A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

And a thousand pictures are even better. "Bambi" holds the record for having the least dialogue of any Disney movie. In fact, it contains just under a thousand words. But the animation far makes up for it. The beautiful images of the forest and the woodland creatures are memorable at each stop along the way. Each animal is drawn to perfection, from the adorable Bambi to the mischievous Thumper to the wise old Owl.

The first half of the film is easily the most enjoyable, as Bambi the deer, Thumper the rabbit, and Flower the skunk frolic in the meadow and woodlands and learn what growing up is all about. And they are not the only adorable young animals. Every time you turn around, you see another mother with her brood, be they opossums or quail. The opening scene is especially memorable, in which, like the opening scene in "The Lion King," all the woodland creatures are gathered to greet their new prince.

The movie is, in fact, very much like "The Lion King" in several ways. It begins and ends with the presentation of the King's offspring to all of his subjects. The movie centers around the Prince, in this case Bambi. And the Prince loses a parent when he is very young. However, for Bambi it is his mother, and she is killed by an utterly outside force: man. This is, of course, the most memorable part of the movie. That simple word: "Mother?"

Once Bambi is grown up, things start to get really serious. His mother is gone, and with her death he finally got to meet his aloof father, an almost phantom figure. We first see him as an adult in the spring, when the owl is complaining about the whole world getting "twitter-pated." Bambi, Thumper and Flower listen to his description with horror and vow that this terrible thing will never happen to them, but sure enough it does. And, again like "The Lion King," Bambi finds himself falling in love with his childhood playmate, Feline.

But the silliness of spring is interrupted when again the hunters come to call, this time causing a full-fledged forest fire (again, sound familiar?). As the Prince, Bambi must get all of his subjects to safety and try to stop the fire while battling a brutish buck for the love of Feline in a eerie dreamlike sequence reminiscent of "Oklahoma." And, once the danger is passed, it is now up to him to ascend the throne and become King of the Forest.

"Bambi" is one of those essential movies that every child ought to see at least once. And once seen, your child will probably want to see it again. It is sad; perhaps more people have cried over that one word than over any other scene in movie history. And it is scary at times, especially the forest fire scene. And the songs do not have the sing-along quality that most Disney songs possess. But there's just something about this coming of age tale of a deer and his friends that make this one Disney movie that will be cherished for ages.