I always had a hard time deciding how I felt about Walt Disney’s 1942 film Bambi. I remembered watching it as a kid, but that’s not always the best judge of how good something is, so a few years ago I rewatched it. Even though I was in the middle of a geeking-out-about-animation-history phase I went through, I wrote Bambi off as boring.
It’s still not a Disney movie I can watch as often as others, but at least I’ve come to a better understanding of it as a work of art. I lump Bambi in the same category as Fantasia, more on the poetic side; something to sit and ponder while I’m wearing my smoking jacket and puffing my bubble pipe until I give up and decide to play Nintendo.
The Blu-ray
Disney is slowly but surely pumping out their classics on Blu-ray and luckily they’re doing a bang-up job. Bambi comes as a 2 disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack loaded with special features, including:
- ‘Disney View’ 16×9 Viewing Experience
- Introduction by Diane Disney Miller
- 2 Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes
- Deleted Song
- Inside Walt’s Story Meetings
- Disney Big Book of Knowledge Game
- Interactive Blu-ray Galleries
- Classic DVD Bonus Features
- Disney Second Screen
It’s all pretty standard as far as these Diamond Edition Blu-rays go, but the Disney Second Screen feature is actually pretty cool. It is an app that you can use on your iPad or other less cool device that will act as a second screen to display bonus content while you’re watching the movie.
The picture looks about as perfect as you could expect an animated film to look in full HD. These Diamond Editions of Disney’s earliest films really make me wish they had started using widescreen before the 50s though, because I hate watching 4:3 content on Blu-ray (#firstworldproblems). I can’t wait for some of the later Cinemascope features to be released.
Regardless of whether it’s your favorite, Bambi is one of Disney’s most classic films and you should probably pick up this Diamond Edition to hold you over until the Adamantium Edition, or better yet, the Unobtainium Edition.
