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| Starring: Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander,
Peter Behn, Tim David, Donnie Dunagan, Sam Edwards (all uncredited) Directed by: David Hand |
Theatrical Release: 1942
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Walt Disney Home Entertainment Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Fullscreen |
| Half a Century
after Bambi: Animation from Japan goes Disney While Disney is busy restoring its own classics, like Bambi, it has also
embarked on a project to make the animated efforts of Japan’s Ghibli Studio more
accessible to American audiences. The most recent fruits of that effort can be seen in the
release of three Ghibli masterpieces first released to theaters in 1984, 1992, and 2002.
The earliest release is NausicaÄ of the Valley of the
Wind (****). It was this movie that started Ghibli Studio and animator Hayao Miyazaki
on the road to success, a journey that paid off a few years ago when the enchanting Spirited
Away won an Academy Award. In NausicaÄ, Miyazaki establishes some of his
recurring ideas. One is a fascination with flying. In the movie, the earth has come to
ruin and destruction, with only a few colonies of humans surviving. The heroine, princess
Nausicaä, flies all over the terrain on a motorized glider. The armies of warring tribes
fly on transports that look like a cross between World War II planes and Star Wars
spaceships. This establishes another regular feature of Miyazaki movies, the blending of
the future with the anachronisms of the past, which creates a timeless feeling.
The 1992 release, Porco Rosso (***1/2), also
concerns flying. Its star is a pilot fashioned after many famous World War I aces, who,
owing to an enchantment, has the head of a pig. The most recent release, The Cat
Returns (***1/2), does not have flying as its main premise, though there is flight in
it. Haru, a high school girl, befriends a cat, which turns out to be royalty, capable of
standing on his hind legs and talking. Grateful for his rescue, the cat befriends the girl
and almost kills her with kindness as she comes to realize her place in life and her
destiny.
All of these movies have been cleaned up and given spiffy
16:9 anamorphic video transfers. New English audio tracks have been created, cast with
some pretty big-name stars. I find, however, that the original Japanese tracks, also
included, have more charm and subtlety. How fine to have a choice! There are production
featurettes and trailers, and each set has a second disc that presents the whole film in
storyboard format.
...Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
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The story is that of a young fawn, born to a doe on a
beautiful spring day. She names him Bambi and we watch him grow up as the seasons
progress. The forest in this film is filled with nothing but friendly, cuddly critters:
rabbits, skunks, owls, other birds, and other deer. There are no foxes, wolves, or other
meat-eating killers. The predator in Bambi is man. Though men are never
shown, one feels their influence, always nasty and ominous. At a climatic point in the
story, Bambi’s mother is dispatched by one in a shot heard round the world. After
seeing this film, I remember having my parents explain death to me, and I am certain that
personal scene was reproduced in every household in the United States that contained
elementary-school-age children. Later in the story, man causes a forest fire, which has
all the animals fleeing in one of the most exciting scenes in animated film history.
The animation is incredible. The characters move fluidly,
the water effects are astonishingly realistic. Computers might do it quicker, but no one
has done it better than Walt’s crack team of artists, hand drawing each cell. In
fact, one of the extras on the second disc of this set is a segment devoted to an upcoming
direct-to-video sequel. The preview scenes from it look like amateur work compared to the
original. Everything about the latter is perfect. Nothing needs changing and the sequel
seems a travesty.
The DVD is superb. The film has been cleaned up and
repaired, frame by frame. It looks fresh, vibrant, and alive. The colors are bright and
true, the focus sharp and clean. It is one of the best video transfers that I have seen.
The sound is offered two ways. There is a restored mono track, and there’s an
Enhanced Home Theater Mix. I liked this a lot as it was not overdone and seemed to clean
up the sound, while giving it a wee bit more impact. There’s a tiny bit of stereo
spread up front and once in a while a bird sound or percussion instrument will come from
somewhere to the left or right, but the engineers have avoided doing anything sensational
that would distract from the movie.
The extras include a good featurette on the multiplane
camera, which made the depth of field animation possible; a "Time Capsule"
showing the events of 1942; an hour-long documentary on the making of the movie; two
deleted scenes shown in storyboard format; and a "DisneyPedia" section that
shows and discusses the real forest animals that inhabit Bambi’s forest, comparing
them to the animated characters. The commentary track is very unusual. It recreates
Disney’s story meetings, using actors’ voices, and zooms in and out of period
photographs and drawings to illustrate various points. All of the extras in this edition
provide justification that Bambi is one of the elite timeless classics of animated
film. But you don’t need them to know that -- just watch. |
