BAMBI

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 225, 15 October 1943, Page 21

BAMBI

(RKO Radio)

ALT DISNEY is now reported to be concentrating all his energies on producing propaganda and "edu-

cational" shorts of various kinds to help America’s war effort, so Bambi may be the last full-length, pureentertainment Disney that we shall see for the duration. I am sorry, because although the Disney propaganda-pieces will certainly be much better and more enjoyable than the average, we already have quite enough people to teach and preach at us, and I think that Disney, instead of turning into a super-school-master, could make a better contribution to humanity at this moment simply by doing his bit to keep it gay. In Bambi, however, there is no hint of the new responsibilities that he is taking upon his shoulders. This naturefable reveals "him in his happiest mood: untroubled by the need to expound a doctrine or develop a new medium of expression (as in Fantasia), he flings the gates of fantasy wide open, and when we pass through we find ourselves in fairyland again, on the ground where Disney is most at home, and surrounded by the most endearing creatures of his imagination. For Disney and his artists have always been at their best when drawing animals, and especially young animals--and Bambi contains almost nothing else. This is the story of a deer from the day he first opens his eyes by his mother’s side to the day when his own fawns are born, and he assumes the dignity of King of the Forest. Man does not enter into the picture, and since Disney has never been really successful in animating the human figure, this is an advantage. Yet, although it is expressed only by the sound of a shot or of a hunting-horn, Man’s influence pervades the tale: his is the menace that hangs over all the creatures of the wild, robbing Bambi of his mother while he is still young, and destroying the forest sanctuary by fire. Tutored by Thumper, a young rabbit who is one of Disney’s most whimsical creations, Bambi learns the meaning of the changing seasons and the ways of the wild; but as he grows toward staghood he suffers the fate of the young of every species-when he sheds his baby ways he sheds much of his beguiling charm. This, in a sense, is unavoidable; yet even the technical ability and imaginative insight of Disney and his staff seem to fail them when once the forest creatures are past the baby stage: the artists are almost as ill at ease with full-grown animals as they are with human beings, and there is a distinct deterioration in the quality of their .drawing. Still, the adult life of Bambi does not occtpy’ very much of the picture. Most of the time, he is an endearing little fellow, romping with equally attractive playmates. — ‘IP the film "cen: be ‘seid to: have anys thing as serious as a moral, it is ‘that

in all creation only Man is vile-the deliberate taker of life, the callous destroyer of beauty and peace. All the birds and the beasts in Bambi’s forest live together on the most neighbourly of terms. My seven-year-old daughter who accompanied me to the film was so much impressed by man’s inhumanity that she wept copiously (but briefly), when Bambi was orphaned by an unseen huntsman, and I felt that I would never again be permitted to go even rabbit-shooting. _But unfortunately for the Disneyean thesis that Nature is not cruel, on returning home we’ found our front porch occupied by one large, almost-dead rat and our self-satisfied, but still playful cat!