Bambi

Director: James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, David Hand

1942 / 69min / 35mm

If one were to point to a single film as the encapsulation of Walt Disney’s contribution to the art of animation, one could do much worse than this loose adaptation of Austrian Felix Salten’s novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods, in which we follow the eponymous white-tail deer from fawnhood to buckdom, through changing seasons and harrowing challenges. The fruits of the Herculean efforts of the best and brightest in the House of Mouse bullpen, closely studying fine art depictions of animals and taking notes at the Los Angeles Zoo, Bambi is a film fully in thrall to the wonders of the natural world, incalculably influential and utterly beguiling.

Walt Disney Studios/20th Century

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