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Cartoon fantasy. In the forest a baby fawn is born and there is great rejoicing among the forest inmates: birds of all kinds, mice, rabbits, deer, squirrel, even skunks come to admire. And Bambi grows up; the lore of the forest is taught him by his mother, and Thumper instructs him to acquire a sense of humour and to laugh at himself. He frolics in the spring and summer, watches the fading autumn tints and suffers through the cold winter. Then Man comes, invisible but deadly, and Bambi's mother is killed, but Bambi grows up strong and agile. He falls in love with Faline, and after a disastrous forest fire becomes Monarch of the Forest in the place of his royal father. And in due course Faline gives birth to twin fawns, and once again we see the procession of animals coming to worship the newly born princeling.

This is an enchanting film, probably because no human being comes to spoil the harmony of what is really a great picture; here Walt Disney is seen at his best. Nine tenths of the picture are perfect, the other tenth being possibly the rather cheap vulgarity of the skunk; the fight in the dark between the stags, the hound chase and the fire are very frightening, and though a child may cry when Bambi's mother is shot, that cry is liable to become a howl of misery at these alarming scenes. The film is charming, all the animals light, natural and humorous. The trees, the foliage, the changing seasons, the lights and shades are perfect, and as for Thumper, with his solid kindly common sense and sense of fun, he deserves to remain one of the entrancing animal characters of fairyland. Disney knows how to make his effects, he chooses his music to suit every mood, he is just right with baby animals, but they should not grow up beyond adolescence, and as for humans, they ought never to be seen

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