Bambi Diamond Edition Blu-Ray

Bringing a movie that is over 20 years old to Blu-Ray can be a challenge. The inevitable response is “why do I need to see the same old movie in HD all of a sudden?” The truth is, Disney’s 1942 classic Bambi probably doesn’t need to be in HD all of a sudden. Sure the animation is incredible, but “why do I need to see a further disconnect between the still background and the animated subject?” However since its HD home release was inevitable, perhaps its best judged on its own merits. For the Diamond Edition, all that’s been added are a few new extras to the Platinum Edition (does this mean that Bambi has now sold over 10,000,000 records?). Bambi Diamond Edition seeks to embellish the classic Disney animated movie with a set of features that provide some insight but mainly strive to solidify its film’s legacy.

Bambi is a talking animal movie that is part man vs. nature allegory, part coming-of age fable, and part love story. It presents the life of the titular fawn in 70 minutes. Naturally the narrative is episodic and easy for children to follow. The best parts of the film are when Bambi and his animal friends, including his rascally rabbit pal Thumper and the bashful skunk named Flower, encounter danger from the foreign unseen entity known as Man. Other than this there is little in the way of external conflict. What is presented instead are a number of cutesy sight gags that will likely please small children. Oh, yeah, and of course there is at least one musical number.

The animation is very impressive. Obviously the animals’ faces are somewhat anthropomorphic, but their body movements are reminiscent of their real life counterparts. As mentioned before the picture is very sharp, perhaps a little too sharp. While the image thankfully has not been digitally “enhanced,” the new HD picture does appear to accentuate the difference between the background and the subjects. This has always been noticeable and isn’t essentially a flaw, however it does raise the question ‘what does this film gain by being in HD, other than a sharper picture and crisper audio?’

In terms of special features, this is obviously Bambi’s most conclusive release yet. Most of the features have already appeared on the Platinum Edition. There two additional deleted scenes, one involves two leaves who are afraid of Fall and leaving the tree. The scene was most likely cut because talking plants aren’t part of this universe. The other involves another scene with the young Bambi playing with his future love interest Faline. There is also an interactive game called Disney Big Book of Knowledge which will likely amuse children for ten minutes at best. The most interesting feature is Inside Walt’s Story Meetings, which transcribe the creative meetings the filmmakers. This feature plays throughout the movie and acts as a visual commentary. The set comes as a two-disc Blu-Ray+DVD bundle. The DVD contains the film and Inside Walt’s Story Meetings.

Essentially, Bambi Diamond Edition comes recommended only if you don’t own any of its previous editions. If not this is probably your best bet.