Released in 1942, Bambi must have been a break from war and war propaganda. Bambi is a baroque painting in movement, taking directly from The Pastoral Symphony from Fantasia, this feature is truly the culmination of all the lessons learned from the first features. For a film that everything in it is beautiful, the introduction song "Love is a song that never ends" is an emotional piece that fits perfectly with all the "fluff" of this baroque film. With an Accented Analogic color scheme, Bambi is set to have a clear union of color and animation, it is a painting in movement more than its predecessors. Bambi was postponed a few films, it was supposed to be the second film after Snow White, but because technically it wasn't possible to fulfill what Bambi needed, it had to wait a few years for its release. The final product is a statement of the lessons learned from the previous films; the experimentation of effects in Fantasia, the rotoscoping and character creation in Dumbo, all applied to this moving painting.
Bambi starts more like a film from the time than a cartoon, as a series of beautiful paintings slide show passes in the intro credits, we pan thru the forest filled with greens and turquoise shades, gradually introducing increasingly complementary to the green forest animals. The exception being Thumper, which is a light bluish gray, most animals in Bambi are complement to the green lush of the forest background. Including the Owl, which becomes our friendly narrator at times. Much like a freak show spectacle, Bambi is introduced to the animals of the forest, all watching in anticipation as Bambi recognizes the animals as more than shapes. The Owl is seen as the weird uncle as he scares Bambi a little, then monitors the whole visiting of the animals. More fluff! as Bambi learns about the animals in the forest, he has several adventures all designed to make the viewer fall in love with all the animals in the forest. More so with the thunder sequence in which it is portrayed almost exclusively sans special effects, relying mostly in the orchestra to convey the mood of a thunderstorm. And although it is a scary thunderstorm for Bambi, the vocals and little critters running around manage to still keep the scene extremely cute. After the storm, Bambi and his mother head out to the meadow.
The introduction to the meadow is a very intelligent one; it's establishes that it is a very dangerous place, by the dark, almost monochromatic color scheme (with Bambi and his mother as the accent) and more obviously by Bambi's mother establishing it so. After the crescendo of music and birds lets us know that everything is okay, Bambi frolics in the departure of the color scheme from the forest. And the meadow is designed to feel like another world from the forest. Then, the viewer is again introduced to a new element exclusively from Bambi's point of view; another deer. After a playful interaction between the two, the colors in the meadow slowly turn to a more brownish tone, more like Bambi's to announce the coming of the steers. To me, this is the saddest part of the film, after Bambi sees the display of virility from the steers, we (including Bambi) are introduced to Bambi's father. And no other deer is more afraid of him than Bambi. This may be in part to establish a strong and dependent relationship that Bambi and his mother have, and in part to establish the patriarchal family expected in that time. After that small introduction, Bambi is then introduced to the villain of the film: Men. Which makes this film the first "green" film from Disney.
As winter slowly comes, the color scheme in the film turn progressively more monochromatic, as a warning to the viewer of sadder times to come. But first there is a sequence in which Thumper and Bambi play in a frozen lake, which seems to me to be a nod to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. After the viewer is introduced to a grueling, monochromatic winter, we come to a scene where winters seems to be ending, as a warmer light shines thru the forest. As Bambi and his mother discover the patch of grass, everything in the scene tells us to expect a happy scene; the music, the light, the colors, everything previously established. That is until a sudden crescendo of violins and a sudden desaturation of color clue us of the tragedy to come. The viewer is left with a complementary color scheme of blue and brownish orange. As Bambi realizes his mother's death, his father appears in whisks away Bambi into the blue hard winter.
A sudden break from the monotony of winter, the viewer is colorfully introduced to love. Yes, all the following scenes are design to explain the birds and bees to Bambi and his friends. as the color scheme erupts into all sorts of reds, and yellows. Bambi and his friends are slowly picked away by love (even his gay skunk friend). Which I must say that it was brave of Disney to acknowledge the feminine aspect of men, and although it does ridicule it a little, Flower is left to be his own. Until he finds a another skunk, which we are not really sure is a female, could be a high pitched male. Again, as Bambi falls in love, the viewer in introduced to that feeling by a surreal scene of the whole reality morphing into a literal fluff world. That is until the rival appears, which then the scene keeps its surreal motif, but borrows from the drunk scene in Dumbo, to have a very graphic looking battle. After Bambi triumphs, the love scene introduces again a color scheme reminiscent to Bambi's mother death scene, but set in violets and pinks, rather that exclusively blues. The scene goes from this subtle blue-orange complementary to a more stark contrast as men's danger is present again. After the fight scene of Bambi and the dogs, more reminiscent to demons than dogs because of the domestication of men, the viewer again is introduced to the real danger of men; negligence. As the fire spreads, the scene again becomes monochromatic, this time in the other extreme; red. We see a red monochromatic scene until Bambi and his father dive into the blue water. After which we see a slow restoration of colors, as it grows from still a subtle monochromatic, to complementary, to a full accented analogous color scheme. As the forest heals, the film loops to its begging, with Bambi's offspring born, and Bambi deemed the Prince of the forest.
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