(click on image to enlarge and read)
This article is from the NY times about a week ago. At first glance I was excited to read about a pastoral take on Bambi. However the article isn't specifically about aesthetics... which is what I love about Bambi. In 2005 I went to a residency in Florida that had state-of-the-art media facilities. Our "master artist" Fiona Rae made us watch the remastered version of Disney's Bambi digitally projected on a large screen. It was (and is) visually breath-taking. The forest scenes are richly layered and saturated with real pigments. The layering of frames to create depth is actually a technique used by Hitchcock in many films such as the Birds. In addition to layering film he would paint directly on the actual celluloid. Bambi is much more a painters film than an animation film to me. I especially enjoy the lush fires and "man's" violent chaos on nature in a form that would have put any abstract expressionist to shame. This article is not about that. It's more about the Disney's "Disney" version of a comment on the lack of compassion and conservation of habitat, animal rights and moral responsibility.
If you get the chance, rent it and watch on a big beautiful screen.
