After not seeing this movie since I was a very small child (I was probably 3 or 4) and remembering next to nothing about it, I gave it a re-watch last night. And honestly, after hearing so much over the years about the death of Bambi's mother, I expected that particular sequence to hit me hard. But I was surprised that the scene in question occurred completely off-screen. We hear only a gunshot, no other sounds-- and then Bambi's father appearing, and telling Bambi that his mother can longer be with him. And then a tear drops from Bambi's eye, and that's it. I felt no particular deep sorrow in that scene; I imagine, if I were much younger-- and not such a critical man in his late 40s --it would hit me different.

However, the scene in The Lion King (1994)-- which I saw when I was much older --where Simba's very strong father is shown frightened, and then falling to his death? THAT one really got to me, and to this day, pulls at my heart. But we are all different.

Curiously, with Bambi, I've met a young man (in his 30s, anyhow), with two small children-- one boy, one girl --who hunts small game, and thinks the world needs to "toughen up"; and yet, he will not let his kids watch Bambi, because he himself was crushed when Bambi's mother died, and thinks it's a "fucked up" children's movie. Not for the anti-hunting message that could be taken from the movie, but because the mother's death was so wrenching for him. As human beings, we are walking masses of contradictions, are we not?

(I myself-- though I do not hunt --have no issue with the practice. Around where I live, there are many men and women who take part; in fact, among young women in particular, hunting seems to be increasing in popularity).

Now, the sequences that I did find most powerful in Bambi were during the final act, where many birds are shown flying in panic, and getting rather graphically shot by hunters; followed by carelessness by the hunters at their camp, where an untended fire pit leads to half of the Forest getting burned down. I'm very surprised that all of that was included in a movie made in 1942. Nowadays, there'd be many who would be calling this movie too "Woke". What a strange and crazy world we live in. And while audiences back in the United States were watching this movie upon its initial release in 1942, mass murder was taking place across large swathes of Europe, Asia, and Africa. What a world it has been, and is.

In closing, I was also struck right away by the supreme animation of this film-- made all the more impressive by the fact that each panel had to be illustrated by hand. No computers whatsoever. And yet, it all looks so lustrous, and so much better than much of the computer animation that we have out there today.

Bambi (1942)--

Not a film of its time, but one that is, truly, timeless.