Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A morning light breaks across the meadow; a young deer named Bambi is born and hailed as "Prince of the Forest." Soon Bambi emerges from the thicket on wobbly legs, much to the delight of his new friends, Thumper, the playful rabbit, and Flower, the bashful skunk. Exploring his new world, Bambi learns valuable life lessons with every adventure.

Bambi was Walt Disney's fifth full-length animated classic and was released in 1942. With disposable income in short supply due to the war, the masses didn't flock to the film as Walt had expected and it took many re-releases in order for the movie to turn a profit. It currently resides at No. 3 on the American Film Institute's Top 10 Animated Films of All Time and is certainly worthy of its place.

Video Highlights

• AVC/1080p encode on a BD-50 disc
• Original aspect ratio of 1.37:1
• Outstanding color saturation
• Exquisite detail
• Multi-plane camera technique created by Disney studios shows phenomenal depth

Audio Highlights

• DTS-HD HR 5.1 soundtrack
• Front-heavy presentation
• Occasional surround ambience
• Thin mid-range
• Adequate LFE

Disney delivers another outstanding Diamond Edition release of one of its classic titles. The animation looks nowhere near 70 years old with crisp lines, outstanding colors, and excellent depth. The audio track isn't lossless, in fact, it's the first DTS-HD High Resolution track I've seen on a Blu-ray. Regardless, it sounds pretty good for lossy and given the age of the film, I doubt lossless would be much of an improvement.

Bonus Materials

• Backstage Disney:
  • Inside Walt's Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition
  • 2 Never Before Seen Deleted Scenes
  • Deleted Song: "Twitterpated"
  • Blu-ray Galleries
• Disney's Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition
• The Golden Age
• Classic DVD Bonus Features
• Includes Blu-ray and DVD of the film

The story is a tad slow by today's standards, but when placed in the context of the time period, this cartoon is a technological marvel. The level of realism in the animals is astounding and the animator's were able to give each character their own personality. Furthermore, the multi-plane camera gave Bambi's forest home a dimension that traditional animation techniques couldn't match. Highly recommended.

Release Date: March 1, 2011
Studio: Disney

Movie: 9/10
Picture: 10/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS40 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Integra DTC-80.2 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PVA-PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics