Zookstar’s Animated Animal Movie Reviews #2: Bambi (1942)

Posted by itstailtime on July 22, 2013
Posted in: Zookstar written reviews. Leave a comment

Well so far, the marathon is off to a good start. And after taking a lookback at Disney’s most popular animal flick The Lion King, we shall go back in time much further. Back when Walt himself was alive and making his first films. After the releases of fairytale classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, Walt decided to take a new turn in his films. Realism. Sounds like a tricky job there doesn’t it? So, his attempt to do that was making a film based on the 1923 Austrian novel, Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten, in which his version is simply entitled:

Eeyup. What The Lion King had expanded, Bambi had started. It is also worth mentioning that out of all the films Walt had made, this was his favourite movie that he had done. So how well does this film do and age without all the fantasy/fairytale elements? Well, let’s begin.

Story

The film has a similar opening to The Lion King. A female doe gives birth to a fawn soon to become the new prince of the forest as all the other woodland creatures gather round to celebrate. As the fawn grows up through youth, he is taught how to walk and speak as he befriends a young rabbit named Thumper (his name because he likes to thump a lot with his foot, how creative) and later a skunk named Flower (although it can’t be his original name because Bambi had called him that when looking at flowers and the skunk liked it, but I guess he wasn’t named yet before that happened). Bambi spends most of his time with his mother who teaches him the way of life in the forest and the dangers of the hunter known as “Man”. And throughout the rest of the film is pretty much the life of Bambi from youth to adulthood.

Soooooo yeah, there really isn’t much to the story other than the life of Bambi. There’s no goal, no motivational skills from the characters, no story arcs. It’s just Bambi living his whole life as a deer in the forest. Unlike The Lion King which had a more complex and detailed story. Does that mean that the story as a whole falls flat?
Well, how I can describe how this story works is basicly the same way I would describe the segments in Fantasia. The movie lets the animation and visuals carry the story more than character dialogue. It is also like Snow White where emotion is used more than logic. Films like that are pretty impressive, and you don’t see them very often in today’s generation. How they can a whole story with the animation and the emotions of the story to pace it. You can see how it is done in this film where as the story progesses, the seasons change from spring, to summer, to autumn, to winter and to spring again. But I’ll get to the animation later.
And I might as well get it out of the way, this was the first Disney movie to have a character (Bambi’s mother) to actually die realistically (technically Snow White was the first to have a character die but only through a poisoned apple) and even to this day, it has left scars on thousands of people (god damn it Disney, stop killing off the parents goddammit!)

Characters 

It’s hard to describe the characters of this movie but I’ll do my best.
Bambi – Much like Simba, Bambi doesn’t have that much of a personality to him. For the most part, he acts as a confused, quirky figure who is rather shy at times and doesn’t often speak. Basicly, he’s the male version of Fluttershy (god damn, I can’t believe I had to reference MLP). Unlike Simba however, he doesn’t have that much of the male hero archetype, up until near the end of the movie that is. Over the years, I do kinda like the sort of shy personality they gave him as it makes him a bit more interesting.
Thumper – Bambi’s best rabbit friend. His personality is that he is a fun loving rabbit with a quirky attitude to him who has a habit of thumping things on the ground with his foot (hence the name obviously). Plus, he has some of the most memorable quotes:
Flower – I’m still wondering if this was even his real name or he just picked from Bambi. Oh well, too much thought. Anyway, not much of a personality with this character other than the fact that he is VERY bashful. He provides some of the cutest scenes in the entire movie, the cute scale pretty much rockets to the top. We don’t even see him as much as Thumper to get really get to know him completely well but eh.
Bambi’s mother – Not sure why they didn’t give this character her own name but whatever. Just like Mufasa, Bambi’s mum serves as Bambi’s mentor throughout the movie to teach about the circle of life, and she and Bambi quickly grow a strong relationship. And of course, that leads to the heartbreaking moment where she is shot and killed. Why is it the most beloved and interesting of characters get killed off so soon??!!
The Great Prince of the Forest – Bambi’s father. Again, not much personality with this character other than the fact that he serves as the protective leader of all the woodland creatures. As far as I know, he has much more development in the direct-to-video sequel to his film.
Man – The first and so far only Disney villain that is not shown on-screen. I think this is to build up the atmosphere of the fact that the movie is primarily focused on the animals and since Man is considered the biggest threat then having him off-screen makes the atmosphere all the more intense. You can sense all the fear these animals have to go through when this guy’s around. It is unclear, however, if he was killed off near the end of the film. There’s a small scene where a camp is on fire, and presumably Man must have stayed there and when the forest went on fire, he died. Still made unclear though. 
Overall, I think the characters have a bit more creativity to them than The Lion King had, but that’s just me.



 Animation

Man, this is the best part once again. Now I know I said how fantastic The Lion King’s animation was, but it is totally impressive here as well. I love how the film captures the beauty side of Nature, and this could definitely be considered art. It’s all very pleasing to look at even if some of the environments can be quite dark. And just like with The Lion King the team had hired wildlife experts to bring in animals like deer to study their movements for the animation and needless to say, all that hard work paid off greatly. And keep in mind, this was in 1942. When animation in feature length films was still relatively new. I always say that if the visuals and animation play a huge role in the story telling, then by God, you better have some breathtaking animation to do that, and Bambi does that job no problem. Granted, it may not be as colourful as say, Fantasia as it is trying for a more darker tone, but there is still a lot to look in this one.

Sound




Well there really isn’t much to the soundtrack of this film. None of the characters sing any sing-a-long songs (and no, background characters don’t count) unlike Walt’s past films. But I’ll do my best to explain some of them:
Love is a Song – A sweet, soothing song that really knows how to capture the soul. I wouldn’t say it’s the most memorable opening song, but it’s sweet nonetheless.
Little April Shower – A really random song that comes right out of nowhere. I mean, it’s a catchy little tune I guess, but it’s mostly just singing about rain in April. Whu?
Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song – Ok guys, don’t expect me to make a joke about this. It’s too painfully obvious (after all back then, gay did have a different meaning). Anyway, this is a pretty forgettable song. It’s just birds singing about the spring. I guess it goes well with the return of spring setting but overall, it’s a weak song.
Looking for Romance – A heartwarming romantic song. One thing I like about songs like this from the 40s is that they have such heavenly voices to sing the romance song. It’s pretty beautiful and deep in my opinion.
To be honest, aside from the two songs I liked, I find the soundtrack overall to be underwhelming. Now granted, it was a nice change of pace not to have the main characters just break into a musical number, but the quality just isn’t there.
The voice acting is pretty decent. It’s pretty impressive how well the kid actors did playing the roles of the young characters and so forth. However, I don’t think there was thousands of voice acting in the movie as it wasn’t needed as much, so overall it’s decent.

Conclusion

It is hard to describe how well Bambi holds up. On one hand, the visuals and animation of the film are stunning and artistic. On another, the story may not hold up as well in today’s standards since there is little to no development of the story as it is just simply telling the life of our main protagonist. I can see not everybody liking this movie as some people may be looking for a more detailed and complex story, or the high level of cuteness may turn them off slightly. But for me, I still think it’s a good flick to go back to every one and a while. Even though I prefer The Lion King, I find the characters in this film to be more creative and the fact that without this film, I doubt The Lion King would even exist. Sadly, where I feel the film falls flat is the music (despite the two songs I liked).
Even though the film is considered a classic today, it did not do well at all on it’s original release. This was developed around the same time World War II was around so people had a lot more to worried about than watching films and after this film was made, the army took over the Walt Disney studios and had to make package films with War references (up until 1950). So overall, the film was a financial flop. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it gained some major controversy with critics and audiences alike. Criticisms went to the film’s realism and lack of fantasy elements that Snow White had. Not to mention, many hunters criticised it for being an offense to “American sportsmen”. Though as the years went by, Bambi became the reason for many people to become animal rights activists and vegetarians, including former Beatle member, Paul McCartney.
So I do like the film for it’s characters and beautiful art style, even if some things like the music haven’t aged very well. I’d give it a: 3.5/5. I haven’t seen the sequel for this film, but I am really keen to give it a watch soon. But for next, we’ll move on to Disney’s flick on the flying elephant:

Zookstar’s Animated Animal Movie Reviews #1: The Lion King (1994)

Posted by itstailtime on July 19, 2013
Posted in: Zookstar written reviews. Leave a comment

Well, the time has come for me to begin my Animated Animal Movie Reviews. As I stated before, as a kid, I always grew fond to the animal movies of animation. That partially due to me being an animal lover, but I always found the characters more likeable, cute, interesting and I find there is more creativity to be done when doing this subject in animation and still to this day at the age of 18, that novelty has never worn off. Not one bit. Granted I know some people might have an opposite view since it would be hard to relate to characters that aren’t human, but for me, as long as the characters are interesting and memorable, I see no big deal. Anyway, the first movie I have chosen to review is none other than:

Ah yes. Seriously people, what kind of person hasn’t known this movie already? Just name me one person and I will show that they are lying out of their ass. To put it short, The Lion King has pretty much become the staple in Disney animated films. You can’t talk about Disney without mentioning this movie. It is most people’s favourite film of the Disney lineup, and why is that exactly? It could be because of the characters, story, music, animation, pretty much all the above. It also could be because it is part of the Disney Renaissance, also known as Disney’s Second Gold Age, which had other memorable classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc etc. So now that we know what we’re getting into, let’s take a lookback on why this movie left a big mark in animation. (not to mention this movie was released the same year I was born. YAY lol)

Story

Now before we begin, I like to add that for some reason people thought this was the first Disney movie to have it’s own original story, which is false. For one that honour goes to Lady and the Tramp, and two, the story is loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I’ve never read the whole story of Hamlet so I don’t know if there are any differences besides the animals. Oh well, moving on:
Set in the beautiful landscapes of Africa, ruled by the lion king Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones), the animals celebrate the birth of the prince and future king, Simba. During Simba’s youth, Mufasa teaches him all about the Circle of Life and the responsibilities of being king. However, Mufasa’s brother, Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons) grows envy of the lion cub’s place and builds a plan to have him and Mufasa eliminated so he can take the throne for himself, in which successfully manages to kill Mufasa in a wildebeest stampede. Believing to be the cause of his father’s death, Simba runs away from the Pride Lands to avoid punishment. Simba is then found in the desert by the comic relief of the film, the famous meerkat-and-warthog duo, Timon and Pumbaa (both who are voiced by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella). They teach him the life of freedom from responsibility and work in which they call Hakuna Matata. Through his youth to adulthood, Simba leaves all of the responsibilities behind and lives a life of nothing but relaxing in the savannah with his buddies. That is, until his childhood friend, Nala comes along and they both fall in love (ahhh, lion romance lol). He then learns from her on how Scar has turned the Pride Lands into nothing but badlands. Simba, however, refuses to go back as it would mean revealing his cause of Mufasa’s death. But upon meeting the crazy, wild baboon Rafiki (voiced by Robert Guillaume), he summons Mufasa’s ghost in which tells Simba he needs to take his true place as the King of the Pride Lands. So now, Simba has to get back to the Pride Lands, battle his uncle Scar and take back the kingdom.
Phew, long summary lol. Anyway, so yeah, the moral of the story is taking responsibilities for your actions. Now, this would completely work if it weren’t for one thing. Simba was never the cause of Mufasa’s death and Scar tricked him into thinking it was, which brings confusion into how the moral is executed. I can see why this can be a bit of a plot hole and I know a lot of people have pointed this out by now, but I needed to bring it up as well. The movie also has a theme of putting the past behind you and moving on, which I personally think is a homage to a quote by Walt Disney himself: “Keep moving forward”
That’s pretty much the only major flaw within the storyline. Other than that, the pacing is done right, the story is set up well and even with that plot hole, it still delivers what has to be the most mature moral Disney has ever done. I mean, Disney has always gave “keep wishing” morals in their movies, and this is one of their movies where the moral is more realistic with it’s audience and it’s what every kid nowadays should learn.

Characters

This is another thing on what everybody remembers this film for. The characters.
Simba – Our main protagonist. Now I certainly can’t say Simba is the most interesting character, but not the most boring either. He has that archetype of “wisecracking male hero” which is a pretty common trait in most male heroes. However, before this film, Disney had always been more known for their princess heroines, which certainly wasn’t a bad thing, but it was interesting to see what they could pull off for a male protagonist. Personally, I found Simba more of a exciting character when he was young. He was energised, fun and quirky. When he is an adult, he becomes more bland and less of a fun character, which is strange I mean, he hung out with Timon and Pumbaa all those years so you’d think he’d be a little more exciting. Nevertheless, you couldn’t ask for a better protagonist to fit the theme of this story.
Nala – The leading lady and love interest of the film. There really isn’t much to this character. She pretty much serves as Simba’s mate and mentor when she meets him in adult years. Much like Simba, I found her more interesting in her youth. As for her relationship with Simba, it doesn’t really seem all that developed. Granted they had been friends since childhood, but Simba had been gone from the Pride Lands up until adult years, so how could they have developed a full romantic relationship as soon as they reunite? Maybe I’m just digging too deep but that’s just my perspective.
Scar – Now we have our main villain. Definetly an evil one. Scar is merciless, sinister and willing to do anything to get what he wants, even if it means taking out his own brother. Scar isn’t my favourite Disney villain, but with a voice actor like Jeremy Irons, he definetly brings a good role as the villain of the story. Yeah, he may be not be the most complex Disney villain as say, Frollo, but he definetly has some of the most memorable and hilarious lines in this movie that he still gets a free pass from me.

Timon and Pumbaa – Our comedic duo. As far as I know, these characters were brought into the movie to at least bring some kid-friendly elements in the movie after all the dark themes. And both of them are enjoyable to watch and they didn’t feel so out of place in the more serious story (unlike the Gargoyles from The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Granted, some of the jokes they make can be obnoxious but they serve well as the comic relief.

Rafiki – Now this is something I have to agree with Hannu on. As enjoyable as Timon and Pumbaa are, Rafiki is by far the funniest character in the movie. He serves as the wise elder of the movie, but provides some wacky and hilarious moments in the movie. When me and my friends talk about this movie, we always mention how Rafiki was hilarious rather than Timon and Pumbaa.

Mufasa – By far the best and most interesting character in the entire movie. A responsible, powerful king who does well to ensure the future, while at the same time, can still provide light-hearted moments. This is probably what makes him one of the best Disney parent characters, and because of this, his death has been known as the most tearjerking scene in Disney history. James Earl Jones provides an emotional performance with this character. Who’d thought? Darth Vader’s voice emotional. lol

That’s it from the main characters. Since I am short on time, I’m only discussing the main ones and not the other characters like Sarabi, Zazu or the hyenas as they didn’t play too big a role in the plot.

Animation



By far this is one of Disney’s most beautifully animated movies of all time, if not the most. Since it was important to capture animal movements and the background of Africa correctly, the team at Walt Disney had made a visit to the place to help with their art and needless to say, visiting there has sure paid off. The team also hired various wildlife experts to study the real life movements of lions and other animals (which was also done for the development of Bambi). The film also does offer beautiful landscapes of it’s environment which is just as well done as something like The Rescuers Done Under. The Disney Renaissance defiantly had some of the best looking films in the library and this one is no exception here. That’s pretty all there is to know about the animation.

Sound

Once again, another thing this movie is remembered for. Especially the music, written by Tim Rice and famous English singer, Elton John.

Circle of Life – A well-constructed, memorable piece that provides an epic opening for the movie. Definetly a plus here.
I Just Can’t Wait To Be King – Pretty average song in my eyes. I don’t know, there’s something about this song that doesn’t particular grasp me as much as the other ones. I still think it’s a decent song, but I’d say it’s my least favourite.
Be Prepared – One hell of a villain song. As we all know, Jeremy Irons sung half of this song before he started to lose his voice so well talented voice actor, Jim Cummings came aboard to finish the song and it still sounds great! This is a song I keep finding getting stuck in my head from time to time when I decide to listen to it.
Hakuna Matata – Same kind of thing with I Just Can’t Wait To Be King. It’s average at best, but it is definetly a fun and catchy song to listen to.
Can You Feel Love The Love Tonight – A sweet romantic song. Then again, Disney has never been unknown to romance and because of that, they provide a lot of memorable love songs and this is no different. That is, when Elton John isn’t singing it. lol

The rest of the movie’s musical piece was produced by Hans Zimmer. Man, this guy must have really worked his ass off with this one, because he has made what is one of the most epic soundtracks in cinema which can really capture both the heart and the emotion of a person.

The voice acting is also spot on. No surprise, the weakest actor was Matthew Broderick, who gave a pretty bland performance for Simba but the rest of actors do their job well. Like I mentioned earlier, James Earl Jones, voice for Mufasa is definetly the best voice in the movie as it is deep and powerful.

Conclusion

It’s no surprise that this has become one of the Disney’s deepest treasures in their canon. Ever since it’s release in 1994, it had blown away the minds of both children and adults with it’s memorable characters, epic musical piece and mature message to both kids and adults alike. And still to this day, it gets milked of it’s prime with merchandise and a fanbase. Unfortunetly, it is not without it’s flaws. Like I said, some of the songs were only average in my eyes, the main characters can be considered bland and uninteresting and of course, the plothole in the movie’s theme. I for one can overlook that fine for all the hard work and effort went into making this movie and it’s a shame we will never see an animated movie like this ever again (but we can only hope ;)). I cannot watch the movie that much though, because of scenes like Mufasa’s death and Mufasa’s spirit scenes that I’m extremely sensitive to and can immediately break me down on my emotions.

But with all that aside, I give The Lion King a: 4/5 (yeah, I’m going back to the usual score system as I don’t plan to use that Doritos score anymore haha). I plan at looking at the sequel sometime soon but that’s for another time. Next time in this marathon, I will look into another popular animal film done by the Mouse House:

So until next time lads and lassies, this is Zookstar1000 saying peace out and stay furry!