Bambi

Usually, I don't write a review on my opinion of the movie. Usually, I just review the product itself. But I wanted to say a little something. Bambi was never one of my favorite movies growing up. Because of this, I haven't seen this movie in decades. I never even owned it on DVD. Well, times change & I decided that I must collect all of Disney's classic animated features on Blu-ray. So, I had to get Bambi. But am I glad I did. See, I've always been into the art of animation & nobody did it better than the classic Disney artists. And Bambi may be one of the best animated movies of all time. Okay, on to the review.After Disney's stunning release of "Alice in Wonderland", I knew that Bambi would have the same care & quality put into it's remastering. And I was right. It's pristine! Not a spot of grain, dust or any kind of particle. The colors are duller than "Alice", but of course this is the way the original film was. It's a more natural palette, because that's what the film is about, nature & life & death & rebirth. The sound on the disc is wonderful as well. I don't think I ever noticed the beautiful music before I watched it on Blu-ray. Bottom line, is that this release is perfect, as far as the film is concerned.Let's talk about the extras. There are a few behind the scenes & deleted scenes. Most of these are from the DVD release, which I never owned, so they're new to me. One of the Blu-ray deleted scenes is a song called "Twitterpated". Whoever they got to sing the version on this disc is horrible & the song itself is not so good either. Glad it never made the film. Another deleted scene is one from the book. It's about 2 autumn leaves holding on to a branch & having a conversation about life & the unknown afterlife. This deleted scene is semi-animated with a Flash type of animation. The scene itself is a great one, but I'm also glad it didn't make the film. It wouldn't have fit in & probably would have slowed the film down.As usual, with their classic Disney Blu-ray releases, Bambi also has the useless Disney View, which thankfully, you don't have to use. This is where the black side bars can be filled with similar colored paintings, to fill your widescreen TV. The logic behind this is so stupid. For years, we all had 4:3 (square TV's) & when we watched movies that had a different aspect ratio, we watched it with black bars on the top & bottom, in a letterbox format. Sure, people who didn't care about film complained about this & were happy to watch the movie with parts of it chopped off. So, finally, we get widescreen TVs that get rid of, or diminish the black bars. But when watching 4:3 films, we get black bars on the sides. We're not losing any of the film at all & are seeing it at it's regular size. I really can't think why anyone would care that there are black bars on the sides, but apparently, Disney does. So, they fill up the screen, taking away from the film itself. It's my belief that anyone who watches these films with Disney View on should just stop watching movies all together.With Bambi, Disney gives us a new feature called Disney's Second Screen. With this feature you can sync your Apple iPad with your Blu-ray player. While the film plays on both your TV & your iPad, you can play games or read trivia on the movie (I guess). Just another distraction from watching the film itself. Another useless waste of space on the Blu-ray, that maybe 1% of the people who buy this Blu-ray will ever use. I would complain, if the movie itself wasn't perfect.Bottom line, buy it. Well worth it.

Bambi is one hour and ten minutes and was released in theaters on August 13, 1948. The story tells of a baby deer named Bambi who loses his mother to a hunter and is brought up by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest. An adult Bambi falls in love with Faline who is a female deer and has to fight for her against a male deer. At the end of the movie Faline has twins and Bambi is standing next to his father overlooking the forest. Basically that is the cliff note version of the movie. The movie itself is less then a thousand words and in any scene there is not that much dialogue.In the two disc DVD set there are some interesting tidbits. I the first disc you get to hear the story meeting that went on about making Bambi; I don't know if they are the real voices or just actors. Walt Disney sounds like Walter Cronkite. In disc two the most important one is the Backstage Disney and you learn story behind Bambi. One thing the bunny Thumper was not in the original book but was added in midway into the development of the film for comic relief. This is the first and only animated Disney where a non villain is killed in the movie. Due to World War II and other reasons Bambi lost money in the theaters and thus the next six films were the infamous package films. This is the first Disney film where all the songs are sung off screen and not by the characters themselves. Bambi was nominated for three Academy Awards for Original Song, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and Best Sound, Recording. There are more interesting facts in this two disc DVD set. Bambi is a great movie to watch and gets an AAAAA+++++.DVD FEATURESDisc 1PlayBambi: Inside Walt's Story MeetingScene Selection1) Set Up2) Audio Optionsa. Englishb. Frenchc. Spanish3) CaptionsSneak Peeks1) Cinderella2) Chicken Little3) Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest4) Lilo & Stitch: Stitch has a Glitch5) Growing Up with Winnie the Pooh6) Disney Princess7) Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind8) Porco Rosso9) The Cat Returns10) Jojo's CircusDisc 2 PreviewDisc 2Deleted Scenes1) Winter Grass2) Bambi's First SnowGames & Activities1) The Forest Adventurea. Play Gameb. Game Index2) Disney Pedia: Bambi's Forest Friends3) What's Your Season? Personality Profile4) Disney's Storytime: Thumper Goes Exploring5) Virtual ForestBackstage Disney1) The Making of Bambi: A Prince Is Borna. Story Telling the Taleb. Characters: Drawn To Naturec. Actors Giving Voice To Animalsd. Art Design: Impressions of the Foreste. Music: Nature Symphonyf. History: Back to the Beginningg. Play All2) Restoring Bambi3) The Legacy Continues: A Sneak Peek at the All - New Bambi Movie4) Disney Time Capsule: 1942 The Year of Bambi5) The Art of Bambia. Still Frame Galleryb. Slide Show Galleryi. With Docent Audioii. Without Docent Audio6) Tricks of the Trade (excerpt)7) Inside The Disney Archives8) The Old Mill: Animated Short (1937)9) Original Theatrical Trailer (1942)IndexVHS FEATURESPreviews1) Hercules2) George of the Jungle3) The Hunchback of Notre Dame4) Honey, We Shrunk OurselvesBambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece