Walt Wanted Bambi to Encounter “Man’s Charred Cadaver”

Jim Korkis at Animation Anecdotes recalls: “The first complete treatment for Disney’s animated feature Bambi (1942) was written at the end of 1939 and had some significant differences to the final film.

“For instance…after Bambi has grown up and after a forest fire carelessly started by the hunters has devastated the forest, Bambi’s father leads Bambi to a man’s charred cadaver, revealing that man is not the ruler of the animal kingdom but just another mortal victim. Walt fought hard for that sequence, that it was the presence of man that upset the balance of nature, but finally relented and removed it before it was animated.”

Top pic: artist unknown; bottom: Mel Shaw