Yes I am blowing through these. I intend to make my 1 year deadline.

First shot of animation: Long shot of the forest using the multi plane camera.

This is easily my favorite of the first five features. All the experimentation (and cost-cutting in Dumbo’s case) pays off here for a film with a dynamic and consistent look, which holds together narratively better than its predecessors.

The forest is nearly photorealistic as it’s baseline, but with a handcrafted and idealized look that makes it feel more like a diorama than a painting. Bambi is drawn with attention to the skeleton and musculature beneath his skin. Each animal has constant attention to weight, posture, and volume.

But that’s just the baseline. The abstraction and exaggeration in color in the three hunter scenes, the regality of the Great Prince, and most of all the complete stylistic shift in the fight scene are all perfect. The fight is better than the Pink Elephants. So there.

It’s a simple coming of age story. Boy becomes a man, except this man is a deer. Bambi is a fun kid to follow. He’s driven by curiosity, which pulls you through the forest on his level. His mother’s death is effectively understated, and its memetic weight hides the real spoilers. In Alien, the chestburster scene is so famous that Ash being a robot still surprises people. Bambi getting shot and the whole forest burning down works the same way.

Some early shades of Lion King here, particularly in showing the young prince has grown up via a lady animal making it clear she wants to fuck him.