In many ways, Bambi is a creative apex for the studio, with its unprecedented realism in the depiction of its animal subjects and forest setting. Like the four released before it, Bambi is a film which pushes animation forward. Bambi represents the final chapter of the "Early Disney" period, as the studio's fifth entirely-animated feature film and the last such single-narrative project of the decade. Out were the big-budget artistic gambles, in would be far cheaper anthologies of animated shorts.īut before that atmosphere would change the face of Disney animation, there was Bambi, released to theaters in August of 1942, with the United States military planning air attacks in Europe. The Disney studio's attentions would switch to foreign policy and military propaganda. Shortly after Dumbo's release in the fall of 1941, America became involved in World War II.
Bambi would get sidetracked though, as Disney explored the medium with a dark Italian fairy tale ( Pinocchio), a union of classical music with non-narrative artwork ( Fantasia), and a story about an elephant with overly large ears ( Dumbo). The film was Bambi, adapted from Felix Salten's novel. What they may not know, is that before Snow White hit theaters and completely proved skeptics wrong, Walt and his studio were already beginning to plan a second film. Most fans of animation and cinema know that Walt Disney's first feature film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. : Disc 2 - Bonus Features, Menus & Packaging, Closing Thoughts : Disc 1 - The Movie, Video and Audio, Bonus Features