This long-awaited, four-years-in-the-making sequel to the classic Disney animated film pays tribute to the original with its state-of-the-art animation and touching father-son storyline. Rather than picking up the adult Bambi's story, it begins after Bambi (voice of Alexander Gould) loses his mother to hunters and fills in the story of his relationship with his imperious father, the Great Prince (Patrick Stewart). The Great Prince initially wants no part of fawn-rearing, but because there are no appropriate surrogate does on hand he heeds the advice of Owl (Keith Ferguson) and takes on temporary parenting duties. Responsible for the safety of his herd, The Great Prince has little patience with awkward Bambi, who shows few signs that he'll ever be a prince of the forest himself. Mistaking a deer horn for his mother’s call, Bambi scampers into a hunters' trap and must be rescued by his father, who's well versed in human treachery. Realizing that Bambi is still mourning his mother, he excuses his son from forest rounds so he can romp with pals Thumper (Brendon Baerg) and Flower (Nicky Jones). But playtime isn’t much fun: His friends still have their doting moms, and the bullying Ronno (Anthony Ghannam), who's taken a fancy to Bambi's little girlfriend, Faline (Andrea Bowen), picks on him relentlessly. Ironically, nasty Ronno also helps Bambi impress his dad: While fleeing Ronno, Bambi makes a daring getaway leap that suggests to the Great Prince that Bambi might yet mature into something special. Bambi's next opportunity to show what he's made of is more dangerous: The fawn's newly appointed female guardian falls into a hunter's trap and he risks his own
life to draw away the ferocious hounds. Though producing the richly detailed, hand drawn Disney animators turned out during the 1940s is no longer economically feasible, this painstakingly produced film does its utmost to live up to that legacy. If the plot owes more to THE LION KING (1994) than to Felix Salten, screenwriter Alicia Kirk approaches the material with gentle respect, allowing viewers to reconnect with the beloved Bambi before stag-hood beckons. --Robert Pardi
