Bambi: The True Story

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BBC Radio 4 - Bambi: The True Story

Christopher Frayling visits Vienna to uncover Bambi's forgotten roots as a brutal parable.

Christopher Frayling visits Vienna to uncover the forgotten Jewish roots of Walt Disney's Bambi - as a brutal parable of life in the forest by Austrian writer Felix Salten.

Most of us are familiar with the figure of Bambi - the wide-eyed young fawn at the centre of Walt Disney's heart-warming 1942 animation, who finds love and friendship in the forest as he comes to terms with growing up. 

However, few people are aware of Bambi's roots - as an unflinching and grisly parable about the violence of nature and the cruelty of man, which has more in common with Animal Farm than with Dumbo. It is a work red in tooth and claw, where animals discuss the experience of "being born to be killed". It is also largely forgotten. Cultural historian Christopher Frayling travels to Vienna to tell the true story of Bambi. 

Disney's Bambi was based on the 1928 American translation of Austrian writer Felix Salten's Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, originally published in Vienna in 1922. This translation toned down the darker aspects of Salten's story, to turn Bambi into a children's book about furry animals and their friends. This may have been an astute commercial move, but latest research suggests that Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, in its original form, was an allegory of the persecution of Jews in Europe. 

Over 100 years on from the publication of Salten's book, it is time to tell the true story of Bambi.

Interviewees:
Dr Marcel Atze - archivist, Vienna City Library
Dr Brigitte Timmerman - historian, Vienna Walks and Talks
Prof Jack Zipes - translator of Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest

Readings: 
David Ashton
Tallulah Bond
Douglas Clarke-Wood

Film clips: 
Bambi (1942) 
dir. David D. Hand, James Algar, Sam Armstrong, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield & Norman Wright
Walt Disney Productions

Producer: Jane Long
Sound: Jon Calver
A Hidden Flack production for BBC Radio 4

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