Bambi and Mother

Bambi

Released:  August 13, 1942           

When I was a little kid there was one unmistakable feeling that I could always count on, my mother’s unconditional love.  I was very fortunate to have such a warm relationship with my mother as a child and one that continues to this day.  If there was one film that portrays the value and uniqueness of such a relationship, it would be Disney’s Bambi.  

One of the amazing facts about Bambi is that Felix Salten’s compelling story about a young deer prince in the forest has approximately 900 spoken words throughout the entire film.  Following on the artistic success seen in Fantasia a few years earlier, Disney stretched the artistic skills of the animation staff to capture nature like no other film before.  Additionally, he enlisted the help of an up & coming artist, Tyrus Wong, to help with the style of the film.  His lush pastels and simplistic expressions of nature captured an inviting and heartwarming feeling for the film’s setting.  Another first for a Disney film was the use of oils for painting some of the backgrounds.  Using this medium helped to convey the richness and warmth of Tyrus Wong’s style.

                                       Original Courvoisier Setup, gouache on celluloid, watercolor on paper

                                        Artist: Studio, unknown

                                        Acquired:  January 24, 2006

This cel setup of Bambi and his mother walking in the forest was a lucky find.  This Courvoisier piece comprised of a single cel setup laminated at the time to protect the cel paint, is set over a watercolor background painted in a style similar to Tyrus Wong’s concept paintings.  What is really remarkable about this piece is the detail applied in the character animation.  

Bambi measures about an inch square but is exquisitely detailed with the finest of hand-inked lines.  Animators spent the time to apply detail even to the smallest of character drawings, a close look at the cel reveals every square on Bambi’s back, the lines around his eyes, the black highlights on his ears and more.  The incredible lengths at which detail was applied caused production to slow down from the standard 10 feet of film per day (13 seconds) to just over 1/2 foot (<1 second) per day .  But when one looks at this cel and views the film, I think we would all agree today that it was worth the extra effort.