Bambi (1942)

I looooooooove Bambi (1942). A lot of people claim this movie is too sad to watch, but I disagree. It's one of those emotionally purging stories. Of course I cried, but I also laughed, smiled, and "aww"ed, and when it was all over I was entertained and emotionally sated. I must confess that I actually teared up prematurely because I forgot the sequence of events and was anticipating Bambi's mom's death (oops... spoiler?) early, but I cried again at the actual event. To those who find this scene too sad, just remember that there is a lot more story to follow. If a baby deer who can only say "BIR-duh" can learn to move on, so can you. That's kind of the point of the story: the world can be a dangerous place, but life and love go on.

Visually, though, and musically, Bambi has to be one of the most beautiful animated features I've ever seen.  The artwork is beyond spectacular, and the main theme, "Love Is a Song," is gorgeous. The next time you watch Bambi, take a moment to listen to the lyrics. The animals don't sing, but there's no reason for them to; for the first time, only the chorus assists the tale as the choruses of theater once did, moving the story through the seasons as a vocalization of nature. "Little April Showers" is always a favorite of mine, but "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" is alright, too. Without it, we wouldn't have a segue into Friend Owl and his memorably mimed explanation of twitterpation (being the noun form of "twitterpated").

Fortunately, the transition from linguistically challenged toddler Bambi to manly-voiced adult Bambi is far less awkward than the three-stage transition of young Simba to adult Simba in the Lion King (1994), but we'll get to that later... much later. I would choose unrealistically sudden aging to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBLGVwl3uhU any day. I haven't even talked about how adorable Thumper is... but I think I've said enough.

With man as an off-screen harbinger of death,  Bambi begins to resemble a Greek tragedy, but the semblance is only momentary. There are so many memorable and adorable scenes like the ice skating, and eating clover, and meeting Faline. Ultimately, the story is one that warms the heart and cleanses the soul. As I said, I looooooooove Bambi.

Ooh, ooh, one more thing: I don't know how many releases were like this, but on our VHS copy there's a mistake at the very end where the mother raccoon has swum to the island and is cleaning it's babies on the left-hand side of the screen and one baby magically teleports to the right side while the mother continues to lick the dirt.