There are already two (!) great live-action adaptations of “Bambi” – but nobody knows them!

Disney recently announced that it will also be inspired by the animal film classic “Bambithere will be a live-action adaptation. The studio has already found a director in Oscar winner Sarah Polley (screenplay Oscar for “The Pronunciation”), but it is not known who will play the hunter (and therefore the only human role).

How “real” the live-action remake ultimately is, and whether it will be able to traumatize several generations of children like the 1942 original (who didn’t mourn the death of Bambi’s mother at least once in their lives?), remains to be seen.

A date for the theatrical release has not yet been set. So it may be a while before we get to see the timelessly moving story about the fawn. Those who don’t want to wait that long can pass the time with two other real-life versions of “Bambi”. – who have everything, although hardly anyone knows them!

These “Bambi” live-action movies are completely unknown – but totally worth it!

Natalya Bondarchuk is best known to film fans for her role in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi masterpiece Solaris, but like her father Sergey Bondarchuk (Golden Globe and Oscar for his 1966 version of War and Peace), she is not only an actress but also a director.

Between 1983 and 2015, the Russian filmmaker directed seven films and one miniseries, including Detstvo Bembi (English: Bambi’s Childhood) and Yunost Bembi (Bambi’s Youth). Both films are available on DVD in the original Russian version with English subtitles:

While the Disney version tells how Bambi goes from precarious fawn to king of the forest in just under 70 minutes (there was a belated direct-to-video sequel in 2006), Bondarchuk divides the deer’s life stages into two films. In doing so, she focuses more on Felix Salten’s novel, which appeared in 1922, than on the famous cartoon – but the 73-year-old actually creates something completely unique with her “Bambi” double…

Unlike Disney (or so we suspect), Bondarchuk takes the live-action aspect pretty seriously: both “Bambi’s Childhood” and “Bambi’s Youth” feature numerous real forest animals going about their daily lives. However, since animals living in the wild are quite difficult to influence, the director came up with another solution: She just let the animals turn into humans!

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The actors wear hippie robes and follow the action mainly through dance, movements, looks and gestures – Bondarchuk is not telling a classic story, but assumes that her audience is to some extent familiar with the course of the story. And even if not: “Bambi’s Childhood” and “Bambi’s Adolescence” work similarly if you embrace Bondarchuk’s unusual approach and accept a certain amount of esotericism.

The two films are playful sensory experiences, sometimes closer to surreal ballet performances than classical film dramaturgy – but it is cinema through and through, as Bondarchuk works with mood lighting, dissolves, color and perspective to illustrate her characters’ emotions. Will the Disney remake come close to this unique project somewhere between Tarkovsky, Disney, The Magic Flute and The Wicker Man? At least the author of these lines has his doubts…