Bambi: Tale of the Woods (Bambi, l’histoire d’une vie dans les bois) (PG) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir: Michel Fessler, France, 2024, 78 mins
Cast: Mylène Farmer
Review by Carol Allen
But French director Michel Fessler’s version is more like a David Attenborough documentary. The actors are real animals, who live a natural life in the Animal Contact Park in France and the film was shot in the beautiful Loiret forest.
While the main “actors” have been trained and rehearsed in their actions in telling the story of the new born baby deer growing up with his mother and the young female who becomes Bambi’s companion, director Fessler and his editor have filmed a wealth of natural shots to draw on around their main action in order to create the other characters.
There’s the crow who keeps an eye on the youngster; the rabbit and the racoon who befriend him plus a wealth of insects, squirrels, a snake and other creatures tor whom the forest is home. They are animals behaving naturally, edited cleverly into the story. The forest looks gorgeous as well.
Because of the way it’s shot, this is also a sort of wildlife semi documentary but without the anthropomorphic sugary voice over we used to get with Disney docs. Salten’s tale is narrated by French singer Mylène Farmer in measured tones, letting the animals get on with telling the story without intrusive sentiment. And no, you don’t get to see Bambi’s mother die. Just the poignancy of a rifle shot in the distance and the young deer, left to fend for himself. These are real animals, remember, not cartoon characters – in a beautiful and very original film.
