Movie Thoughts: Bambi (2024)

• Released: October 16, 2024
  
• Directed by: Michel Fessler
• Running time: 1h 25min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A red deer named Bambi grows up and matures into a prince of the woods.

My Thoughts

This was definitely one of my most hyped movies this year. I love the original Bambi novel by Felix Salten, so finally seeing another adaptation after the famous Disney one felt like a treat. 

However, now that I've seen it. Yeah, I am a bit disappointed. It's not a bad movie, but an accurate adaptation of the book it is not. First of all, it doesn't focus as much on telling a story and is much more just an atmospheric documentary-style movie that shows various scenes from Bambi's life rather than a faithful adaptation. There definitely are scenes and characters from the book here, but it's all very, very loose adaptation wise. And if you're looking for that, it's fine, not bad. But at the same time, I feel a bit disappointed that they disregarded the book so much.

It's not just the way in which the story was told that is different, but the tone of the movie is also much more lighthearted and less mature than the book. The original book is not for children and deals with a lot of death and mature themes. This movie definitely does not. It feels very sanitized and the one death that does occur in it (Bambi's mother) feels very glossed over. It doesn't even seem to impact Bambi all that much, unlike in the Disney movie where he was absolutely helpless and distraught at the loss of her.

The relationships between the characters in general don't feel as deep or meaningful because the movie doesn't anthropomorphize the animals and they just don't feel very well-written. The only exception to this is the friendship between Bambi and his "guardian angel" and best friend, the crow. They do feel genuinely close. But other relationships, such as Bambi with his mother or father or the rabbit or his best friend (Faline?) don't feel as defined. 

This is also because the characters...they're really just deer and other animals, for the most part, with very little anthropomorphization or personality. Which would be fine for a true documentary but since this is trying to balance being both an adaptation of an actual story with defined characters and a documentary it falls a bit flat. Again I think the crow is the best character because they feel like they are truly always there for Bambi. They're clever and resourceful but also careful and wise. Bambi by comparison is just, kind of a generic red deer. 

Heck, even when Bambi's friend/mate (who is an amalgamation of the characters of Gobo and Faline from the book) gets captured and it looks like they're gonna do the Gobo arc of the original book, this leaves no impact on Bambi's mate. You'd think that them being held captive and implied tamed by humans for a wild would change her character (it did for Gobo in the book), but it does nothing in this movie. 

You also might've noticed that I'm not using any named aside from Bambi's in this review. That is because Bambi is the only named character in it. Other characters are just called their species, or their relationship to Bambi. So it's "Bambi's mother" or "Bambi's mate" or "the crow" and "the rabbit". This again doesn't let the audience form a very good connection with the characters since we don't even know their names. This is again another point where I think it trying to both be an adaptation of the book and a documentary at once does not really work.

The movie also doesn't really do much with the "Bambi is a forest prince/king" aspect. It is mentioned a few times, but nowhere is Bambi's father really seen as much different from other stags. This doesn't make one of the final lines of the film, where it says Bambi will take up his father's mantle as king of the forest, very poignant. I think if they had build up Bambi's father more as a true ruler among the stags or the wisest of them all or something, this would've felt much more earned. Now it's suddenly "oh by the way Bambi became king of the forest like his father before him" and it doesn't really work.

The movie uses pretty much only real animal actors and from what I can tell welfare-wise they did a good job, I didn't see much if any scenes where the animals were really put into dangerous or very unnatural situations. There might have been one or two instances of CGI but I'm not positive on that front. I do have a few slight bones to pick with their choices in animal actors though.

For one, they didn't use a wild rabbit to play Bambi's lagomorph friend. They used a gray domestic rabbit. In the book, this character is a hare (called Friend Hare), but okay, I can see them changing the species. But seeing a domestic rabbit in the wild feels very odd and out of place. Secondly, the deer actor they got to play a teenage Bambi has a very prominent notch in his right ear. Which would be fine, heck I think a scarred Bambi could be cool. But then his adult forms don't have this ear notch, which is very distracting. 

The movie also takes place in an undetermined time period and setting (not enough context clues are given for us to get a definitive answer) but honestly this I am pretty okay with, it avoids dating the movie and just works rather well. I do think it's supposed to be set in Europe like the book, but we can't tell exactly where. Also, there are raccoons, which aren't native to Europe but do live in some areas as an invasive species. 

However, while I have been largely negative in this review, I want to reiterate I do not think this is a bad movie. Bad adaptation, sure, bad movie, no. If you're looking for a pretty harmless movie for kids with some pretty scenery and animal shots and a neat atmosphere, it is a solid enough film. Not very good or anything, but decent. 

But I myself didn't enjoy it too much, it was a bit too simplistic for me and I think it didn't balance being both a documentary and an adaptation very well. I just hope that sometime in the near future we get a more book-accurate adaptation.