Bambi. A life story from the forest

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Bambi, drawn by Hans Bertle for the Bambis Children's Book of 1940

Bambi. A life story from the forest is a book published in 1923 by the Austrian writer and hunter Felix Salten . It is about a young deer named Bambi and was published in 1928 under the title Bambi. A Life in the Woods translated into English and filmed as Bambi by Walt Disney in 1942 .

action

The story begins with Bambi's birth in the protective thicket of the forest. Still young and inexperienced, Bambi is soon instructed by his mother in the secrets and dangers of the forest . On his first visit to the meadow, he learns a little from his mother about the dangers of life when she prevents him from running impetuously on the meadow. In the meadow he also meets his future girlfriend Faline and her ailing brother Gobo. He also sees his father for the first time in the meadow, who at first seems aloof, majestic and powerful. At this point in time, however, he does not yet know that the oldest and wisest roebuck in the forest is his father.

Shortly afterwards, Bambi also learns about the danger posed by humans when he has to watch a careless roebuck being shot by a hunter. The animals of the forest fearfully call the hunter only He and they tell each other terrible stories about his work. He appears to animals like a god over life and death.

Bambi loses his mother in a driven hunt and is now on her own. Even the weak gobo apparently falls victim to humans during this hunt when it remains exhausted.

As a young roebuck, Bambi faces new challenges about a year later. He falls in love with his childhood friend Faline and has to defend her against two competitors, Karus and Ronno. He also almost falls victim to leaf hunting . At the last moment his father helps him and points out the danger.

Later, Gobo unexpectedly returns to the group. He tells the fantastic story of how He found him and nursed him back to health. Firmly convinced that He is a benevolent God and that he, Gobo, is now one of His chosen ones , Bambi's father calls him an “unfortunate one”. And in fact the now careless gobo pays for his arrogance with his life a little later when his "master" does not recognize him and shoots him.

Bambi almost falls to him to the victim and is shot, but his father helps him get back on his feet and flee in a quieter part of the forest where Bambi's gunshot wound can heal.

Later his father helps him again. He convinces Bambi that He is not a god and is not above animals. Standing in front of a dead hunter, the following dialogue develops:

“You see, Bambi,” said the old man [Bambi's father] further, “do you see that He is lying there like one of us? Listen Bambi, He is not omnipotent as they say. It is not from whom everything comes that grows and lives. He 's not about us! Next to us He is like ourselves, because like us He knows fear, need, and suffering. He can be overwhelmed and then He lies helpless on the ground, just like the rest of us, as you see Him in front of you now. ”
There was a silence.
"Do you understand me, Bambi?" Asked the old man.
Bambi replied in a whisper: "I think ..."
The old man commanded: "So speak!"
Bambi glowed and spoke trembling: "Another is above us all ... above us and above him ."
"Then I can go," said the old man.

As a result, Bambi's ancient father withdraws to die alone. How the hunter died remains unclear in the book. Years later Bambi is now the ancient prince of the forest. The story closes with Bambi teaching two young fawns.

Book and film

In 1942, the story of Walt Disney was made into a cartoon . Since books and films work with different stylistic means and also play in different places, there are many similarities as well as many differences. In the book set in Europe , Bambi is z. B. a deer , but in the film, which is set in North America , a white-tailed deer . The book is darker and in places much more brutal than the film, although Bambi is also considered Disney's darkest and most serious cartoon.

Bambi's relatively carefree childhood is portrayed very similarly in the book and film, just as he meets Faline. Thumper and friend owl from the film are z. B. in the literature reference Mr. Hase and Mr. Waldkauz . In the book and in the film, the "old man" also appears aloof and overwhelming at first, but is always at Bambi's side in crucial situations.

The book contains many more characters and more little adventures and conversations between the animals. For the film adaptation, Disney had to concentrate on the main characters and the main storyline and depict many passages of text wordlessly with impressionistic colors and music. This includes B. Bambi's fight with Ronno, which is very verbose in the book, but without a word in the film, and where anger and aggression are only represented by blood-red, threatening colors.

Many details of the book can also be found in the film: the spring thunderstorm, Bambi's frolic in the meadow, the confusion between butterfly and flower; in the film Butterfly / Bird, the harsh winter, the death of a pheasant who is blown up in panic and shot, and much more. Bambi also loses his mother in the book and in the film to hunters.

In the last third, however, the book and the film diverge further. The story of Gobo is completely missing in the film. Instead, a forest fire triggered by the hunters rages at Disney , which does not appear in the book. But in both the book and the movie, Bambi is shot and the old man helps him get back on his feet.

The attitude of animals to humans is different: In the book long conversations arise about him among animals, about his appearance, his actions, his motivation, his deadly power. In the film you (the people) are a danger never directly shown, which is seen more like a deadly, higher force of nature by the animals and from which you absolutely have to flee, but which is not discussed or speculated about.

The ending is very similar in the film: Faline has two boys from Bambi. Bambi's father passes the "stick" on to his son and withdraws.

Further edits

Radio plays

  • Radio play from 1950 (SWF):
    Despite some deviations from the original, the dark mood of the novel is retained. The young Bambi was spoken by 10-year-old Timm Elstner (later known as Frank Elstner ).
  • Radio play from 1951 (SWF):
    The “Bambi Suite” was created by Karl Sczuka, who had already composed the music for it.
  • Radio play from 1974 (BASF; Peggy LP No. 63 152):
    The radio play "Bambi" was directed by Michael Weckler , the Bambi voices by Carol Christiansen and Konrad Halver .

Other films

  • The two-part fairy tale film Detstwo Bembi (1986) and Junost Bembi (1987) was made in Russia .

Influences

Both the book and the film adaptation of Bambi were received on various occasions as an anti-hunting story. Nevertheless, the author Felix Salten was a hunter himself and had his own hunting ground 15 kilometers outside of Vienna. Salten got the idea for "Bambi" while on a hunting tour.

continuation

Salten himself wrote a sequel to his novel with Bambi's children , which appeared in 1939 - first in English. The now grown-up Bambi and Faline have had offspring, the two offspring Geno and Gurri.

Geno and Gurri are very different in character: While little Gurri is entangled in many dangerous adventures due to her initially impetuous manner, often disregarding any danger, and almost even shares the fate of Gobo from the first book, the rather fearful Geno has to change the opposite go through to find more courage and confidence in yourself and your abilities. Like his father to him, Bambi now appears as the great prince of the forest to his children. Bambi is now "the old man" of the forest, knowing all the tricks and tricks that are part of survival. He has inherited his father's quiet but powerful manner and has become a legend that his two children look up to in admiration.

Although the sequel doesn't provide much new history compared to the first book, it is noteworthy that the view of people in this sequel is no longer purely negative as in the first book and also in the Disney film adaptation. Man is still often a hunter, a nameless horror for the deer, but sometimes also their savior and protector. The story is now partly told from the perspective of humans and predators and their actions are explained more clearly to the reader. Predators such as foxes and martens are now presented more precisely and free of prejudice than in the first book. The actions of the predators and the hunting humans are still a horror to the deer, but these are now shown more clearly incorporated into the cycle of nature.

expenditure

Bambi

  • Bambi. A life story from the forest . Ullstein , Berlin 1923. (First edition, 186 pages.)
  • Bambi: A Life in the Woods . Simon & Schuster , New York 1928. (American edition, translated by Whittaker Chambers , illustrated by Kurt Wiese.)
  • Bambi. A life story from the forest. With 118 pen drawings by Hans Bertle. Albert Müller, Rüschlikon 1940; New edition: Unionsverlag, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-293-00449-8 .
  • Bambi. A life story from the forest. With 8 colored plates after Walter Linsenmaier. Albert Müller, Zurich, 1946.
  • Bambi. A life story from the forest. Illustrated by Elly Miltner. Jung-Donauland book club, Vienna, 1962.
  • Bambi: A Life in the Woods . Knight Books, London 1967. (British edition, translated by Whittaker Chambers, illustrated by Maurice Wilson )
  • Bambi. A life story from the forest. Bambi's children: A family in the forest. Illustrations and dust jacket by Hans K. Stöckl. Book club Donauland, Vienna, 1972.

Bambi's children

  • Bambi's Children: The Story of a Forest Family. Translation by Barthold Flies, edited by R. Sugden Tilley. Illustrated by Erna Pinner . Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1939. (First published in English, with many modifications.)
  • Bambi's children. A family in the forest. With 18 full-page pen drawings by Hans Bertle. Albert Müller, Rüschlikon 1940; New edition: Unionsverlag, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-293-00456-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bambi [sound carrier  : radio play for children from 6; Production Südwestfunk, today Südwestrundfunk 1950 / Felix Salten. Speakers Bambi Tim Elstner (Frank Elstner), Joost Siedhoff ... Directed by Gerd Beermann. Arr. Katharina Wyler-Salten ... SWR], dnb.de.
  2. ↑ Sczuka , HörDat
  3. ↑ Radio play from 1974 (BASF; Peggy LP No. 63 152) , information according to www.musik-sammler.de.
  4. ↑ Proof at the German National Library DNB 1007737077
  5. ↑ Detstvo Bambi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  6. ↑ Bambi's Childhood (Detstvo Bambi) on Rottentomatoes
  7. ↑ Yunost Bambi , amazon.de
  8. ↑ Yunost Bambi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  9. ↑ a b Joachim Radkau: The era of ecology: A world history . CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61902-1 , p. 414 ( google.de [accessed February 1, 2019]).
  10. ↑ Boria Sax: The Mythical Zoo: An Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature . ABC-CLIO, 2001, ISBN 978-1-57607-612-5 , p. 146 .
  11. ↑ Norbert Jessen: Israel: A visit to the heirs of Bambi. In: WORLD. February 26, 2012, archived from the original on December 18, 2018 ; accessed on December 18, 2018 .

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