Why Disney’s Bambi, with dreamlike Chinese landscapes and innovative animation, remains a classic

Barring the majestic Fantasia (1940), delicate, heartfelt Bambi (1942) is the best film Disney has ever made – a classic among many classics. But the movie presented difficulties for the animators, and production was a slog.

Bambi, which tells the story of a young deer’s attempts to survive in a forest that’s threatened by the destructive nature of mankind, was the first Disney film to include adult issues such as death. This caused problems for the storytellers as they were trying to reflect mature themes in the context of a children’s film – something that had never been done before.

An additional challenge resulted from Walt Disney’s decision to base the movement of the characters on real animals – again, some­thing that had not been tried before. This meant many hours of detailed nature study, and more complex animations than had been previously attempted. It was worth the hard work – the result is a work of pure cinema that transcends entertainment to stand as a bona fide work of art.

Bambi is still unusually thoughtful for an animated film. Based on Felix Salten’s book Bambi: A Walk in the Woods, but heavily adapted by Disney, it relates the maturation of a young deer to the changing of the seasons – it’s a poetic essay on birth, death and rebirth. There’s also a deftly handled ecological theme about man’s contempt for nature that is strikingly modern.

The storyline is simple without being simplistic. A young deer, Bambi, is born into what seems like an idyllic world but, as he gets older, he realises that danger and destruc­tion are never far away. As Bambi grows into a powerful stag he meets the challenges of life, takes on respon­sibilities and claims his birthright as king of the forest.