Disney Bambi facts
While investigating facts about Disney Bambi, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Donnie Dunagan, a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor, managed to keep secret - throughout his entire career - that he was a voice actor in the Walt Disney's Bambi film, providing the voice of young Bambi.
Chinese American Tyrus Wong was the lead artist for Disney's Bambi. His background paintings for Bambi were inspired by Song dynasty classical Chinese paintings. He was fired from Disney studio due to a strike and his full contribution to the film was largely unknown for several decades
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 26 of the best facts about Disney Bambi I managed to collect.
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Major Donnie Dunagan was the Marines’ youngest-ever drill instructor & served 3 tours in Vietnam, where he was wounded several times. He received the Bronze Star & the Purple Heart 3 times. For his entire Marine Corps service, he kept a secret that no one knew– he was the voice of Disney’s Bambi
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The reason why Bambi (1941) looks so stylistically different than Disney's other works is because entry-level employee Tyrus Wong, an immigrant artist from China, painted sketches of his vision without permission from supervisors. Walt Disney saw his work and promoted him as to lead BG artist.
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Walt Disney didn’t credit any of the voice actors in his first four films (Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi) because he wished to maintain the illusion with the audience that these characters were real.
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Doom in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was going to be the hunter who killed Bambi's mother but Disney objected
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The little boy, Donnie Dunagan, who voiced Bambi in the famous Disney movie, was to grow up to become a highly decorated US Marine. He was able to keep his stint as Bambi a secret for almost his entire military career.
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Because of a court ruling, any movie made prior to 1953 is public domain in Japan, including many Disney movies such as Song of the South, Fantasia, Snow White, Bambi, and Cinderella. You can tape them, sell it, and legally pocket any money you make.
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The lead artist of Disney's "Bambi" was a Chinese immigrant named Tyrus Wong. He is nearly 106 years old.
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Walt Disney wanted to add a scene to Bambi showing the burned corpse of the hunter who shot Bambi's mother.
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That, as part of a poacher’s jail sentence, the Judge ordered him to watch the Disney animated film Bambi once a month until his release.
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Felix Salten, author of one of the most notorious and depraved works of erotic fiction in world literature ("Josefine Mutzenbacher") also wrote the book on which Disney's "Bambi" is based.
What is true about disney bambi?
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Before the creation of Smokey Bear, the U.S. Forest Service's mascot was Bambi. Disney loaned the character to them for just one year, and they then decided on a bear afterwards. He was named after "Smokey" Joe Martin, a New York firefighter who suffered burns and blindness during a 1922 rescue.
Judge Doom in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was originally the hunter who killed Bambi's Mother, but Disney objected to the idea. - source
Walt Disney brought in live animals into the studio to help animators working on Bambi draw animals more realistically - source
Disney's "Lion King" is based on Osamu Tezuka's "Kimba the White Lion" … which in turn is inspired by Disney's "Bambi" which is an adaptation of "Bambi, a Life in the Woods", a 1923 Austrian children's novel.
The first credited female animator on a Disney animated feature is Reta Scott, the one who drew the drawings of the vicious dogs which threaten Faline in Bambi. - source
Bambi is the earliest animated Walt Disney film that still has living actors, the voices of Bambi and Faline.
Walt Disney donated two iron Bambi sculptures to be melted down into incendiary bombs during WWII
The longest span of time between movie sequels is 64 years. The title holder belongs to the direct-to-video release of Disney's Bambi 2.
In 1998, Disney successfully got the government to extend the length of copyright from 75 to 95 years. If it hadn’t been for this extension, Disney movies such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi would’ve been free of copyright and free to download today.
Walt Disney brought live deer into his studio during the making of “Bambi” so the animators could study the real movements made by these animals.
From Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009) that Disney's main resources were invested in Pocahontas (2005) and The Lion King (1994) (nicknamed 'Bambi in Africa') was not expected to be a hit during development. It went on to gross close to $1B.
