It was way back in 2020 when we first learned of Disney's plans to move forward with a live-action remake of Bambi. At the time, it was said Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Lindsey Beer had been tapped to pen the screenplay, though director Sarah Polley has since joined the project, working from a newer draft written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster.
Talking to Collider (via Toonado.com), Beer reflected on her time writing the movie and suggested Disney is exploring ways to make the traumatic death of Bambi's mother a little less harrowing for today's softer audiences.
"Not to spoil the plot, but there’s a treatment of the mom dying that I think some kids, some parents these days are more sensitive about than they were in the past," the writer says. "And I think that’s one of the reasons that they haven’t shown it to their children."
"I do think there is a way to update Bambi and our take on it was...[we] did give a little bit more of a scope to it. And I just think that to be able to bring it to life for kids these days in a way that maybe they relate to a little bit more would be of service to the original."
It's unclear how Beer hoped to achieve that, but she remains resolute in her belief that this story is one which deserves to be retold for present day moviegoers.
"What's interesting about Bambi to me is it absolutely is a classic and it's a beautiful love poem, such artistry to it," she adds. "I do think there's an entire generation of children who have never seen the original and that's very different from, say Little Mermaid or Aladdin or the '90s heyday films that they've definitely already seen. I can't tell you how many kids I've seen who've never seen Bambi, which is such a shame."
Modern Disney movies do feature death (Jon Favreau's The Lion King reboot didn't exactly hold back), so there has to be a way to make this one work without traumatising anyone. However, we'd guess Bambi probably won't find his mother dead in a pool of blood.
This iteration of Bambi is expected to be a musical featuring music from six-time Grammy-winning country star Kacey Musgraves.
The original was released in 1942 by Walt Disney Productions and RKO Radio Pictures. The fifth Disney animated feature film was based on the 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. The film was produced by Walt Disney and directed by David Hand and a team of sequence directors.
The main characters are Bambi, a white-tailed 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.
The remake doesn't currently have a release date.