flaglady15 I only just found this on Sky Cinema (download) about two weeks ago and I've already watched it 10 times! I think it's absolutely charming and heart warming. Not only that but the actions and reactions of all the little creatures, especially Bambi, were so beautifully observed and drawn from real life, I was quite entranced. The entire story is also well drawn and I love how it picks up from the moment Bambi is calling for his lost mother and his father appears.So other than the obvious bits of anthropomorphism, which can be forgiven, little Bambi came alive again in all his unique charm and cuteness! Well done Disney and all involved. A great job well done.

aileencorcoran Bambi II may be a pointless midquel, but its focus is interesting; the relationship between Bambi and his father, the Great Prince of the Forest. It keeps that focus for the most part, and that's where the good stuff in the film lies. That, and the climax, which, despite there being little to no stakes, is well executed.The film has a rather odd idea to start right after Bambi's mother gets shot. In one way it makes perfect sense, since the Great Prince does take Bambi away into the happiest transition of all time. Yet, starting an already pointless semi follow up to one of Disney's most treasured masterpieces, and using one of the most poignant scenes, seems rather, not in poor taste, but strange.This is a filler movie. Not only is it filling the gap in the original by showing Bambi's childhood and pre adolescence, but it sports pointless scenes with Thumper and his annoying sisters. There's scenes where Thumper teaches Bambi to roar and act brave to impress his father, and, other than one instance where Bambi has an amusing altercation with a porcupine, it just feels like it was placed for cute scenes involving nostalgic characters. The original movie had cute scenes, too, but they used them to their advantage. There was this charm about them. Also, Thumper is useless and irritating here. The callback to the scene where his mother tells him off is out of place, and word for word taken from the meadow scene in Bambi.The film is not without merit. There is a scene where Bambi has a dream about his mother. This scene has little effect, given that the dialogue is ripped straight from The Land Before Time, but the scene directly after is, for the most part, handled very well. In an earlier scene, Ronno, who was in the original movie Bambi's rival for Faline's love, tells the young animals about Man using a call that sounds like deer to trick them. The film cleverly uses this, and, to my surprise, an effective scene comes from it; I knew Bambi wasn't going to die, but the poor little thing was so convinced that the call was his mother. The emotions in that moment were handled rather well. Except when Bambi froze. That looked so stiff, it was funny.Patrick Stewart was a fantastic choice to play the Great Prince. His performance was understated and strong. The character was likable, too, despite knowing exactly how his arc was going to play out. It was satisfying, and you wanted to see him get together with his son. When the new doe appears to give Bambi a new home, I felt sorry for both of them. Yes, it was formulaic and cliché, but in a selfish way, it worked. Bambi and his father do develop a nice, believable friendship. It's nice to see.The climax is very good. The foster mother's dialogue paralleling Bambi's mother's, while Bambi stood frozen, was a clever moment in the screenplay: when Bambi runs, you can tell he won't let what happen to his beloved mother happen to this doe. The animation in this scene is the best in the movie, and when Bambi kicked the dog off the cliff, I thought, good! Survival of the fittest. Of course there was no stakes. The cop out death was stupid, but the Great Prince's reaction made up for it. That was a touching, effective moment... until Thumper cried obnoxiously.The animation ranged from okay to good enough. The lighting was great, when it was used. There was awful, cringeworthy sound effects in some scenes, and the songs were awful. The score was nice enough, especially the strings when Bambi says goodbye to the Great Prince. I did like that they implemented the theme from the original without overdoing it.I suppose the question is, if Bambi II is a worthy sequel? The answer is, no, and it does try to be. It does, however, show the development of a worthy relationship. That, alone, is worth recommending the film for. I'd say, skip the scenes other than those with Bambi and his father, and the climax. Right there, is a decent enough novella to attach to the original tale.

Michael_Elliott Bambi II (2006) ** (out of 4) After the death of his mother Bambi finds himself all alone but his father, The Great Prince, agrees to take care of him until Spring. Once Spring arrives it's time for Bambi to find a doe to raise him but soon the two deers begin to bond.BAMBI II is a rather weird film as it's part sequel and part remake of the original but no matter what you want to call it the thing is just downright boring. I will admit that the animation is quite good. Certainly not as great as the original but I think there is some good stuff to be seen here and especially some of the early stuff in the snow. These early scenes, look wise, are certainly the highlight of the picture.The story itself is rather weak and predictable as we get a pinch of THE LION KING thrown in. Another problem are the characters who are just copies of the original movie and they just can't get that same magic. I think the film tries extremely hard to be cute but it just forces that on the viewer. BAMBI II isn't a horrible movie but it certainly can't compare to the original.

alda-mn Plotwise I like this one better than the original! I love the father-son relationship between Bambi and his dad! I love how we get to see the more vulnerable side of The Great Prince, because we never saw any of that in the original movie. The score in the first movie was breathtakingly beautiful and it was better (and scarier), but the music that plays in the background when Bambi is with his father is so beautiful! I liked how they reused "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song" and "Love is a Song" but I would have liked it to be used a little more. I really liked the two songs that were sung in the background in this movie, some have complained that the songs are too popish and modern compared to the songs in the original Bambi, but that is to be expected, it was 2006 not 1942. But they could have done a lot worse and the songs only serve as background music for time-skip sequences (don't know any better word for it". During the first song we see the landscape change as spring comes closer and the animals wake up from their winter-sleep and during the second one we see Bambi and his father bonding. The animation surpasses that of any other Disney sequel and so much thought and research was put into this. Unlike most other Disney movies with sequels Bambi actually left room for one. This sequel explains a lot of things that were never explained in the first one. Like what happened to Bambi after his mother died? Who took care of him? And who was the stag that Bambi fought for Faline? If you watch the second fight with Ronno in the sequel and then watch the fight in the first one you will see that it is exactly the same, so is the way he tries to force Faline to follow him instead of staying with Bambi. It is a great sequel! If you haven't watched it yet you should!