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Bambi (1942)

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91

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 4

Elegantly animated and deeply touching, Bambi is an enduring, endearing, and moving Disney classic.

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 0

Elegantly animated and deeply touching, Bambi is an enduring, endearing, and moving Disney classic.

audience

68

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 531,849

My Rating

Movie Info

The classic Felix Salter story Bambi provides the basis for this near-perfect Disney animated feature. We follow the male deer Bambi from birth, through his early childhood experiences with woodland pals Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunk, the traumatic sudden death of Bambi's mother at the hands of hunters, his courtship of the lovely doe Faline, and his rescue of his friends during a raging forest fire; we last see the mature, antlered Bambi assuming his proper place as the Prince of the

Mar 1, 2005

RKO Radio Pictures

Cast

All Critics (45) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (6) | DVD (46)

This animated feature based on Felix Salten's book about the coming of age of a fawn and his various forest friends (including the beloved Thumper) does convey some of the primal emotional power of Disney's features during this period.

September 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

For the first time, Disney has done his backgrounds in oils instead of watercolors. The result is striking.

September 2, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The glow and texture of the Disney brush reach new heights, especially in the treatment of a summer thunderstorm and a raging snowstorm.

September 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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In colors that would surprise even the spectrum itself, Disney's cartoon craftsmen have re-created a woodland that shimmers and glows and darkens altogether magically.

May 21, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's not just Bambi's mother - I'll pause while you wipe that tear - but the film's revelation that idylls don't really exist.

November 11, 2011 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comment
LarsenOnFilm

The story, while classic in nature, is a bit thin, but Bambi is a breathtaking, jaw-dropping showcase of the ingenuity and genius of Disney animators.

March 23, 2011 Full Review Source: IGN DVD | Comment
IGN DVD

Arguably Disney's greatest masterpiece, this sophisticated animation is one that continues to delight audiences of all ages

March 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

It would be easy to be cynical about Bambi, the Walt Disney-produced film that launched a thousand anthropomorphic animal movies. But its pre-ironic simplicity has, in many ways, only improved with age. [Blu-ray]

March 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Even Daryl Hall would have to admit this is one of the finest animated features committed to film, produced and packaged during Walt Disney's ballsiest years of control.

March 7, 2011 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
BrianOrndorf.com

Bambi remains a timeless visual feast of innocence gained and lost, and despite a lowly supplemental package, Disney's new Diamond Edition is worth watching just for the majestic imagery.

March 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

the animated film as pastoral poem, as beautiful a depiction of the natural world as one could imagine

March 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk

Animation that couldn't seem more real, even if it were made today with motion-capture dots plastered all over a baby deer.

February 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Vies only with Pinocchio as the most technically accomplished work of animation to come from the studio's Golden Age... the last gasp of a maturity and gravity that would immediately disappear from Disney's features.

November 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

One of the most timeless and universal coming-of-age films ever, Bambi ranks with the very greatest of Disney's classic masterpieces.

October 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Decent Films Guide | Comment
Decent Films Guide

A beautifully realised milestone in children's animation that balances outright sentiment with gentle wit, and negotiates its darker moments with skill.

September 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Still a fantastic fable with some excellent animation and a great story

August 9, 2007 Comment (1)
Film Threat

In 1942, the emotional scene in which Bambi's mother is killed by hunters was controversial: Some critics charged that it traumatized young children while defenders claimed that it was honest, realistic, and less graphic than its depiction in the book.

March 30, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Bambi

A very touching and emotionally fulfilling coming-of-age story. The animation is beautiful and the music sequences are simply classic. Their are some dark moments as well, especially Bambi's mother getting killed, but I think kids can handle dark moments as long as the film has a happy ending. The voice talents are

August 3, 2011
Christopher Heim

Super Reviewer

Bambi is definitely an animated classic that is at times pretty disturbing. Well, that scene when the hunters killed Bambi's mom was, at least. This is a must see for fans of Disney, and I remember loving this as a kid, but with time, the power of the film has slightly waned on me, and it's not the same film as I

November 30, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

    1. Thumper: Eating greens is a special treat. It makes long ears and great big feet. But it sure is awful stuff to eat. I made that last part up myself.
    – Submitted by Ashleigh K (6 months ago)

Latest News for Bambi

March 1, 2011:
Bambi and Other Childhood-Scarring Films
The Blu-ray debut of "Bambi" has the folks at Movieline thinking about other children's movies that...

February 28, 2011:
The Legacy of Bambi and the Future of Animated Films
In honor of "Bambi" coming to Blu-ray, Screen Rant sat down with Donnie Dunagan (who played the...

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Foreign Titles

  • Bambi (1942) (UK)
  • Bambi (1942) (CA)
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