For those who have seen it... (Only) - Bambi II (2006) Discussion

[–] c-corleis 18 years ago

Now i have seen it!! Got today my DVD from amazon.co.uk (official theatrical release is tomorrow in germany ;-))

My very first thoughts:
I must admit, it was well made! But as i already feared before, it was to much "cartoonized" in the first half, sometimes it looks more like a Tex Avery cartoon for me, i.e. the "porcy-pine scene", the stupid "fart-joke" and the exxaggerated gestures and actions.
In the second half it's got a lot better: The hunters, the deer-call, the dogs, the reflection on the lens of the scope etc. This was very well made. But the problem is, that we all know, that Bambi will not get in really serious danger, because we all know the original movie and it's ending.
Overall, the first "cartoonized" half get a 4/10 by me, the second, far better half a 8/10, overall i rate it 6/10. It is a far simpler and smaller, but acceptable successor for the outstanding original.

"What happened mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man... was in the forest."

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[–] tuMrsBatman 18 years ago

I had my doubts. I, a huge Bambi lover at the age of 14, bought it the day it came out. I loved it! It was very good. It was cute and sweet and funny. Absolutely loveable. You have to see it.

=]

Shall we have a footrace?

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[–] xtremegurl03 18 years ago

agreed. it was adorable and i actually cried the first time i saw it!

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[–] Johnny_deppnumonefan 18 years ago

i'm sorry but i disagree, the film was to short in general and you don't get to see much of the young charectors grown up! i was very diappointed with this film, it's a lovely story but i expected alot more, i think this is really a little,nice kiddies film.

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] mapleleafrag 18 years ago

I love the Bambi franchise and movies like these, so I decided to buy this one. The movie was enjoyable overall, but I'm not exactly sure what the plot was. If the plot was supposed to be Bambi's coming of age and proving himself to his dad, I didn't feel like the ending tied all of these different elements together. And even though animated films are typically shorter than motion pictures, when Bambi II was over, I was left wondering, "That's it?" I think what bothered me most about this film is that a lot of promising characters and different plot elements, themes, motifs were raised during the story, but the ending just leaves them all hanging. For example, whatever happens to Ronno at the end? What about Mena? Do Ronno and Bambi work out their differences? Does Mena wind up adopting Bambi or what?

I also thought that the little running jokes got redundant and annoying after a while. It was cute the first time that Bambi tried to "grrr" but made a bleating sound instead, but it just kept coming back again and again and again.

So basically, it's a cute movie, but at the end of the 74 minutes, it didn't quite satisfy my tastes.

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[–] c-corleis 18 years ago

Yes, it is a real "midquel" and needs the 1942 original movie to work properly. See it as a "lost chapter" of the story, that reveals now.
In the beginnig it was connected tight to the original too: If someone did not know what just happened before the starting scene in the original movie, he will ask "Why can Bambi's mother with him never more?". But i think, everyone knows, what happened in one of the most iconic scenes in movie-history before in the original film.
Its the same with the end... Bambi and Ronno really work out their differences... in the original movie.
But this "lost chapter" is uncomplete too. It ends with an older, but still young Bambi, but the original movie starts here again with a young, but grown up Bambi. When all friends come together again in the original film, they ask each other "Did you remember me?", so it's obvious, that there must be a long time, in wich they did not meet each other.

"What happened mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man... was in the forest."

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[–] Mustangs2010 18 years ago

i don't get it,it says how he grew up and explained about the other deer that tryed to take feleen away(sorry can't spell)but when you watch it just stops where bambi's father says about where he met bambi's mother how come it didn't you know keep going and how come they didn't make a sequel about bambi's children that he had just curious

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[–] c-corleis 18 years ago

Yes, IMHO the real sequel "Bambis Children" would be a better idea. It would follow the second book from Felix Salten. But i think, it was a question of money and other thinks too:

1. Bambi has grown up at the end of the original movie (or better in the middle of the original, the second half of the movie plays with grown up Bambi). But mostly people remember Bambi as a child.... and all merchandise-products are focused on Bambis childhood...How many lunchboxes, pillows, bedlinen etc. depicting the adult Bambi?? Yes, it's money again: Bambi as a fawn was far more usable for merchandising-articles!

2. The "recycling" of never used ideas from the original Bambi-movie was far easier than to transform Saltens second book to a new story, in the same style and mood as the original film... and gives a reason to legitimate the sequel in the name of Walt Disney himself (And Walt ever said, that he did not believe in sequels, except "Fantasia" and short films like "Three little pigs" etc.)

"What happened mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man... was in the forest."

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[–] insect666 18 years ago

Besides, the 2nd book is quite complicated, it would be extremely hard to translate into movie form. It doesn't have a single most important scenario, more like a collection of stories that happen during the time Bambi's children grow. There are way more characters aswell. (Tho, I think Gurrie and Membo would make hilarious and memorable characters, not to mention Boso would leave Ronno in the dust in terms of devilry.) It takes time to introduce characters properly in case of movies. I doubt one could fit that into under 2h... But if Disney is still leet in terms of storytelling... who knows...

P.S. Anyone noticed that there's still no mention of moose?

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[–] c-corleis 18 years ago

Yes, this was the difficulty in the movie-version of "Bambi" too. It takes 3 years of the about 5 years work on "Bambi" to "translate" the book "Bambi - A life in the woods" into a movie and to construct the storyboard. A lot of characters from Saltens story was left out (Karus, Nettla, Gobo) to focus the storyline on the main character. The book had no real climax, so Disney add the forest fire. Disney changed the death of Bambi's mother, in the book more a minor incident, to one of the greatest movie-scenes of all time. In the book Man ("Him") was shown and his deeds explained, and the animals discuss about him many times. Disney changed "Man" to the unseen menace, so the dead hunter on the end of the book can't be used for the movie too (Disney test the scene with the dead hunter with a test-audience, and it failed totally).
But Disney catch 100% of the inner spirit of the book. Some critics find "Bambi" boring, because there is no storyline in it too: It is the real circle of life; and flow with the seasons like the book too.
IMHO the book "Bambi" (as almost every book) can't be translated literally into a movie. This is the advance of a book: Every reader directing his own "mind movie" during reading a book, he have no limits in places, running-time and anything else. But this "Mind movie" is the perfect movie for the reader alone. Another reader will made his own, different "mind-movie" of it, and the author's "mind movie" will surely a different too. The trick is to translate the feeling, and meaning of a book into a movie, and use the advances of the media movie to do so.

"What happened mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man... was in the forest."

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[–] insect666 18 years ago

Well put. Very well put indeed.
The story mechanics of a book are quite different from those of a movie. The two mediums can't even be compared.

The feeling was there. But, was the meaning of the book translated that well into the movie? I have a feeling that wasn't even the aim of Walt. For example: without showing the dead hunter, they miss out the last dialogue between Bambi and his father. Without that, they loose the hints on religion and equality that added a slightly different taste to the book. Some other parts that stressed the idea of equality (like when Bambi's father saves him by outwitting the hunter) are missing, the hunter is not shown, motives unexplained, "he" is made into an evil nemesis of somesort, a force that can't be beaten. The two meanings suddenly don't equal. I would say Walt took what inspired him from the book and made a different, simpler story.

What inspired Walt aren't nescessary the same things a certain reader finds most important in a certain book. So even the meaning itself differs from person to person. I think the book and the movie are essentially two different stories. Both very good, though... :)

What I'm trying to write here is - I doubt it's even possible to translate the main feeling/meaning/athmosphere of a book into a movie accurately.

If that is the case... We might see Disney's interpretation of "Bambi's children" in a few years' time, probably from a different perspective than the book.

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[–] c-corleis 18 years ago

Yes, the meaning...some read a religious undertone in it, some a lesson of life or so. The message is IMHO the part of the personal "mind movie" too. It can be interpreted so, if you see this in it.
Disney goes a step further... he cut the dialogue to the utmost necessary, so there is more room to tell the story with pictures, gestures and music. He "activate" all the advantages of the media film, insted trying to get a awkward "movie-copy" of all the dialogues (and actors) in the book.
The hunter works perfect in the book with showing him... but in a movie, it will turn him to the typical one-dimensional movie-villain as we seen in so many movies before (remember the typical other "Disney-villains") and this will not ave the effect that he have in the book. So he changed the role of the hunter to the new media. Disney have tried to show the hunter and let the animals discuss about him in the movie too, the "dead hunter" was one of Disneys favourite scenes... but it did not work: Instead of the lurking horror in the book, when you reading the discussions, in the storyboard test-previews of the movie it turns out more like a gag, when the animals discuss about "Him", because it's a discussion about us, the audience of the movie. In the book it works, but it failed in the movie.
And the last dialogue of Bambi and his father was shown in pictures again instead of words: The looked each other... and Bambi's dad turned around to let his son alone. His mission is completed. If i must translate this scene back into a book's scene with dialogue i am sure. it will turn out very similar to Salten's scene in the book (I have such a "back-translation": A childrens book from 1950, made from the movie, and a lot of dialogue was added here, so it can work as a book again...and a lot of the added dialogue was very similar to Saltens book. I was surprised too, when i get my hands on this old book. The book-writers saw the movie, and translated it into a book, and get the spirit of Saltens book again!).

"What happened mother? Why did we all run?"
"Man... was in the forest."

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[–] Queen_of_Shadows 18 years ago

I personally loved this movie.Usually disney sequels suck ass but Kronk's New Groove was not as bad as I thought it would be but it does not match up to its' orignial.But this movie was absolutley amazing.I cried just as much as I did to the first Bambi and they didn't try to make you laugh with some idiot mascot animals.In the first movie I did not understand what was so amazing about the Great Prince because he had no character other than being the great leader.In this movie we see a more gentle and compassionate side to him.We saw a much braver and bolder side to Bambi as well when he had lured the dogs away from Mita.The plot was a bit predictable though.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE!!!!!HUGE SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

Bambi doesn't understand his father then they suddenly become friends then Bambi's upset and they both are back to square 1.Bambi gets in trouble and his father comes to the rescue then Bambi is supposedly dead and the father is sad and they both live happily ever after.

With such an unordinary polt the writers managed to make something out of it.

"You cannot make desicions for someone.They can make their own desicions.You can only influence it.

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[–] astarisborn94 12 years ago

I've seen it only once, but it was good. Not as good as the original, but I could see myself buying the DVD and watching it. Better made than most Disney sequels that's for sure.
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http://anamericantail1.webs.com/749411196190998.jpg - my avatar

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[–] aleusong 10 years ago

I personally think this is the most underrated of the Disney video sequels. No sequel is ever better than the original but I think the movie did pretty well with the animation and the story. I'm not big on modernizing it and I miss the dark tone of the original but it still makes a lot of good nods to it as well.

The original Bambi had its fluffiness so it's not like the sequel was too fluffy in comparison.

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[–] MrsBuckyBarnes 9 years ago

i think it is an excellent sequel - i welled up a few times. i gave it a 10, just like the original.

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