Post by Donald Duck on Oct 14, 2008 2:06:29 GMT -8
Today I am reviewing a sequel that struck fear into my heart when I first heard of it, like a deer in headlights. I, of course, speak of “Bambi II.”
Dear Walt, how your masterpiece shall crumble; sweet Nine Old Men, how your masterpiece will burn; goodly Frank Churchill, how your timeless music cries for intervention!
Seriously. A sequel to “Bambi”? “Bambi?” Please, ears and eyes, lie to me! Tell me you jest! “Bambi II”!This time they have gone too far! Making a sequel to one of the most important, hauntingly beautiful films of all time, could it get any worse than that? Unless they make a sequel to, perish the thought, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” I think not!
“Bambi” is a film everyone in Fantasmic Kingdom has seen, and I’d bet half my chip stack that it is a film that has made everyone cry when we watched it as children. Hell, on occasion it still makes me cry to this day. The animated masterpiece does have warmth and humor, but it also has feelings of sadness and despair. It’s a simple film, clocking in at a mere 69 minutes, but it is immensely powerful. Besides the general presentation of the film, which are spectacular (the animation and backgrounds are nothing short of breathtaking), the themes used in the picture are absolutely vital to filmgoers. To paraphrase the beliefs of the late Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (a duo that consists of, coincidentally, my favorite animators ever), sooner or later everyone will lose his or her parents. It’s unavoidable, and it’s a feeling we all need to expect and confront when the time does come. In this regard, “Bambi” is an invaluable companion—it is the one Disney film that says the bitter truth: not everything is going to come up roses.
I love “Bambi.” I love it to bits.
“That wimpy deer?”
You’re killing me, Ham! You’d have to be a heartless demon to deny this film’s excellence. I love the animation, I love the backgrounds, I love the lack of dialogue—the film only has 950 spoken words, which is a-ok in my book because I adore pantomime—I love the characters (yes, I’m not afraid to admit it), I love the music… Oh, my God, the music. If you’ve never heard the music, you’ve never lived. “Fun on the Ice,” “Gallop of the Stags” and “Stage Fight” are just a few of the sweeping score pieces, and even the vocal songs are wonderful; “Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song)” is my favorite, but it was “Love is a Song” that was nominated for an Oscar. The film score was also nominated for an Oscar, but sadly neither won.
“Bambi” is among my favorite Disney films. By now you’re probably wondering, “Then why don’t you play a character in FK?” Well, the only thing that’s keeping me from giving into such a temptation is the fact that Man is the nemesis of the animals, and the great forest in general. I believe that Bambi interacting with humans wouldn’t gel very well, if taken Man into consideration.
Since I am passionate about the classic, you could naturally suspect that I was not at all happy when I heard that “Bambi II” was in production several years ago, and you would be correct. Despite the fact that this holocaust on tape has been out for over two years, it wasn’t until now that I finally decided to face the Man and watch, for the sake of this review.
The good news is this is one of the better direct-to-video Disney sequels I’ve seen, but the bad news is the fact that saying “this is one of the better ones” is essentially saying “this recently occupied toilet isn’t as odorous as that one.”
Anyway, let’s begin!
“Bambi II” is a midquel, meaning it takes place during the course of the first film, much like “Ariel’s Beginning” (which I have yet to see). In this film, the movie takes place between the original’s scene where Bambi’s mother dies, and the song “Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song.”
Whoops, back up. I’m afraid I just spoiled the first film! I sure hope you’ve seen it, because it’s referenced all the time in the sequel!
SPOILER: BAMBI’S MOTHER IS DEAD![/size][/color]
But, yeah. This sequel takes place during Bambi’s childhood; he never reaches adulthood in this film. This may make “Bambi II” as a title confusing, but be thankful Disney hasn’t slapped it with a stupid name, like “Bambi 1.5”!
“Bambi II” begins with a shot of several snowflakes that reminded me too much of the live-action adaptation of “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”. Seriously, was DisneyToon Studios aware of this? Why be reminded of a movie that wasn’t… erm… that good? (Then again, I am biased; I will always find the Chuck Jones animated special an irreplaceable classic.) Anyway, the camera pans down, and we hear a familiar dialogue exchange.
Well, this is certainly the most depressing opening for a Disney film since “The Fox and the Hound”! This film has my undivided attention at this point. The Great Prince of the Forest, who happens to be Bambi’s father (Bambi will be the future Great Prince), takes the poor, motherless Little Prince back home, where he sleeps. As he sleeps, the Great Prince spends a moment to mourn for his mate, whose life was just taken by Man. His thoughts are disturbed, though, by the visit of perhaps my favorite character from the original, Friend Owl.
Aww.
Old friend, you are a sight for weary eyes…
Friend Owl offers his services to the grief-stricken deer, and the Great Prince requests the owl to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi. Friend Owl suggests that the Great Prince himself raise the fawn, to which the Prince disagrees, claiming that it is a Prince’s duty to focus entirely on the herd, with no distractions. Friend Owl reluctantly agrees, but he manages to encourage the Great Prince to care for Bambi until the end of winter.
[FUN FACT: This review has passed the 950 word mark.]
I have to say, this opening is very good. In fact, I’m shocked that such a well done, heartfelt opening is to be found in a Disney sequel. Also, the animation is above average for a Disney sequel (though it still falls short of the masterful animation from the original film), and the backgrounds perfectly emulate the original’s. Seriously, the backgrounds are the best thing about this movie, hands down. I am bold enough to say that if this entire film was as well done as this scene, I would have genuinely liked this feature. Sure, the praises I just made don’t compare well to the first movie, but I am earnest when I say “Bambi II’s” opening is remarkable.
Unfortunately, the film ultimately falls short of what it strives to be, which makes the resulting disappointment all the more scathing.
The beginning of the decline is after the opening, where we are treated to credits and a very lame, forgettable song. It goes without saying that this film would have been better with songs with melodies and lyrics that closely reflect those of the first film, but instead the songs found here are banal, unmemorable and lamentably contemporary. Ouch. So the songs are bad, yes. Moving on!
The Great Prince views Bambi as more of a hindrance than help, and disguises his desire to be left alone as a suggestion that his son play with his friends. Bambi, who seems creepily unfazed by the fact that his mother’s head is probably mounted on a wall somewhere as decoration, wishes to bond with his daddy, but he reluctantly agrees and joins his friend to rendezvous with Friend Owl. At this gathering, Faline the female fawn flusters Bambi with her feminine face (that was dumb, and I apologize).
What is it with anthropomorphic animals having extreme closeups, anyway?
You see what I mean?!
Break time. Let’s talk about Bambi. He is actually quite out of character in this film because he practices lame physical jokes and screams “Woo-hoo!” [?] too often. Seriously, it’s annoying and unfitting. Bambi lacks his adorably naïve personality, and is instead just another damn Ritz brother. Sigh. Oh, well; at least Thumper, his sisters and Friend Owl are more or less intact. Flower is, too, but… we’ll get to that.
Speaking of Friend Owl, he teaches his peers about Groundhog Day.
“If you think I’m gonna be in a Disney sequel, you better think again!”[/size]
Not that Harold Ramis classic “Groundhog Day,” but the actual belief that a groundhog makes or breaks the continuation of winter. When the groundhog fails to see his shadow, he begins to sing a horrendous song, to which Friend Owl scowls, “Oh, not this song again,” but the groundhog is promptly silenced by a new presence. I have to admit, this joke made me chuckle: I was groaning at the start of the song, but the owl’s comment and the abrupt ending to the racket was humorous, and not to mention in character; after all, the owl couldn’t stand his fellow birds singing a gay, little tune when he was trying to catch some Z’s.
The groundhog is silenced by the presence of one of the film’s antagonists, a fawn named Ronno. Ronno actually was in the original film, but as a silent character (which arguably made him a superior character because of it). Remember?—he was the deer that fought the adult Bambi for the adult Faline. In this film he is quite the chatterbox, but at least he is a true-blue jerk for no reason other than there is a steadfast stick up Ronno’s rectum. He’s not much of a rival, but at least he is given some backstory here.
“Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Bob Jackass!”
Back at his den, Bambi has a dream that he talks to his late mother. Admittedly, this scene is very touching. When he wakes up, he seems to hear his mother call out his name (and, no, it’s not “Moonchild”). Bambi follows the voice until he winds up in the field that… oh, man. This is the field, isn’t it? Bambi’s mom died here, you know. *shudder* Anyway, Bambi follows the voice, only to find that the voice was nothing more than a flock of birds that caw [?], and Bambi is frozen with fright when he sees Man’s hunting dogs approach.
The Great Prince returns from his patrol just in the nick of time; he manages to rescue Bambi, and then scolds him for not fleeing.
The next day, Bambi longs to join the Great Prince for adventure and excitement. Excuse me, what? The previous day you froze in terror, and now you want to have a dangerous adventure? You’re just like my cousin; he desperately wants to join the Army, and yet he’s too scared to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. How the hell can you be expected to be in the Army IF YOU’RE TOO YELLOW TO ENDURE A DISNEYLAND RIDE?! Oh, Bambi wants to prove to his dad that he can be brave. Okay, I jumped the gun on that one. Ahem.
Bambi’s request to join his dad for the day’s patrol is denied, and is told to stay at the end. Bambi disobeys by joining his friends Thumper (yay!) and Flower (yay!) on a quest to be brave. Bambi learns to ‘baaaaw’ like a sheep, Thumper manages to do something that is not thumping (amazingly), and Flower farts skunk-blessed odor.
HOLD THE TRUMPET—WHAT?!?!?![/i][/u][/size]
No… no, please… I beg of you…
[
…
OHHH, MY CHILDHOOD! MY PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS CHILDHOOD!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!
Why is there such a vulgar, cheap, lame joke in the beautiful world of “Bambi”? Is this supposed to be FUNNY?! This is even worse than the Wile E. Coyote-esque indent in “Return to Never Land!” This is even worse than those stupid bloomer jokes in “Cinderella III!” Hell, this is even worse than “Dinosaur!”
AND STOP SAYING “WOO-HOO,” BAMBI AND DAD!! STOP SAYING “WOO-HOO!” NOBODY SAYS “WOO-HOO!!!”
SIGH. Anyway… it is possible that Flower’s bit wasn’t meant to be taken as a flatulence joke. It is possible that it was meant to be taken as a natural skunk scenario. But still, the way it’s presented leads me to believe that the writers of this movie are inbred fools, and I will now pray for their demise.
And worse, this “gag” repeats again later in the film!
Mein Gott in himmel. I’m so freakin’ angry right now.
I’m so angry, in fact, that I’m just gonna rush through this review right now. My patience is at an end. So Bambi ultimately proves his worth to his dad, who decides to have fun (“WOO-HOO!” [!!!]) and raise Bambi himself, but due to a misunderstanding Bambi is sent to a temporary doe. It is with this doe that Ronno proves to be an annoying loon again and inadvertently gets the doe caught in a trap, complete with CGI bells. Computer generated bells… may I ask why the animators decided to do this? Couldn’t they have just drawn the bells themselves? Nope. They’re lazy and stupid, and I hope they lose their lower jaws in a freak bear trap accident. The bells attract Man’s dogs, but Bambi rescues the doe by drawing the dogs to himself.
The bells of Notre Dame never looked more computer-generated. And, uh, crappier…
Eventually, Bambi is left with a single pursuer, but kicks him off a cliff. BAMBI KICK! BAMBI… PAUNCH! The Great Prince frees the doe from her trap and catches up with Bambi. They share a warm smile, but Bambi falls off a crumbling edge [?] and is presumably dead. That is, until he awakens. Yeah.
Bambi is raised by his dad, the Great Prince lightens up, Ronno gets his justice by being pinched by a turtle, and Friend Owl makes a reference to twitterpating. When asked of the phrase’s meaning, he responds, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” I admit, this was a nice joke. It was a respectful nod to the first film, rather than an obnoxious “LOOK HOW FUNNY AND WITTY I AM! DUR-HUR-HUR!” ‘inside-joke’ found in similarly dreary sequels like “Cinderella III” and “Lady and the Tramp II.”
They’re smiling now, but they’ll hate themselves the next morning after filming wraps up.
The final scene of the film is when the Great Prince shows to Bambi the beautiful meadow where he first met the missed doe. Throughout the film the Great Prince proclaims that “a good prince must keep the past in the past, and only focus on the present.” By the end of the film, however, he and Bambi both reminisce about the one they loved…
The music score, composed by favorite Bruce Broughton (who composed music for Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures, along with many films) is unspectacular, but pleasant.
This film has a nice opening, a nice closure, and a pretty crappy body. It’s like a woman having Aurora’s head, Cinderella’s rump, and Yzma’s bodice.
The last thing I’ll talk about is the voice cast. The biggest name to appear in this film is Patrick Stewart, who voices the Great Prince. That’s right; Captain Piccard ENGAGE!’d himself into a Disney sequel. To be fair, the man loves to voice animated characters (his performance in the English dub of “Steamboy” is quite funny, in my opinion), and he does a good job as the Great Prince, giving him a background and all. Of course, hearing the character scream “Woo-hoo!” is enough to drive one to drink a gallon of Flaming Dr. Peppers.
Alexander Gould, best known as the voice of Nemo in the delightful Pixar film “Finding Nemo,” voices the titular character. He does a fine job, but he is given some blatant character inaccuracies (“WOO-HOO!”) that really harm his performance. Of course, that is the writers’ fault. I’ll give the kid a break and say he did well with what he had.
Friend Owl is voiced by some guy whose name I’ve never heard of, and the same goes for the other forest critters. They sound more or less like they did in the first film, EXCEPT FLOWER DIDN’T [bleedin’] FART! That’s NOT a Flower! I’m flipping whoever’s idea that was the BIRD! BIRD! BIRD!
There are two other positive aspects about this movie. 1) Man is once again not shown, and that is a good thing. We are, after all, more terrified about what we don’t see, and Man was certainly Disney’s most sinister unseen nemesis; and 2) the movie is only 64 minutes, plus credits.
I say just stick with the timeless classic “Bambi,” and leave this sequel to the deer to eat.
*¾ out of ****
A good opening, a good closure, excellent backgrounds, decent animation and some nice character relationship vs. pretty much the rest this movie has to offer.
One last thing puzzles me. This movie often repeats the proverb, “A good prince leaves the past in the past.” If the movie’s makers really do follow this statement, then shouldn’t they have left the past’s “Bambi” alone and not tamper with it by making an unnecessary, undesirable sequel?
Dear Walt, how your masterpiece shall crumble; sweet Nine Old Men, how your masterpiece will burn; goodly Frank Churchill, how your timeless music cries for intervention!
Seriously. A sequel to “Bambi”? “Bambi?” Please, ears and eyes, lie to me! Tell me you jest! “Bambi II”!This time they have gone too far! Making a sequel to one of the most important, hauntingly beautiful films of all time, could it get any worse than that? Unless they make a sequel to, perish the thought, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” I think not!
“Bambi” is a film everyone in Fantasmic Kingdom has seen, and I’d bet half my chip stack that it is a film that has made everyone cry when we watched it as children. Hell, on occasion it still makes me cry to this day. The animated masterpiece does have warmth and humor, but it also has feelings of sadness and despair. It’s a simple film, clocking in at a mere 69 minutes, but it is immensely powerful. Besides the general presentation of the film, which are spectacular (the animation and backgrounds are nothing short of breathtaking), the themes used in the picture are absolutely vital to filmgoers. To paraphrase the beliefs of the late Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (a duo that consists of, coincidentally, my favorite animators ever), sooner or later everyone will lose his or her parents. It’s unavoidable, and it’s a feeling we all need to expect and confront when the time does come. In this regard, “Bambi” is an invaluable companion—it is the one Disney film that says the bitter truth: not everything is going to come up roses.
I love “Bambi.” I love it to bits.
“That wimpy deer?”
You’re killing me, Ham! You’d have to be a heartless demon to deny this film’s excellence. I love the animation, I love the backgrounds, I love the lack of dialogue—the film only has 950 spoken words, which is a-ok in my book because I adore pantomime—I love the characters (yes, I’m not afraid to admit it), I love the music… Oh, my God, the music. If you’ve never heard the music, you’ve never lived. “Fun on the Ice,” “Gallop of the Stags” and “Stage Fight” are just a few of the sweeping score pieces, and even the vocal songs are wonderful; “Looking for Romance (I Bring You a Song)” is my favorite, but it was “Love is a Song” that was nominated for an Oscar. The film score was also nominated for an Oscar, but sadly neither won.
“Bambi” is among my favorite Disney films. By now you’re probably wondering, “Then why don’t you play a character in FK?” Well, the only thing that’s keeping me from giving into such a temptation is the fact that Man is the nemesis of the animals, and the great forest in general. I believe that Bambi interacting with humans wouldn’t gel very well, if taken Man into consideration.
Since I am passionate about the classic, you could naturally suspect that I was not at all happy when I heard that “Bambi II” was in production several years ago, and you would be correct. Despite the fact that this holocaust on tape has been out for over two years, it wasn’t until now that I finally decided to face the Man and watch, for the sake of this review.
The good news is this is one of the better direct-to-video Disney sequels I’ve seen, but the bad news is the fact that saying “this is one of the better ones” is essentially saying “this recently occupied toilet isn’t as odorous as that one.”
Anyway, let’s begin!
“Bambi II” is a midquel, meaning it takes place during the course of the first film, much like “Ariel’s Beginning” (which I have yet to see). In this film, the movie takes place between the original’s scene where Bambi’s mother dies, and the song “Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song.”
Whoops, back up. I’m afraid I just spoiled the first film! I sure hope you’ve seen it, because it’s referenced all the time in the sequel!
SPOILER: BAMBI’S MOTHER IS DEAD![/size][/color]
But, yeah. This sequel takes place during Bambi’s childhood; he never reaches adulthood in this film. This may make “Bambi II” as a title confusing, but be thankful Disney hasn’t slapped it with a stupid name, like “Bambi 1.5”!
“Bambi II” begins with a shot of several snowflakes that reminded me too much of the live-action adaptation of “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”. Seriously, was DisneyToon Studios aware of this? Why be reminded of a movie that wasn’t… erm… that good? (Then again, I am biased; I will always find the Chuck Jones animated special an irreplaceable classic.) Anyway, the camera pans down, and we hear a familiar dialogue exchange.
Bambi: “Mother? Mother?”
The Great Prince of the Forest: “Your mother can’t be with you anymore. [pause] Come, my son.”
The Great Prince of the Forest: “Your mother can’t be with you anymore. [pause] Come, my son.”
Well, this is certainly the most depressing opening for a Disney film since “The Fox and the Hound”! This film has my undivided attention at this point. The Great Prince of the Forest, who happens to be Bambi’s father (Bambi will be the future Great Prince), takes the poor, motherless Little Prince back home, where he sleeps. As he sleeps, the Great Prince spends a moment to mourn for his mate, whose life was just taken by Man. His thoughts are disturbed, though, by the visit of perhaps my favorite character from the original, Friend Owl.
Aww.
Old friend, you are a sight for weary eyes…
Friend Owl offers his services to the grief-stricken deer, and the Great Prince requests the owl to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi. Friend Owl suggests that the Great Prince himself raise the fawn, to which the Prince disagrees, claiming that it is a Prince’s duty to focus entirely on the herd, with no distractions. Friend Owl reluctantly agrees, but he manages to encourage the Great Prince to care for Bambi until the end of winter.
[FUN FACT: This review has passed the 950 word mark.]
I have to say, this opening is very good. In fact, I’m shocked that such a well done, heartfelt opening is to be found in a Disney sequel. Also, the animation is above average for a Disney sequel (though it still falls short of the masterful animation from the original film), and the backgrounds perfectly emulate the original’s. Seriously, the backgrounds are the best thing about this movie, hands down. I am bold enough to say that if this entire film was as well done as this scene, I would have genuinely liked this feature. Sure, the praises I just made don’t compare well to the first movie, but I am earnest when I say “Bambi II’s” opening is remarkable.
Unfortunately, the film ultimately falls short of what it strives to be, which makes the resulting disappointment all the more scathing.
The beginning of the decline is after the opening, where we are treated to credits and a very lame, forgettable song. It goes without saying that this film would have been better with songs with melodies and lyrics that closely reflect those of the first film, but instead the songs found here are banal, unmemorable and lamentably contemporary. Ouch. So the songs are bad, yes. Moving on!
The Great Prince views Bambi as more of a hindrance than help, and disguises his desire to be left alone as a suggestion that his son play with his friends. Bambi, who seems creepily unfazed by the fact that his mother’s head is probably mounted on a wall somewhere as decoration, wishes to bond with his daddy, but he reluctantly agrees and joins his friend to rendezvous with Friend Owl. At this gathering, Faline the female fawn flusters Bambi with her feminine face (that was dumb, and I apologize).
What is it with anthropomorphic animals having extreme closeups, anyway?
You see what I mean?!
Break time. Let’s talk about Bambi. He is actually quite out of character in this film because he practices lame physical jokes and screams “Woo-hoo!” [?] too often. Seriously, it’s annoying and unfitting. Bambi lacks his adorably naïve personality, and is instead just another damn Ritz brother. Sigh. Oh, well; at least Thumper, his sisters and Friend Owl are more or less intact. Flower is, too, but… we’ll get to that.
Speaking of Friend Owl, he teaches his peers about Groundhog Day.
“If you think I’m gonna be in a Disney sequel, you better think again!”
Not that Harold Ramis classic “Groundhog Day,” but the actual belief that a groundhog makes or breaks the continuation of winter. When the groundhog fails to see his shadow, he begins to sing a horrendous song, to which Friend Owl scowls, “Oh, not this song again,” but the groundhog is promptly silenced by a new presence. I have to admit, this joke made me chuckle: I was groaning at the start of the song, but the owl’s comment and the abrupt ending to the racket was humorous, and not to mention in character; after all, the owl couldn’t stand his fellow birds singing a gay, little tune when he was trying to catch some Z’s.
The groundhog is silenced by the presence of one of the film’s antagonists, a fawn named Ronno. Ronno actually was in the original film, but as a silent character (which arguably made him a superior character because of it). Remember?—he was the deer that fought the adult Bambi for the adult Faline. In this film he is quite the chatterbox, but at least he is a true-blue jerk for no reason other than there is a steadfast stick up Ronno’s rectum. He’s not much of a rival, but at least he is given some backstory here.
“Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Bob Jackass!”
Back at his den, Bambi has a dream that he talks to his late mother. Admittedly, this scene is very touching. When he wakes up, he seems to hear his mother call out his name (and, no, it’s not “Moonchild”). Bambi follows the voice until he winds up in the field that… oh, man. This is the field, isn’t it? Bambi’s mom died here, you know. *shudder* Anyway, Bambi follows the voice, only to find that the voice was nothing more than a flock of birds that caw [?], and Bambi is frozen with fright when he sees Man’s hunting dogs approach.
The Great Prince returns from his patrol just in the nick of time; he manages to rescue Bambi, and then scolds him for not fleeing.
The next day, Bambi longs to join the Great Prince for adventure and excitement. Excuse me, what? The previous day you froze in terror, and now you want to have a dangerous adventure? You’re just like my cousin; he desperately wants to join the Army, and yet he’s too scared to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. How the hell can you be expected to be in the Army IF YOU’RE TOO YELLOW TO ENDURE A DISNEYLAND RIDE?! Oh, Bambi wants to prove to his dad that he can be brave. Okay, I jumped the gun on that one. Ahem.
Bambi’s request to join his dad for the day’s patrol is denied, and is told to stay at the end. Bambi disobeys by joining his friends Thumper (yay!) and Flower (yay!) on a quest to be brave. Bambi learns to ‘baaaaw’ like a sheep, Thumper manages to do something that is not thumping (amazingly), and Flower farts skunk-blessed odor.
HOLD THE TRUMPET—WHAT?!?!?![/i][/u][/size]
No… no, please… I beg of you…
[
…
OHHH, MY CHILDHOOD! MY PRECIOUS, PRECIOUS CHILDHOOD!! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!
Why is there such a vulgar, cheap, lame joke in the beautiful world of “Bambi”? Is this supposed to be FUNNY?! This is even worse than the Wile E. Coyote-esque indent in “Return to Never Land!” This is even worse than those stupid bloomer jokes in “Cinderella III!” Hell, this is even worse than “Dinosaur!”
AND STOP SAYING “WOO-HOO,” BAMBI AND DAD!! STOP SAYING “WOO-HOO!” NOBODY SAYS “WOO-HOO!!!”
SIGH. Anyway… it is possible that Flower’s bit wasn’t meant to be taken as a flatulence joke. It is possible that it was meant to be taken as a natural skunk scenario. But still, the way it’s presented leads me to believe that the writers of this movie are inbred fools, and I will now pray for their demise.
And worse, this “gag” repeats again later in the film!
Mein Gott in himmel. I’m so freakin’ angry right now.
I’m so angry, in fact, that I’m just gonna rush through this review right now. My patience is at an end. So Bambi ultimately proves his worth to his dad, who decides to have fun (“WOO-HOO!” [!!!]) and raise Bambi himself, but due to a misunderstanding Bambi is sent to a temporary doe. It is with this doe that Ronno proves to be an annoying loon again and inadvertently gets the doe caught in a trap, complete with CGI bells. Computer generated bells… may I ask why the animators decided to do this? Couldn’t they have just drawn the bells themselves? Nope. They’re lazy and stupid, and I hope they lose their lower jaws in a freak bear trap accident. The bells attract Man’s dogs, but Bambi rescues the doe by drawing the dogs to himself.
The bells of Notre Dame never looked more computer-generated. And, uh, crappier…
Eventually, Bambi is left with a single pursuer, but kicks him off a cliff. BAMBI KICK! BAMBI… PAUNCH! The Great Prince frees the doe from her trap and catches up with Bambi. They share a warm smile, but Bambi falls off a crumbling edge [?] and is presumably dead. That is, until he awakens. Yeah.
Bambi is raised by his dad, the Great Prince lightens up, Ronno gets his justice by being pinched by a turtle, and Friend Owl makes a reference to twitterpating. When asked of the phrase’s meaning, he responds, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” I admit, this was a nice joke. It was a respectful nod to the first film, rather than an obnoxious “LOOK HOW FUNNY AND WITTY I AM! DUR-HUR-HUR!” ‘inside-joke’ found in similarly dreary sequels like “Cinderella III” and “Lady and the Tramp II.”
They’re smiling now, but they’ll hate themselves the next morning after filming wraps up.
The final scene of the film is when the Great Prince shows to Bambi the beautiful meadow where he first met the missed doe. Throughout the film the Great Prince proclaims that “a good prince must keep the past in the past, and only focus on the present.” By the end of the film, however, he and Bambi both reminisce about the one they loved…
The music score, composed by favorite Bruce Broughton (who composed music for Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures, along with many films) is unspectacular, but pleasant.
This film has a nice opening, a nice closure, and a pretty crappy body. It’s like a woman having Aurora’s head, Cinderella’s rump, and Yzma’s bodice.
The last thing I’ll talk about is the voice cast. The biggest name to appear in this film is Patrick Stewart, who voices the Great Prince. That’s right; Captain Piccard ENGAGE!’d himself into a Disney sequel. To be fair, the man loves to voice animated characters (his performance in the English dub of “Steamboy” is quite funny, in my opinion), and he does a good job as the Great Prince, giving him a background and all. Of course, hearing the character scream “Woo-hoo!” is enough to drive one to drink a gallon of Flaming Dr. Peppers.
Alexander Gould, best known as the voice of Nemo in the delightful Pixar film “Finding Nemo,” voices the titular character. He does a fine job, but he is given some blatant character inaccuracies (“WOO-HOO!”) that really harm his performance. Of course, that is the writers’ fault. I’ll give the kid a break and say he did well with what he had.
Friend Owl is voiced by some guy whose name I’ve never heard of, and the same goes for the other forest critters. They sound more or less like they did in the first film, EXCEPT FLOWER DIDN’T [bleedin’] FART! That’s NOT a Flower! I’m flipping whoever’s idea that was the BIRD! BIRD! BIRD!
There are two other positive aspects about this movie. 1) Man is once again not shown, and that is a good thing. We are, after all, more terrified about what we don’t see, and Man was certainly Disney’s most sinister unseen nemesis; and 2) the movie is only 64 minutes, plus credits.
I say just stick with the timeless classic “Bambi,” and leave this sequel to the deer to eat.
*¾ out of ****
A good opening, a good closure, excellent backgrounds, decent animation and some nice character relationship vs. pretty much the rest this movie has to offer.
One last thing puzzles me. This movie often repeats the proverb, “A good prince leaves the past in the past.” If the movie’s makers really do follow this statement, then shouldn’t they have left the past’s “Bambi” alone and not tamper with it by making an unnecessary, undesirable sequel?
