies were not boring. As touching a tale as "Bambi" is, the Disney movie has got to be one of the most mind-numbingly dull animated films in all of film history. The movie's so boring, in fact, until when I was younger I can actually remember it putting me to sleep! One time I put the movie on and started watching it and woke up some time later to find that the movie had ended! It feels more like a nature documentary than a movie, yet even that comparison seems a tad inadequate as some nature documentaries can be pretty engaging. Of course, to be fair this movie does have its moments, it's just for an animated film about talking animals it really doesn't have that much going on in it, and certainly when compared to the other entries in the Disney Classics Collection, this movie is a snorefest.

The story of the movie is loosely based off the 1923 Austrian novel, "Bambi, a Life in the Woods", by Felix Salten. The story in both the book and the movie follow the same general course of events (give or take a few details and characters), but for me though, the weirdest part is that whole "Prince of the Forest" tripe. I'm guessing that it is better explained and serves greater importance in the book, but in the movie it just feels completely tagged on and doesn't offer much of anything to the plot. Bambi could have been just any random run-of-the-mill deer and it would have been the same story; which makes me question what pay-off there was for him being a "prince". Also, what merits a deer having royal status? Aren't they damn near the bottom of the food chain? I mean, in "The Lion King" it made sense seeing how Simba being a lion put him at the top of the food chain, but how does a deer get to be "Prince of the Forest"? I fail to see the logic in that!

A wise rabbit once said, "When you go to the movie theaters, you really oughta learn something"...to which I have to say I fully agree, and if this movie were to teach us any lesson at all it's that there is such a thing as "TOO unoffensive". Not saying that you should set out to purposely piss people off, but a good movie has to have more going on in it that just cute talking animals doing cute things for an hour and ten minutes. If your movie is less engaging than a Care Bears cartoon, then something has gone terribly wrong! Honestly, I think the only reason anybody even remembers this movie is because of the tragic death scene halfway into the runtime. That one scene is the only reason anybody even remotely cares that this film exists. It's literally, the  movie's sole claim to fame! It's kind of like "Frozen" in that regard...that movie's sole claim to fame is having that tired true love trope be between two women (non-sexually), but seriously though; would it have killed them to toss a wolf or two into this story? Because apart from the hunters and the fire this movie has virtually no conflict!

However what the movie lacks in content it makes up for in appearance...not that looks are any substitute to personality, but when a movie is animated or shot with an artistic touch it can sometimes mask a severe lack of substance. I might not be the biggest fan of the movie's story, but the film certainly is a beauty to look at. My favorite scenes include the fight between Bambi and Ronno (the color and lighting of that scene is just too epic for words), the scene that plays out during the, "I Bring You A Song" sequence, and of course the forest fire scene near the end.

The truth is that the movie itself doesn't offer much besides the tugging of your heartstrings, but its legacy is what would go on to lay the framework for future films like "The Land Before Time", "Kimba the White Lion", and "The Lion King" (which is really just a knockoff of the latter), and as this was the first major motion picture to sport a strong environmental message, it's also a precursor to films like "FernGully". So in essence, this boring movie from the 40's is indirectly responsible for making our collective childhoods so goddamn awesome! So I guess I really oughta say "Thanks, Bambi...ya boring schmuck!"

(Sorry if this review seems a tad short, but I really can't think of much to say about this movie...namely because there just isn't that much to talk about. It's fairly short and pretty cut and dry.)