With Bambi making its first ever appearance on Blu-ray (as well as returning to DVD) today, we got some quotes from two of the people at the top of todays animation game at Pixar.
First up is Ralph Eggleston, whos worked in some capacity on most of Pixars movies, from Toy Story to Up, as well as winning as Oscar in 2002 for the studios short, For The Bird. We also got some thoughts from Charles Solomon, an animation historian who works with Pixar.
Take a look below to see what they think of Bambi, and the inspiration the 1942 film still has on modern animation.
Ralph Eggleston on BAMBI (animator, art director, storyboard artist and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios)
BAMBI has always been an inspiration to me.
Tom Codrick pushed the design of that film forward. Tyrus Wong did all that wonderful inspiration work, but Tom Codrick was the guy who put it on film.
BAMBI is FANTASIA in narrative form.
BAMBI was risky by making a poetic statement. It is a poem, not a screenplay.
90% of the films that were coming out were black and white, and songs didnt have anything to do with the story or plot. In BAMBI they were using colour to tell a story. It was a conscious decision.
The single most important thing was the audience. BAMBI it was a sure mastery of the medium at that time. What they struggled most with was the realism. Its better than realism. Its what people imagine the forest to be like. Its as much of a fantasy as Pinocchio, in terms of the visuals, and using colour as a musical score. The music and the film – its a tone poem. Using colour to really underscore the colour and the emotions in the character it had been done in bits and pieces but in BAMBI it was used to the fullest extent.
We looked to BAMBI when we were making FINDING NEMO. The impressionistic stylings of BAMBI were a direct influence on Sharon Callahan. There was a frustration of what the computer was able to dogiven our budgetin making the film feel soft and richer than the often plastic look of computer animation. We needed a softer look overall, because it was underwater, and it was a film dealing with fish, who are naturally scaly and slimy. We needed to make them as soft and approachable as possible. We looked at the softness of BAMBI and how they would frame the characters with minimal detail, or very busy backgrounds that are deftly handled through a careful handling of values. Look at the sequence I bring you a song thats what we wanted NEMO to look like. Sharon has carried that forward in later films.
In order to push what the computer can do forward, we have to look backwards at what they were trying to do, and reinterpret it.
Charles Solomon on BAMBI (Animation Historian)
BAMBI more than any other of the Disney films pushed a realism in his depiction of nature and a lyricism in its depiction of nature. There were things that the natural world had been shown (the forest in SNOW WHITE, exteriors in PINCCHIO) but not with the same type of loving detail.
In many studios today youll see examples of Tyrus Wongs work there to inspire the artists. You didnt have to render every leaf, you could do something more impressionistic that perhaps celebrated nature than depicted it literally.
[Re BAMBIs influence in contemporary films] There are lots of shots involving the forest in TANGLED, and once again you can see BAMBIS influence on the way the forest is handled. More subjective light and colour, you couldnt necessarily go and stand in the forest that might have inspired that shot
The idea that you are creating a forest that evokes all forests or evokes the feeling of being in a forest is still present there.
That is true in much of the exterior work of TOY STORY 3. Ralph Eggleston said they were never trying to create the real world, they were not trying to duplicate reality they were trying to evoke and suggest. Even in the interiors in Andys room they were very careful about the colours and shapes and lighting to create a sense of lyricism of nostalgia and warmth, the place where you would have wanted to grow up that you lived in your imagination. It goes back to that lyrical vision of the world thats so prevalent in BAMBI.
Retta Scott was good friends with Marc Davis who was one of the first to recognize her abilities as a draftswoman. She and Marc Davis and Mel Shaw used to go to the zoo and into the fields and sketch and paint together every weekend. They clearly respected each other. Her draftsmanship was so good that she was able to animate that very frightening pack of dogs. I think Marc Davis said Eric [Larson] helped her with the timing, but she drew very well and drew very well in perspective. You can see it in the way the animals come from different angles.
DISNEYS BAMBI: DIAMOND EDITION IS BORN ON BLU-RAY & DVD FROM MONDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2011