Childhood Trauma: It's the Stuff of Life
Now I must admit I wasn't being entirely truthful in the timeline for Dumbo. I'm trying to keep things as simple as I can- history can get really muddy if I let it and one of my objectives in these reviews is to try not to drag on with too many major references to films that were released after the one I'm reviewing. Hindsight can be an asset, but it also kills a lot of the dramatic heft, and I loooove drama. So here we go: When Walt was still in his ambitious planning phase, sometime in the 30's, he acquired the rights to the story of a young roe buck. The story had been slated for live action when author Felix Salten declared it too difficult a few years before. Walt was eager to develop it and scheduled a release after Fantasia with a much less gristly and depressing story and what I consider important change from roe to whitetail to better distinguish the protagonist. By 1940, the story was pretty much finalized, but two factors: the failure of Fantasia & Pinocchio and the already swollen budget of Bambi, a similar film, brought the project to a halt. If Disney was going to survive, it could not release Bambi next- it would completely drain the funds and current box office trends indicated there would be very little return, effectively dooming the studio. That's were Dumbo was actually shuttled in and out of production: to bring in quick revenue so Bambi could be financed. I have got to hand it to Walt- yes, he could give the public exactly what they wanted, but ultimately he was going to make the movies that mattered to him. Maybe not the best way to stay in business forever, but I think that is what makes the movies of the Golden Age so different in almost every way from the ones that will follow- at that time the man in charge was not obsessing over the bottom line, he truly wanted to make his medium something wonderful. And maybe get some money out it too. This is, after all, an American success story.
Armed with the revenue from Dumbo, we are back to the oil backgrounds that would become the standard for animation. As in the animation, they are much more representational of the natural world than probably any other film, feeling more like plein-aire paintings than stylized illustrations.That is nothing, though, on the task the animators faced. Looking at Snow White alone, I would have called them crazy, but somehow the animators pushed through to create the most realistic traditional animation I have ever seen. Gone are the potato-sack deer, and in place are these majestic creatures that were unimaginably difficult to create. Now there are still softer, more cutesy characters like Thumper and Flower, designed and developed to help offset the emotional weight of the story. And they pretty much keep to the range of cute but not overly cloying. It all depends on your sensitivity. Wacky sidekicks aren't my thing, but I can handle these. They are certainly needed considering the amount of utter terror and despair packed in. If this version is "Disneyfied," I am pretty sure I never need to read the original book for my personal well-being. Of all the movies in the Disney canon, there are only 3 I would suggest you don't show to younger kids. Bambi is one of them. Maybe we do baby kids too much, I'm not here to espouse my ideas on parenting, but I distinctly remember the sheer panic that lurked around every corner- the theme of man haunting me like the footsteps of DOOOOOM, and the most psychologically scarring part of all where the quails are whispering "don't fly, don't fly" until one goes absolutely nuts and I am screaming at the telly "DON"T FLY, YOU IDIOT!" It may have happened offscreen, but I knew in my youth that bird got shot, and shot dead. Though there are plenty of beautiful and sweet moments, the movie is constantly tinged with fear, and soon it feels like joy is simply a trick to let your guard down, proven by the heartbreaking realization that Bambi's mommy has died, and yes, yours will too one day.
Ack and somewhere in here, I need to talk about the music! Calling Bambi a musical is somewhat misleading, there aren't but 3ish songs (unless you count the bird songs) and all are sung offscreen by a magic Disney Chorus. Little April Shower is far and away the best with the rounds imitating the pattering of a rainstorm. I do quite like Love is a Song, in fact I wish it could have switched places with I Bring You a Song because it it infinitely better.
Bambi is a beautifully done, technically ambitious film. Though dotted with memorable vignettes that enchant with simple pleasures, it still has a strong undercurrent of darkness- too strong for my tastes. It's a demanding film, especially for younger people, and with all that, it's not hard to imagine Bambi underperforming at the box office. I've heard tales of mothers dragging screaming kiddos out of the theater- and I do understand them being bewildered at the studio that just put out films as far from each other as Dumbo and Bambi back-to-back. It didn't help that the incredible newness and difficulty of this style slashed the production of cells from 10 feet of film to half a foot per day and ballooned the budget. Not to say that it's all doom and gloom: this was a huuuuge boon to the animator's library, a place were you could go back and get references, either of the live footage collected or the animation that went into it. Bambi ground out a lot of the hard work for realistic animal animation: for pity sakes, one shot of Bambi's mother was still being reused in Beauty and the Beast, some 50 years later.
So here we are, at the end of the Golden Age. It seems like this is the best place to stop and reflect on some things that were ending and some things yet to come. As I said earlier, Walt was driven to make what he considered the best his medium could offer. Each film from this period has something that really distinguishes it: Snow White in the sheer amount of firsts and for proving animated features can be done and done well, Pinocchio in the lushness of its backgrounds and leaps in animation, Fantasia in the overall artistry and special effects innovation, Dumbo in the expressive character development, and for Bambi it's the culmination of technical proficiency. That gave us 5 wonderful movies, but it also created a crapload of trouble. The studio roller-coastered from success to bankruptcy, always teetering on the edge of oblivion. The increasing demands on innovation coupled with tightening budgets caused disillusionment among the artists, who went on strike, effectively ending the genial extended family atmosphere at the studios and, I believe, destroying Walt's hands-on interest in animation. When Bambi finished, Walt packed up with his closest animators to head south of the border for one final rally. No film afterwards would see his hand so closely stamped on it. A happier note, one coinciding with Walt's distancing influence, was the transition to animators supervising individual characters rather than sequences. This allowed animators to develop more distinct styles, to the point where you can attribute types of characters to their animators by design and movement. This is where the famous nine old men began to shine. It happened some in Dumbo, more in Bambi, and would take root in the 50s. I'll do my best from now on to add individual animation credits where I can, because I believe these are the real actors, moreso than the voice work in most occasions. It's sad to say goodbye to a time as good as this, especially when I know the next few years are going to get pretty rough- next stop: Package Films.
Quote of the Film:
Don't fly. Whatever you do- Don't Fly!
My Rating:
7/10*******
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