The Bambi Effect

​Like stepping on Legos, dropping one’s ice-cream, or standing near freshly chopped onions, the animated feature film Bambi (1947) is sure to draw some tears. Its success and historical influence can be found in our emotional connection with the young deer protagonist. This connection to the audience is accomplished through realism. But saying “real” only means what the audience feels to be real. Bambi embodies what the audience imagines deer to look like with a tacked-on personality. If Bambi had been rendered fully realistic, there would be no acting potential (Thomas and Johnston 332). However, to get this feeling of what feels real, the animators had to go to great lengths to learn and discover what was real (Beck 83). This is what made Bambi a historical turning point for animators. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote in their book The Illusion of Life, “When learning to draw anything, it is important the artist go to the source” (332). When creating this film, the animators quickly realized how important it was for them to learn the anatomy and movement of their character. They would go to great lengths to learn as much as they could. For example, Disney had a live deer brought in for the animators to study, and they attempted to film the birth of a fawn (Thomas and Johnston 339). They would spend hours each day—and more on the weekends—trying to squeeze in time to learn about the animals in their scene. This in turn brought new life to their animations, and it changed people’s perspective on the importance of understanding what was real first.

​The film Bambi, because it is a historical turning point for the way animators approached their animations. This film brought about a realization of what brings life and appeal to a character. The animators of Bambi observed in their own work what could be achieved by studying the inner workings of animal anatomy. James Baxter, the world renowned character animator, while visiting SCAD told us that the reason he had wanted to work on Spirit was because of his desire to draw animals well. This desire came from what he had learned from the Bambi animators. Baxter mentioned that the animators who worked on Bambi—as compared to those who worked on Dumbo—where the ones who learned to draw realistically and who went on to do greater things. I would like to take this approach in my own work. It would be a great loss to ignore a method that so strongly brought Disney animations to life. While animation is not always based on pure realism, learning why things are the way they are will give us the foundation as animators to characterize our creations. The effect that the making of Bambi had on the animators stayed with them for the rest of their career (Cavalier), and it is something I see great value in adopting as well.

 Works Cited

Bambi. Dir. David Hand. Walt Disney Productions. 1942. Film. Beck, Jerry. Animation Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2004. Print. Cavalier, Stephen. The World History of Animation. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011. Print. Thomas, Frank and Ollie Johnston. The Illusion of Life. New York: Disney Editions, 1981. Print.