Way back in 1942, exactly 75 years ago this August 21st, Walt Disney Pictures released their fifth animated feature film, Bambi. Just the mention of that title probably conjures one specific memory for Disney fans who last watched this beloved classic years and years ago, a memory of a traumatic death that occurs roughly halfway through the film's 70-minute runtime. But there is so much more to the story of Bambi, both in the on-screen retelling of Felix Salten's 1923 novel and in the behind-the-scenes drama of the production that weathered labor strikes, technical challenges, and the horrors of World War II. Luckily, the 75th anniversary Blu-ray of Disney's Bambi does a solid job at providing context for everything from the film's story, to its technological and artistic achievements, to the minor miracle it ever got made at all.

Bambi is the fourth Disney film to be released as part of the company's Walt Disney Signature Collection, succeeding the Platinum Edition and Diamond Edition lines. Fans and collectors will get much more than the feature film with this Blu-ray/DVD combo; it comes packed with special features that reveal never-before-seen characters, plot lines and side-stories that never made it into the final film, and featurettes exploring the incredible achievements made by the studio's artists and technical staff. And rather than simply acting as additional material or trivia, watching these bonus features actually changes the way you'll approach the film itself, having gained a new respect for its cutting-edge animation and use of an impressionistic art style courtesy of Chinese immigrant and artist, the late Tyrus Wong.

bambi-75th-anniversary-donnie-dunagan
Image via Disney

For a glimpse behind the scenes of Bambi's 75th anniversary edition, be sure to check out Christina's interview with the film's two leads: Donnie Dunagan (the voice of “Young Bambi”) and Peter Behn (the voice of “Young Thumper”). You'll certainly find out more about them and other cast members in the Blu-ray's special features, but it was a rare treat to be able to talk with two octogenarians about their experiences acting under Walt Disney and how that film has affected their lives going forward. Still more good news is the fact that video interviews Bambi artists, actors, and writers have been archived over the years and have been gathered together on this Blu-ray in order to provide fans with incredible insight into the history of the film.

And the film itself is nothing short of amazing, either! If it's been a while since you've seen it, it's time to give Bambi another watch with fresh eyes. It really is refreshing to see how much time the animators took with the film; there's no rush to force the story from one beat to the next, no hyperactive characters--okay, Thumper is a little hyper--taking over the scenes, and no desire to give audiences an easy out by avoiding difficult subject material. In other words, it stands out from the majority of today's animated feature films.

There are a lot of ways to enjoy Bambi, either with your friends and family, or as a solo watch. The story may be well known, but do yourself a favor and take time to just focus on the film's musical score throughout the picture; it's not only phenomenal in its own right, it also perfectly matches up with the story's pivotal moments and acts as a sort of narrator for the film that's largely devoid of exposition. Even the very specific use of silence during two climactic moments in the film are masterfully arranged, a fact pointed out to me by the bonus feature that focused on the film's music. You can even mute the picture completely and just allow yourself to be drawn in by the film's technologically advanced (for the time) presentation of depth using the Disney-engineered multiplane camera or the sweeping, emotionally resonant backgrounds painted in Wong's impressionistic style. There's so much to love and enjoy here that it makes Disney's Signature Collection edition of Bambi an easy sell.

bambi-75th-anniversary-peter-behn-donnie-dunagan
Image via Disney

Some of the special features you'll find on this edition are laid out below:

Studio Stories: Bambi - In this selection of interviews from 1956,  Walt Disney himself talks about his team of animators learning animal anatomy by observing live animals at the studio and his decision to send cameramen out into the woods to capture animals in their wild habitat. In a funny anecdote, he admits that he put “not good” character artists onto an effects team in order to study and reproduce raindrops, clouds, dust, and explosions, making them look better by experimenting with things like breaking glass, bubbles, and slow-motion drops. Disney also reveals that the 1937 short “The Old Mill” was used to develop the “multiplane camera” which was central to the ability to add depth in the screen by using layers of paintings on glass.

Animator Floyd Norman Introduces Deleted Scenes - Get insight on two deleted scenes. In one, Bambi disappeared into a snowdrift, which was brought to life through rough sketches and added dialogue after the fact; the scene was ultimately changed to the one with Thumper teaching Bambi to walk on ice. Another deleted scene features characters that never appeared in the final film: grasshoppers, an army of ants, and Bobo the rabbit, who eventually became Thumper. There’s a full grasshopper and ants sequence that plays out in concept art, but it was all scrapped since it took away from Bambi’s story.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in “Africa Before Dark” by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks – This rediscovered short film sees Oswald riding an elephant through the African savannah while other animals play. Oswald is, surprisingly, a hunter, however his guns tend to fail him, either going limp or shrinking down to nothing. This short, long thought lost, was recently discovered at Vienna’s Austria Film Museum. The Walt Disney Animation Studios restoration is accompanied by live orchestration from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with music by six-time Emmy award-winning Mark Watters.

bambi-artwork
Image via Disney

The Bambi Effect – This deeper dive into the history of Bambi tackles everything from the process of creating cartoonish animation animations by studying live animals and anatomy; the decision to use Tyrus Wong’s impressionistic art and his influences that are still being seen today in modern films; early female animators like Retta Scott (Disney’s first credited female animator who headed up the film's dog-chase sequence), Elizabeth Case Zwicker (who animated the birds in Sleeping Beauty) and Mary Blair, who created concept art for Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland; to the brand-new effects department created by Disney to work on raindrops, fire, smoke, water, and snow.

Bambi Fawn Facts: Kid-friendly trivia on deer, skunks, rabbits, and forest life.

Some other classic bonus features that have appeared on previous releases of Bambi are collected here as well. They include:

Classic Deleted Scenes with commentary by Disney historians Charles Solomon and Paula Sigman -

  • Two Leaves
  • Bambi Stuck on a Reed
  • Winter Grass

Deleted Song: “Twitterpated”

The Making of Bambi: A Prince Is Born

  • bambi-75th-anniversary-peter-behn-donnie-dunagan
    Image via Disney
    Story: Telling the TaleMel Shaw (writer/animator), John Lasseter, and animator Andreas Deja and others offer up commentary on Bambi's story while it was in production and the impact it's had ever since. Anecdotes include pitching The Lion King as “Bambi in Africa”, a coming-of-age story; Walt as one of the best story editor’s ever, asking questions about every character and possible interaction (like Bambi stepping on an anthill and inadvertently ruining their civilization before the artists realized they were way off the story). Lots of characters and elements that didn’t make it into the movie, like ants, bees, grasshoppers, Thumper’s father, squirrels and chipmunks; the original cut would have been a couple of hours long and very complex. Apparently, Walt originally wanted to show the hunter burned to death due to the forest fire he'd inadvertently started, but that didn’t go over well; another scene that never made it was Bambi’s mother actually being shot – there are storyboards for it, but it never appeared.
  • Characters: Drawn to Nature – Walt was all about putting definite personality into each character – he was impressed with the first animation tests from his top animators (the butterfly sequence and the log jump sequence). His key animators spent years studying anatomy, art techniques, and live animals; a comparison of the deer in Snow White vs those in Bambi reveals the extent of their achievements. Animators Milt Kahl, Eric Larson, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas offer insight on the development of creating animals that move and behave like animals but are caricatures of human beings, a trend that still continues today
  • Actors: Giving Voice to Animals – Lasseter tells a fantastic secondhand story about Peter Behn’s audition, in which the young man was loud, brash, and couldn’t quite string long sentences together, making him perfect for Thumper. Cammie King Conlon (Gone with the Wind) who auditioned for Faline and got the role, in her own words, “peaked” at the age of 5. Donnie Dunagan, who voiced young Bambi, never told his Marine Corps fellows about his involvement in the film for (the good-natured) fear of getting the nickname Bambi; he has a great, fond memory for the coaches’ sensitivity and for allowing them to just be children;
  • bambi-75th-anniversary-bluray
    Image via Disney
    Art Design: Impressions of the Forest – The painterly style is paramount in this spotlight on Chinese artist/immigrant Tyrus Wong, who tells a great story about his young wife who told him to go to Disney to ask for a job during the Depression. There, he trained as an in-betweener, filling in the drawings between the keyframe animations. Once he heard that Bambi would be the studio's next production, he showed his impression landscape paintings to a supervising animator and the rest is history. There's also a featurette showing off effects work like rippleglass and ongoing experimentation by the studio, like snow animated by recording cornflakes falling in slow-motion.
  • Music: Nature’s Symphony – The music of Bambi made nature itself a character with a voice and personality, described as a “Pastoral” symphony for children. There's a unity between music and animation, notable in many scenes, but there are also two 18-second silences: one when Bambi’s mother says, “Man was in the forest,” and the other is after she dies. The classical sound of the score is reminiscent of Fantasia in part because secondary composer Edward Plumb worked on both films; there's also a lot on Frank Churchill’s contributions to the music and his childlike melodies. These combined with Plumb’s more classical style to create the film's Oscar-nominated music.
  • History: Back to the Beginning – This featurette explores the titular book from Felix Salten, whose other Books ‘Perri’ and ‘The Hound of Florence’ were also turned into Disney films, with the latter becoming The Shaggy Dog. There is some fascinating insight into Disney’s business during World War II, specifically when they lost their European market in 1939. This event saw Walt falling into debt with their banks, but also gave him an opportunity to sell the bankers on the story of Bambi to get another loan. More complications followed, like the early 1940s labor strike (which was eventually mediated) and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which resulted in Disney's studios being co-opted into making wartime propaganda films. Bambi kept going forward with production, eventually holding its world premiere in London during the war. Though the early Disney films didn’t turn a profit, thanks in a huge part to the war, they're eventual re-releases were massively successful.
bambi-75th-anniversary-peter-behn-donnie-dunagan
Image via Disney

Tricks of Our Trade (Excerpt) – This trip into Disney's archive reveals a video of Walt Disney showing off a blueprint for the multiplane camera, along with the studio's original camera and how a Mickey Mouse short was animated, along with a final demonstration of the finished work. By using transparent sheets of celluloid (inked and painted), each cel was photographed while the background was moved a fraction of an inch each time. As cool as it was to see in action, this also demonstrated the limitations of using the old-fashioned, flat background, like its static appearance and the unchanging proportions of things like the moon as you go into or out of the scene. The creation of the multiplane camera gave depth to the backgrounds and greater control over apparent depth.

Inside the Disney Archives – Disney animator Deja visits the Disney Research Library to take a peek at the vault, specifically to look at Bambi art. There are concept art/sketches for Ralph Wright’s gag involving a squabbling chipmunk and squirrel, and the owl. There’s also art for a sequence with bees, in which one zipped into Bambi’s ear and somehow ended up in his stomach.  The grasshopper artwork is revealed as well, alongside Tyrus Wong’s impressionistic artwork samples. One story sketch features the shadow of man with a gun, though man never appears in the film. There's also a look at Bambi’s evolution from realistic deer to anthropomorphic/”humanized” animal with a childlike face, and backgrounds from forest and fire sequences inspired/influenced by Wong’s work. There are even stills of an out-of-picture sequence of animation showing Bambi reacting to something that startled him, demonstrating off counter-movement, perspective shifts, and other animation details.

“The Old Mill” Animated Short – A fantastic visual and musical display of animal life occupying an old, dilapidated, and nearly demolished mill, used as test animation for the multiplane camera

The Golden Age – A featurette on the artwork and animation style of Bambi from Disney historians, animators, directors. This video plays up Disney’s contribution to expanding the artists’ abilities and styles, and touches upon the film's music, artistry, and effects work once again.

Original Theatrical Trailer – “Walt Disney, the World’s Greatest Storyteller, tells the greatest love story the world’s ever seen!” The trailer touts the book and focuses on the “twitterpated” animals, making Bambi into more of a love story than a coming-of-age story.

Bambi 75th Anniversary Blu-ray is now available!

bambi-75th-anniversary-peter-behn-donnie-dunagan
Image via Disney