Bambi

This article is about the 1942 Disney animated film. For the original novel, see Bambi, a Life in the Woods. For other uses, see Bambi (disambiguation).

Bambi
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySupervising Director
David D. Hand
Sequence Director
  • James Algar
  • Bill Roberts
  • Norman Wright
  • Sam Armstrong
  • Paul Satterfield
  • Graham Heid
Story byPerce Pearce
Larry Morey
George Stallings
Melvin Shaw
Carl Fallberg
Chuck Couch
Ralph Wright
Based onBambi, a Life in the Woods
by Felix Salten
Produced byWalt Disney
Music byFrank Churchill
Edward Plumb
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
  • August 9, 1942 (1942-08-09) (London)
  • August 13, 1942 (1942-08-13) (United States)[1]
Running time
70 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$858,000[2]
Box office$267.4 million[3]

Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods, the production was supervised by David D. Hand, and was directed by a team of sequence directors, including James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Sam Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, and Graham Heid.

The main characters are Bambi, a white-tailed deer; his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother); his friends Thumper (a pink-nosed rabbit); and Flower (a skunk); and his childhood friend and future mate, Faline. In the original book, Bambi was a roe deer, a species native to Europe; but Disney decided to base the character on a mule deer from Arrowhead, California.[4][5][6] Illustrator Maurice "Jake" Day convinced Disney that the mule deer had large "mule-like" ears and were more common to western North America; but that the white-tail deer was more recognized throughout the United States.[7]

The film received three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield), Best Song (for "Love Is a Song" sung by Donald Novis) and Original Music Score.[8]

In June 2008, the American Film Institute presented a list of its "10 Top 10"—the best ten films in each of ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi placed third in animation.[9] In December 2011, the film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant".[10][11][12]

In January 2020, it was announced that a photorealistic computer-animated remake was in development.[13]

  1. ^ "Bambi (film)". Disney A to Z. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
  2. ^ Barrier 1999, p. 273.
  3. ^ "Bambi". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
  4. ^ Hallet, Richard (October 3, 1942). "THE REAL BAMBI". Collier's. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
  5. ^ "To Discover the Real Bambi, Walt Disney Goes to Maine". New England Historical Society. Associated Press. January 1, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
  6. ^ "Maurice E. Day, Animator, 90; Drew Deer for Movie 'Bambi'". NY Times. Associated Press. May 19, 1983. Retrieved July 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Hrehovck, Steve (May 1, 2016). "Damariscotta's Favorite Son Maurice "Jake" Day". Discover Maine. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "The 15th Academy Awards (1943) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
  9. ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. June 17, 2008. Archived from the original on May 18, 2010. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  10. ^ "Bambi joins Library of Congress film trove | IOL". Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
  11. ^ "2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  12. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Remake was invoked but never defined (see the help page).