Mr-Fusion
There's an unpolished quality to "Bambi Meets Godzilla" - the rough draft animation and the hiss-and-pop sound - that keeps your eyes glued until the very end. And by then you realize that the (brilliant) joke is that it's all just series of credits; each more absurd than the last. Something does really happen in this short and there is an actual story to it (threadbare though it is), but it's all about the gag ending. I don't know who Marv Newland is, but I love the guy's sense of humor. And maybe this speaks to a sadistic streak in me, but the idea of Godzilla actually meeting Bambi is an amusing one. How could you not love this?8/10
Lee Eisenberg
Marv Newland's "Bambi Meets Godzilla" is a short cartoon whose purpose is to be cheeky, and it succeeds. Lasting only ninety seconds, the cartoon tricks you towards the end. You've probably heard the song that plays throughout most of the cartoon. It's "Call to the Dairy Cows" from Rossini's "William Tell". I understand that it was originally played by alpine herdsmen while they kept tabs on their cattle, and they played it on alpine horns. Rossini's version is played on an English horn and flute.No matter. This is one enjoyable short. I hope that more people get to see it.
noncompusmentus
Film Review.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAVYYe87b9wReview by Film Critics: Noncompusmentus and Wu~ Ming~CATEGORY: Short Subjects. Very Foreign Film. Title: Bambi Meets Godzilla.Certainly a classic in the genre, and a cult favorite. I enjoyed it but must say the portrayals were a bit cartoonish..A bit too long getting to the crux of the plot. Perhaps just a bit more editing would have helped. How many times can an actor ( Bambi) be expected to hold ones interest raising and lowering his head. A glance to the side perhaps? A frolic in the flowers perchance? Something to give us an insight into his character. The vegetation was rather prosaic as well, a bush in the foreground would have provided more depth.I was particularly taken in by the monochromatic initial frames expecting as in W. O. OZ, a shift to color which unfortunately never came. Personally I think the use of color in the conclusion would have graphically heightened the dramatic effect. The director must have thought it would detract from the sudden impact, but the overall effect was strikingly disappointing. Somehow we expected more from the plot. After all, Godzilla a star in his own right certainly carried several films on his own creating a cult following. Godzilla is a natural leading actor whilst Bambi has been pretty much relegated mommies boy parts. Godzilla has usually demanded top billing and for unknown reasons (political influence by Disney?), never got it in this film, yet , he agreed to step into playing a cameo role.The title was a bit confusing.Bambi meets Godzilla ! !! That's is akin to a title saying The Joker Meets Batman. It doesn't work as a title. Obviously Godzilla is the larger better known actor. And surely the film shows clearly that it was Godzilla that in the end, met Bambi. It is also rumored that the mighty lizard worked to scale.I'm sure with more latitude the heroic lizard would have upstaged the deer little Bambi who never went on to bigger parts. He did however have many smaller parts subsequent to this film. As it turns out, Bambi was crushed by the lack of dialogue in his role having practiced enunciating the dialogue, ("Flower"), for weeks only to find he was to play a deer and sweet mute.The background music was a bit much. While It certainly succeeded in creating the pastoral and peaceful scene demanded, it was distracting in its corny, banal, commonplace, dull, feeble, hackneyed, mawkish, melodramatic, old hat, old-fashioned, sentimental, shopworn, stale, stereotyped, stupid, tired, warmed-over and just a bit boring in its repetitiveness.One can't help but fault the egotistic rendering of the rolling and repetitive credits (Marv Newland promotion) that took up so much over the introduction of the Bambi character and the subsequent scene. Less is more sir! Obviously the director was influenced by Quentin Tarantino.I think Godzilla's inspiration was perhaps based on an Eastwood role, Dirty Hairy.Though there was a touch of the Vigilante films character as well. The role of Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey was glaringly obvious to your critics. Bambi's acting was much reminiscent of in the Matrix, though certainly more dramatic than the Keanu Reeves portrayal might have been.One can only ponder the choice to go in two dimensions. Certainly 3D would have been the logical choice given the dramatic action in front of the camera lens. The final scene alone showed that dimension counted!Peripheral issues: There have been PETA objections to the violence towards animals in the film (long version), that thus far have fallen on deaf ears at the studio. Similarly Horticultural societies have condemned the casual and cavalier treatment in the collateral extinction of flora and fauna. Your reviewers must admit the destruction of the secondary scenery was both devastating and unnecessary to make the point.On enlarged views IMAX, we think we saw a single scurrying worm escape the crush and wiggle to freedom? Maybe symbolic of something? Perhaps a sequel?We noticed that while writer-Directer- etc. was over and over and over rolled onto the credits, no cast list was given. Crediting a foreign country like Tokyo was however a touch of class. Subtitles might have been nice for that audience ya think?We give it two thumbs up none the less, since the overall content was entertaining and stuck so closely to the book of the same title by the same old same old. (®).Wu~ & Noncom.
Mightyzebra
To be perfectly true, this is an incredibly short film (only 2 minutes) that not everyone will like (As you may have noticed I do not). A. Grown-up people who will go up in hysterics to cruel things will find this funny and good. B. Young children will not. Bambi is cute and the music is entertaining, but the rest of it is not particularly worth bothering with (unless you are person A above). Surprisingly this short is quite well-known and popular, as well as being on YouTube. Basically it's about Bambi getting crushed by Godzilla. This is nothing particularly special. It seems to be that this has changed people's lives and I feel rather sorry for them. They must have very boring, rather cruel lives. Watch something nice and delightful and then you can see how boring and mean this really is, then you may just change your mind. Or of course you could just stop reading and not listen to me jabbering on and on about how mediocre this cartoon short is...Two and a half out of ten.
