It has been many, many moons since I watched Bambi. So many moons in fact that the last time I watched it, it was on VHS! Boy-child loved it and it was watched regularly when he was little, when we still owned a video but we never managed to re-purchase the movie when we went to DVD. When I received the email asking if I wanted to do a review of Bambi AND Bambi 2 as well as host a give away I just had to say yes, it would be the perfect holiday day at home, we could invite a few friends over, cook up some popcorn and relax as we all recovered from the madness of a busy term. Of course I wasn’t planning on spending the majority of the first week of the holidays being stuck at the ‘camp from hell’ (without internet access). Now that I am back and the kids are actually home and we are all tired and grumpy, I popped in the discs for some quiet time.
We started off watching Bambi, well actually the kids watched Bambi and I made dessert. There was a lot of giggling happening as they watched and then boy-child got quiet. I heard him telling his sister that there were guns soon and he was getting ready to be sad. I hadn’t realised that girl-child had never seen the movie and he hadn’t seen it in more than 6 years, since he was 3 years old yet he knew what was about to happen! Clearly the movie had a big impact on him then and again today as tears welled in his eyes as he watched.
When Bambi was over, it was still cold out and we were all too tired to move so what did we do? We put in Bambi 2, the story behind the story from when he was growing up and the interactions he had with the other creatures of the forest as well as his dad. The kids initial thoughts on Bambi 2 was that the dad wasn’t much fun to be around, he was too serious and way too busy, he didn’t really look around to see just how awesome the things around him were. They were glad that Bambi was allowed to play with his friends and have some fun saying that “Sometimes dad’s and mum’s just have to do some work and it is just no fun for the kids to hang around”. Perhaps that is an indication of the madness of our lives during recent times, I am just glad that the kids understand that we do have to work even if it isn’t much fun some times. Even with all the seriousness of the movie, there was still plenty of laughing and both kids loved it. When the movie finished, boy-child looked over at me and said “When do we get to watch Bambi 3?”
The highlight for me? Having both kids actually watch and enjoy both movies. Seriously though, the highlight of the actual movies? Remembering twitterpated. I had forgotten the beautiful forest words for falling in love.
To win a copy of Bambi for your family, tell me your favourite twitterpated story, perhaps your first love, the first love of your child or even your favourite love story in a movie. I am lucky enough to be able to give away a few copies of these great movies. The major prize winner will receive a copy of both Bambi and Bambi 2 on DVD along with a Bambi Collectors book and CD with runner-up winners receiving a copy of Bambi on DVD. This giveaway is open to Australian residents only. Entries close on Wednesday 20th April 2011 at 8.00pm.
Created in 1943, Bambi was re-released on March 30 this year and will be available for a limited time only. Bambi 2 is a new story in the Disney collection and is also available now. I was sent a copy of these movies for promotional purposes and the opinions in this review are my own or those of my children.
Relish, my Relish 
Ali
April 15, 2011 at 10:38 pm
I haven’t seen Bambi in forever. I wonder what my kids would think of it? I worry that the 5yo would find it very sad, I think the 2yo probably wouldn’t notice too much.
Hmm, twitterpated. This is going to sound really soppy but my greatest experience of being twitterpated would have to be meeting my husband. I had recently ended my first marriage and was very sure I did not want another relationship. I went to London to visit my cousin, who had just moved there, and to have a 2 week break from all the craziness, to get my thoughts together. A couple of days after I arrived my cousin explained that a friend (also originally from Adelaide) who had helped her settle in to London wanted to go and see a band and had bought us all tickets. We had a great time and as the night progressed it became clear that there was a definite attraction. We kissed that night and within 3 days we had declared our love for each other. It really was pretty much love at first sight – something I never thought I believed in- and we knew that we had to be together. I came home to Adelaide (we spent 11 days together in London) and he finished up his life in London and came home 5 months later. We had some pretty hefty phone bills during those months! That was more than ten years ago and we are still completely twitterpated to this day.
Judith
April 16, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Miss Four and I were lucky enough to see ‘Bambi’ at the movies last month – a special screening to mark its release to DVD. I wasn’t sure if Miss Four would find it too scary – there is a fire and the shooting – but she seemed to take it pretty well.
She told me the next morning she was like Bambi and she hadn’t grown into her legs yet, so she needed to be carried out of her bedroom. She also likened the ‘twitterpated’ animals to herself and ‘Luke’ her kindergarten boyfriend.
The relationship with Luke is only a couple of months old, but Miss Four assures me that when they grow up they will get married. Hopefully Miss Four experiences love as straightforward and simple as that! My own love life wasn’t quite as simple. There certainly was an instant attraction to my (now) hubby (and Miss Four’s dad) – it just took him nearly 10 years before he finally popped the question. I responded with an instant YES!
Steff
April 17, 2011 at 9:33 pm
As fergie says in her clumsy song that love bug always jumps up and bites me and I get completely twitterpaited so that I turn into a twit and can’t think straight but I do love Bambi!! Lol random brain waves
Super Sarah
April 18, 2011 at 2:00 pm
My grandmother turned 88 this year and her memory has slowly been going which is very sad, especially since we live so far away. I remember when I was living in London and she would come over every year to her flat in Cardiff, Wales where she was born. I would catch the train up on a friday to spend the weekend with her. It was always summer so light very late and she would come and collect me from the station in her old banger of a car. Anyway, one weekend maybe the last time she came over to the UK, we were going through a box of old photos and there was one of her, looking very glamorous in what would have been a revealing pose in that day, bare shoulders. I asked her about it and she told me she had fallen in love with a Candadian Airman during the second world war when she was working as a physio for an ambulance unit during the bombing of London. He was dapper and gorgeous and loved her with a passion, this was a photograph she had taken to give to him as a token of her affection but sadly he had been killed in an air raid over the channel. It honestly sounded like something in a movie but I could tell how real it still felt to her by the tears in her eyes. Now that B&W photo lives on a shelf in my house and everytime I look at it I remember a time when my grandmother was young and full of passion and living her very own tragic lovestory! She did go on to marry my grandfather and they were married for 40 years so she had another love story!
mumstrosity
April 20, 2011 at 7:31 pm
I love Bambi! “You can call me Flower, if you want to” so cute 🙂
Marita
April 20, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I was living in Adelaide in 1994, a Gold Coast girl, far from home. I made friends with another girl, C, who was from Melbourne. We both felt a little out of place and far from home.
A boy friend of C’s drove over from Melbourne to visit her. She was juggling a couple of other blokes at the time and asked me to distract him for an evening.
I distracted him.
6 years later I married him.
😀
Tara @ Our Whirlwind Adventures
April 20, 2011 at 8:18 pm
I have never seen Bambi (shock horror!) so definitely count me in.
My first love was when I was in Grade One.
He asked me to play kiss chasey and when he caught me, pulled down my pants leaving me standing in my pretty pink knickers in front of my teacher and several other students. Needless to say I didn’t love him anymore!