Bambi (DVD 2005)

With its fluffy, cutesy-wutesy woodland characters, there’s little doubt that early Disney classic ‘Bambi’ is aimed at the very youngest end of the kiddie spectrum – but it’s hard to imagine anyone of any age not being able to appreciate the level of thought and care that went into bringing Felix Salten’s deer-based novel to life. Now digitally remastered for this brand new Special Edition DVD package, the artwork and animation looks as fresh as any of its modern-day equivalents – and that’s quite a brag for a 63-year-old.

Of course, everyone knows the story by now. Bambi – a wobble-legged fawn – is born deep in the forest, he makes friends with a rabbit called Thumper, there’s a family tragedy, and he goes on to become all big and grown-up and a bit of a hero.

It’s not the deepest of tales – in fact, it’s about as one-dimensional and straight-forward as it gets. But think of it this way: ‘Bambi’, perhaps more so than any other feature film from Disney’s cartoon canon, tells it like it is. Okay, so I’ll concede that, in real-life, animals don’t actually converse with each other in fluent English, and I very much doubt that your average skunk is quite as camp as the character of Flower (seriously, a boy called Flower!). But here we have an admission that animal families DON’T function in the same way as human ones, the winter is a time of hardship rather than constant fun-and-games, and the single-most terrifying threat to these creatures’ very survival is the ever-looming presence of man. Add to that the heavy amount of – erm – “twitterpation” that goes on once it reaches springtime, and you have a story which is just a couple of notches off being a fully-fledged Bill Oddie wildlife documentary.

As morning light breaks across the meadow and new life awakens, Bambi's critically acclaimed coming of age story begins. And now Bambi is compleatly restored and remastered with state of the art technology and is presented in 5.1 Surround Sound.

A grand adventure packed with humour, breathtaking animation, Academy Award nominated music and heart, this 2-Disc Special Edition also includes all new bonus features.

Share the brilliance of this timeless classic with everyone in your family.

A Disney classic, totally remastered and restored for DVD release a
heartwarming story for children and adults alike.

In my opinion a must for any DVD collection.

I bought this DVD for my son Aston who's 2 and a half. We were on holiday in Devon in June and the cottage we stayed in had a fair few Disney Classics on video and he watched Bambi for the very first time while we were there. He sat glued to the TV for the duration of the film and kept asking to watch it again! When we got home, I thought I would try and get the DVD so that he could watch it in his bedroom, as he has a film on at bedtime before he goes to sleep.

Although I still maintain my personal view that Disney films aren't as suitable for children as we'd like to think (let's face it, something bad ALWAYS happens even if it does turn out ok in the end!), but this is a beautiful film with great animation and, although many people of my generation will claim to be 'scarred' by Bambi's mum's sad loss, it never shows what happens to her so small children don't end up having nightmares.

You can't resist the cute characters like Thumper and Flower and the wonderful innocence of the whole film. Even the 'fight scene' where Bambi challenges another young stag for Feline's affections is done in shadowy tones - a far cry from the scenes in later Disney films like "Lion King" or "Brother Bear".

There really isn't much you can fault in Bambi. It's just a beautifully made film that everyone can enjoy. A true family movie.

whats not to love about bambi? its a classic disney film (the 5th to be precise)about growing up and realising who you are and finding your place in life. for those of you how dont know the story bambi is born the prince of the forest, after an incident in the meadow his mother is no more and and he is taken in by his father, he finds love in the spring with his friends thumper and flower and after a dramatic environmental issue toward the end of the film there is a happy ending. this special edition dvd is amazing compared to the old VHS, although i was personally dissapointed at a piece of editing. there is a slight error in animation toward the end of the film which has been removed, i was gutted i loved it :<
anyway brilliant film everyone should have watched at some point in their life

i bought this dvd for my granddaughter because in a gentler way it explains sometimes bad things can happen but there are people to help you through it . its a very moving story about a baby deer whos mom is shot by hunters and then some animals help him to survive and how is life pans out . great movie highly recommend it especially with family and popcorn on a rainy day