French postcard by Tobler. Image: Walt Disney.

Bambi (David Hand, 1942) was the fifth animated feature produced by Walt Disney. It is based on the book Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten. The film was released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1942, and received three Academy Award nominations: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield), Best Song (for Love Is a Song sung by Donald Novis), and Original Music Score.

The main characters are Bambi, a mule deer; his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother); his friends Thumper (a pink-nosed rabbit); and Flower (a skunk); and his childhood friend and future mate, Faline. For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing Bambi's species into a mule deer from his original species of roe deer, since roe deer are not native to North America, and the mule deer is more widespread in the United States.

English film historian Leslie Halliwell wrote that Bambi was "one of Disney's most memorable and brilliant achievements with a great comic character in Thumper and a climactic forest fire sequence that is genuinely thrilling". He concluded that it was "a triumph of the animator's arts. Hal Erickson at AllMovie adds: "In the grand Disney tradition, Bambi is brimming with unforgettable sequences, notably the young deer's attempts to negotiate an iced-over pond, and most especially the death of Bambi's mother--and if this moment doesn't move you to tears, you're made of stone (many subsequent Disney films, including Lion King, have tried, mostly in vain, to match the horror and pathos of this one scene). The score in Bambi yielded no hits along the lines of "Whistle While You Work", but the songs are adroitly integrated into the action. Bambi was the last of the "classic" early Disney features before the studio went into a decade-long doldrums of disjointed animated pastiches like Make Mine Music."

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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French postcard by Tobler. Image: Walt Disney.

Br'er Rabbit is the protagonist of the animated sequences of the Disney feature film Song of the South (Harve Foster, Wilfred Jackson, 1946).

In Song of the South, kindly story-teller Uncle Remus (James Baskett) tells a young boy (Bobby Driscoll) three tales of trickster Br'er Rabbit and his enemies Br'er Fox and slow-witted Br'er Bear. Br'er Rabbit lives out most of his roles in the storybook. In the first story, Brer Rabbit leaves his briar patch since it is giving him too much trouble. However, he then gets caught in Brer Fox's trap, but manages to escape by tricking Brer Bear into switching places by convincing him that it was a job that paid a "dollar a minute". Brer Rabbit then escapes back to his old briar patch as Brer Bear and Brer Fox fight, learning that he can't simply run away from trouble, for there is no place too far from it. In the second story, Br'er Rabbit travels the trail, greeting everyone along the way. But then he becomes offended when he gets no response from the Tar Baby, which is another trap concocted by Br'er Fox. Br'er Rabbit punches it and gets stuck inside, but eventually escapes by tricking Br'er Fox into throwing him into a briar patch, saying it was more painful than what the fox had planned for him. Br'er Rabbit survives and escapes, as the briar patch is where "he was born and bred". This experience taught Br'er Rabbit not to bother in affairs that aren't his own. In the third and last story, Br'er Rabbit is captured by Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear and nearly eaten until he tricks them into taking him to his "Laughing Place", where Brer Fox and Brer Bear are attacked by bees and Brer Rabbit laughs at them. In the End of the Film, Br'er Rabbit miraculously appears in the real world (much to Uncle Remus' shock and amazement) and interacts with the Children and singing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah with them, along with other characters from Uncle Remus' stories, including Br'er Frog.

The Walt Disney Corporation has chosen to ignore Song of the South (1946) on the basis of its reportedly offensive depiction of African-Americans in the post-Civil War era. For its time, a time when segregation was still aggressively enforced in the United States, Song of the South was likely a progressive film, a major family film many of whose main characters were black, and whose animated characters were voiced by a black performer. Now, of course, Song of the South is considered problematic due to its depiction of black slaves as happy and complacent, and its portrayal of them as Uncle Tom stereotypes. However, Song of the South is also a fine family film, warmhearted and gentle. It is both a technical landmark and a dazzling series of fables as told by Uncle Remus. Interestingly, several people of colour review it at IMDb as a classic, e.g Sargebri: "Everyone must remember that this film was released in the 1940's before the civil rights movement and before "Roots". Now because of political correctness, we have all but forgotten this classic film, which was one of the first to combine live action and animation. Even though I do agree that this film does show slavery in a positive light you also should look at the fact that it dared to show the friendship between an African-American and a Caucasian, something that would never have even been thought about in those days."

Br'er Rabbit made recurring appearances in the live-action wrap-around skits alongside the other costumed characters and celebrity guests. He made numerous cameo appearances in the animated series House of Mouse. His most notable cameo is in the first episode The Stolen Cartoons, where Mickey Mouse reminds everyone of the House of Mouse rules. As one of the rules, Mickey says "No villainous schemes", at which point Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear stop themselves from catching Br'er Rabbit. He is also seen during The Ludwig Von Drake song in Ask Von Drake. Br'er Rabbit also appears briefly in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains.

Sources: Disney Wiki, and IMDb.

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French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Publicity still for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937). Caption: Simplet (Dopey).

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937) was produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature film and the earliest Disney animated feature film. Walt Disney turned the German fairy tale by the Grimm brothers into a charming family film that is still holding up very well more than 80 years later.

Snow White is a beautiful princess who flees her jealous stepmother and finds refuge with seven friendly dwarfs. The Disney studio spent much time and effort into developing the characters of these seven dwarfs and gave each a distinct personality, a feat that was absent in the original fairy tale. The artwork is stunning, a virtual watercolor painting come to life. The details in the animation are still amazing. The raindrops in the chase sequence really hit the rocks, and slip away. The filmmakers toned down the fairy tale considerably to make it more 'family-friendly, but the fascinating and scary transformation of the Wicked Queen into a hideous hag at the climax was the subject of much controversy at the time. No Disney villain would ever be so frightening and enchanting at the same time. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was immediately embraced both by critics and audiences and received a special Academy Award in 1938. The songs of the film, like the dwarfs song as they bathe "Whistle While You Work", their "Heigh Ho" and Snow White's anthem "Some Day My Prince Will Come", became evergreens. They were composed by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey.

Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), the Disney studio had been primarily involved in the production of animated short subjects in the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series. Disney had hoped to expand his studio's prestige and revenues by moving into features. He had to mortgage his house to help finance the film's production, which eventually ran up a total cost of $1,488,422.74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937. Only after the enormous success of 'Disney's folly', other filmmakers attempted their own full-length cartoon features. Snow White's success led to Disney moving ahead with more feature-film productions. Walt Disney used much of the profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to finance a new $4.5 million studio in Burbank – the location on which The Walt Disney Studios is located to this day. Within two years, the studio completed Pinocchio and Fantasia and had begun production on features such as Dumbo, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Foxy in Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953).

In Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953), Wendy and her brothers John and Michael Darling, are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan. There an ongoing war between Peter's gang of rag-tag runaways and the evil Pirate Captain Hook is taking place. One of these lost boys is Foxy. Peter Pan is based on J.M. Barrie's play and novel about the little boy who doesn't want to grow up.

M.P.O. Farrell at IMDb: "The Disney version is light and breezy and moves at a clip. The London sequence which opens the picture is spectacular in both the backdrops and the animation itself. When Peter, Wendy, John, and Michael leap out of the Darling nursery window and fly over nighttime Edwardian London the viewer is treated to some of the most thrilling animation ever created for the movies. Later sections of the movie are equally enchanting, and the personage of the villainous Captain Hook is brought to great comic life by Disney animators."

Sources: M.P.O. Farrell (IMDb) and IMDb.

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French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney.

Grandpa Bunny was introduced in the Silly Symphony Funny Little Bunnies (Wilfred Jackson, 1934). In the seven-minute short, bunny rabbits are preparing for Easter by making chocolate eggs, rabbits decorating eggs, and weaving and filling baskets. In 1951, Grandpa returned in the Little Golden Book 'Grandpa Bunny'. It tells the touching story of (now) Great-Grandpa Bunny Bunny, who teaches each new generation of bunnies how to prepare for the coming spring. The story was told by Jane Werner with illustrations by the Walt Disney Studio adapted by Dick Kelsey and Bill Justice from Funny Little Bunnies (1934). Cole Sear at IMDb about the short: "Funny Little Bunnies is whimsical Disney animation at its best and its unapologetically funny. (...) The story is simple and humorous without being too dumb and the animation- which I suspect was done on 3-strip technicolor is beautiful."

Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb, and Amazon.

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