The Trouble with Bambi: Walt Disney’s Bambi and the American Vision of Nature

小鹿斑比惹出的麻烦:迪斯尼的斑比以及美国大众如何看待自然


I bet most of you have never really thought about where your own personal images of nature have come from. The fascinating article that appears below explores this topic with specific reference to the classic Walt Disney movie Bambi. When you are done you should take a look at Charles E. Little’s short article about Smokey the Bear.

我确信大家从未认真思考过个人对大自然的印象从何而来。以下这篇有趣的文章用迪斯尼经典电影《小鹿斑比》探索了这个话题。看完之后你可以再看看另一篇Charles E. Little关于防火护林熊的短文。(注:以来宣传森林火灾的危害)

Walt Disney’s influence is so pervasive in American culture that it often goes unrecognized. It is easy to overlook the obvious. “All the world is watching the United States,” proclaimed a bumper sticker, “and all the United States is watching Walt Disney.” A pop-psychologist put it another way. “After all,” she wrote, “Disney cartoons are a shared cultural heritage that predate Beaver Cleaver and Howdy Doody. They are the beginning of our global media village…. For better or worse, Uncle Walt pioneered the notion of a standard-issue childhood memory.” Disney’s animal characters, in particular, are truly “a part of our cultural DNA.”(1)

迪斯尼的影响是如此渗透弥漫于美国文化中而往往让人难以察觉。显而易见的事情很容易被忽略。”全世界都在注视着美国”,”整个美国都在看迪斯尼”,一个汽车保险杠贴纸这样写道。一位当代心理学家用另一种方式写道:”毕竟,迪斯尼卡通是一种早在电视剧《Beaver Cleaver and Howdy Doody》之前就存在的共同文化遗产。他们是媒体全球化的开端。无论好坏,沃特叔叔创造了标准化的童年记忆。”尤其是迪斯尼的卡通人物”的确是我们文化DNA的一部分”

One of these characters, Bambi, has played and continues to play a key role in shaping American attitudes about and understanding of deer and woodland life. It is difficult to identify a film, story, or animal character that has had a greater influence on our vision of wildlife than the hero of Walt Disney’s 1942 animated feature, Bambi. It has become perhaps the single most successful and enduring statement in American popular culture against hunting. An examination of this cinematic statement will reveal some of the ideas underlying the present debate between those who support sport hunting and those who seek its end.

斑比就是这些卡通人物之一,一直扮演着塑造美国人对于鹿和丛林生活的理解和态度的关键角色。很难找到另外一部电影、故事或动物形象比迪斯尼1942年的动画英雄斑比对我们认知野生动物世界有更大影响。在打猎文化盛行的美国,也许他已经成为了全美最为成功和持久的一个反狩猎声明。对该电影声明的审视将会揭示当下关于支持或反对狩猎运动的辩论中的一些观点。

The film was based on Bambi: A Life in the Woods, written in 1926 by Felix Salten (pen name of the Austrian novelist, journalist, and theater critic, Siegmund Salzmann), and published in the United States in 1928. Whittaker Chambers’ superb English translation reflected his own deep, aesthetic love of nature.(2) The film’s success was built on the foundation of a fine book, on superb animation that was scripted and designed by people who knew how to appeal to the interests of the viewing public, and on Disney’s extraordinary marketing machine that has promoted Bambi for the past fifty years. In the process, Disney’s Bambi acquired a content and character that are distinctly its own, despite its many similarities to Salten’s original novel.

这部电影基于一本Felix Salten(奥地利小说家,记者和剧评家Siegmund Salzmann的笔名)于1926年写的小说《小鹿斑比:丛林生活》,该书于1928年在美国出版。Whittaker Chambers无可挑剔的英文翻译折射出他自己对大自然深深的热爱[2]。该部动画片的成功是好的原著、由一群懂得如何吸引观影大众的动画专业人士编剧和设计的一流动画、以及迪斯尼出色的市场营销机器在过去50年间不遗余力的推广的共同结果。尽管与Salten的原著有很多类似之处,在此过程中迪斯尼的斑比获得了一种特有的主题和人格。

The Disney Version of Bambi

迪斯尼版的斑比

Walt Disney’s version of Bambi opens with a long scene panning through the forest that establishes Its mysterious and lyrical beauty. Then birds announce the birth of the fawn, Bambi. Woodland animals, including Friend Owl and Thumper, gather around to observe the “Young Prince” and his first stumbling effort to stand up.

迪斯尼版的小鹿斑比以一个长长的森林镜头拉开帷幕,塑造了神秘与诗意的美。然后鸟儿宣布小斑比出世的消息。包括猫头鹰和小灰兔【译注:Thumper:迪斯尼另一个动画人物,因为抖左脚出名】和其他森林动物们聚到一起来瞻仰这个”年轻王子”和他第一次颤颤巍巍的站立尝试。

A buck, his father, watches from a distant rock ledge. (“Dad isn’t around much,” noted a People Weekly reviewer. “He strikes macho poses on mountaintops, part of his job as great prince of the forest.”[3])

他的父亲,一头公鹿,在远远的一个岩石边上关注着他。(”一位不常在身边的父亲”,《人民周报》的评论员这样写道,”他在山顶上摆出了一个威武的姿势,他的另一个角色是森林的王者。”[3])

Later, Bambi sets off for his first walk during which he meets new friends including Thumper, the rabbit, and Flower, the skunk, and learns to talk.(4) He and his mother return to the thicket when it begins to rain, which leads into a musical segment about April showers.

随后,斑比开始了自己的第一次漫步,途中他遇到了新的朋友灰兔Thumper,臭鼬Flower并学着说话[4]。当开始下雨时,斑比和他妈妈躲进丛林中,并引出了一段四月春雨的音乐场景。

The next day, Bambi’s mother takes him to visit the meadow. She cautions that although it is a wonderful place, it also can be a very dangerous place. He must always be careful when he approaches the meadow. In the meadow he meets and plays with another fawn, his cousin Faline.(5) Soon a large herd of bucks arrives. The greatest of them all, his father, stops to look at Bambi and then walks away. He returns quickly though, to warn that Man is nearby, and the deer race off to the sound of a gunshot.(6)

第二天,斑比的妈妈带他去参观草场。她警告斑比虽然草场十分美丽但同时也可能是危机四伏的。在接近草场的时候他必须始终十分小心。在草场上他遇到了自己的表妹Faline并与之一起玩耍[5]。很快一大群雄鹿朝他们跑来,作为其中最威武的鹿,他父亲驻足片刻看了斑比一会就转身离去。斑比父亲很快又回来警告大家有猎人在附近,鹿群伴随着枪声很快四散而去[6]。

Autumn arrives, symbolized by two lone leaves remaining on a tree, which are pulled off by the wind and float to the ground. Time passes and Bambi wakes to discover snow on the ground. Thumper appears and introduces Bambi to ice skating, but Bambi can do little but fall. This happy segment is followed by scenes of winter’s harshness as the deer must strip bark from high in the trees to stave off starvation. Eventually there is none within reach. “I’m awfully hungry,” Bambi tells his mother. “Yes,” she replies, “I know.”

树上两片孤单的叶子被风刮落在地上,预示着秋天到了。时光辗转,斑比醒来发现地上白雪皑皑。小灰兔出现了并教斑比溜冰,但是斑比一直摔跤。这段欢快的场景过后是严寒的冬季,鹿不得不啃食高处的树皮来缓解饥饿,直到最后没有够得着的树皮了。”我饿极了”,斑比对妈妈说。妈妈回答,”恩,我知道。”

Then she finds the first sign of spring, new grass sprouting amidst the melting snow. Suddenly, as they are eating, his mother senses that Man is near and warns Bambi to run and not to look back. A shot rings out. Bambi reaches safety, but cannot find his mother and wanders off in a snowstorm looking for her. His father appears and tells him, “Your mother can’t be with you anymore.”

然后,她发现了一丝春天的迹象,青草从融化后的雪中长出来。突然,正当他们在享用的时候,她意识到猎人就在附近并警告斑比快跑别回头。一声枪响。斑比安全了,妈妈却不见了。斑比失魂落魄地在风雪中找妈妈。然后他的父亲出现了,告诉他”你妈妈回不来了”。

The next scene is an upbeat counterpoint to the death of his mother. Bambi has grown and proudly sports a rack of antlers. All the forest creatures are in love, but Bambi, Thumper, and Flower are determined to have nothing to do with females. Their resolve is short-lived as each finds a mate, including Bambi who falls in love with the beautiful Faline. He wins her, however, only after fighting with another stag, Ronno.

下一幕是与斑比失去妈妈成为对比的乐观场面。斑比长大了,自豪的夸耀着他那副枝杈繁盛的鹿角。丛林中其他的动物都恋爱了,除了斑比、小灰兔和花花毅然决然地不愿和女性有瓜葛。这个决心只是短暂的,随后他们都各自找到了伴侣,斑比和自己的表妹Faline相爱了,他通过和另一只雄鹿Ronno决斗赢得了Faline的芳心。

Some time later, Bambi’s father appears to announce the arrival of Man and warns him to seek safety deep in the forest. But Bambi must first find Faline who is being chased by a pack of hunting dogs. He saves her, but as he leaps to safety Bambi is shot. Meanwhile, the hunters’ campfire escapes and quickly becomes a major forest fire. The Great Prince of the Forest appears beside the fallen Bambi and urges him to get up, despite his wound. After a great effort Bambi rises and they flee to safety on an island, where Bambi and Faline are reunited.

一段时间后,斑比的父亲出现并通报人类的到来,警告斑比去森林深处找安全地方藏身。但是斑比必须先找到被一群猎狗追散了的Faline。他救了她,但是逃跑途中斑比受了枪伤。与此同时,猎人的篝火引起了森林大火灾。尽管斑比身受枪伤,森林之王(斑比父亲)出现在快要失去意识的斑比身边并鼓励他站起来。经过一番挣扎斑比终于起身逃到了一座安全的岛上,并和Faline团聚。

In the concluding segment, life returns to the scorched forest and Faline gives birth to twins. Bambi and his father watch together from a height. His father then walks off, leaving Bambi the new Great Prince of the Forest. The cycle is complete.

结尾部分,他们又重新回到了烧毁的森林,Faline 生下了一对双胞胎。斑比和他父亲登高眺望,然后他父亲离开了,留下了新的森林之王独自在风中,完成了一个轮回。

The Death of Bambi’s Mother

斑比妈妈之死

The scene with the single greatest impact on the public was the death of Bambi’s mother, an impact compounded by Bambi’s vulnerability and dependence upon her. It followed the scene in which Bambi and his mother found the new spring grass, giving the impression that the winter’s danger was over. Walt Disney proposed that the mother be the one who finds the grass rather than Bambi, because it would make the audience “feel he’s more helpless and everything.”

影片中对大众最具有冲击力的一幕就是斑比妈妈的死,并进一步被斑比的脆弱与他对妈妈的依靠所加强。这个镜头紧跟在斑比和妈妈找到了新的春天的青草之后,给人以冬天的危机已经过去的感觉。迪斯尼决定那个找到青草的人应该是妈妈而不是斑比,因为这样会让观众”感觉他会更加的无助。”

Initially, Disney had considered showing the mother’s death on screen, with Bambi later returning to find her impression in the snow where the hunters had dragged away her carcass. He finally decided that this would be too much for the viewer. The mother’s death happens completely offscreen. Nevertheless, its impact is so great that many people will swear that they actually saw her shot. It was an emotionally compelling scene and even one of Disney’s daughters chastised him for allowing Bambi’s mother to be killed.(7)

起初迪斯尼有考虑过在银幕上呈现斑比妈妈的死,并且让小斑比随后回到事发地点在寒雪中看着自己妈妈的尸体被猎人拖走的场景。后来,他认定这对观影者来说过于残忍。斑比妈妈的死完全是发生在画外的。尽管如此,这一幕的冲击力依旧强大,以致许多人断言自己真真切切看到了她被枪杀。这是催泪的一幕,甚至迪斯尼叔叔的一个女儿都怪罪他让斑比的妈妈被杀害[7]。

Critics agreed that the scene was powerful. “It is one of the paradoxes of movie business,” wrote film critic Pauline Kael, “that the movies designed expressly for children are generally the ones that frighten them the most. I have never heard children screaming in fear at any of those movies we’re always told they should be protected from as they screamed at Bambi and Dumbo. Bambi’s mother is murdered, Dumbo’s mother is goaded to madness and separated from Dumbo; those movies really hit children where it counts.” Another critic called the death “surely one of the most devastating moments in any movie.” Even horror novelist Stephen King wrote that it was the Disney cartoons, including Bambi, that frightened him most as a child.(8)

评论员们一致同意银幕的影响力。Pauline Kael这样写道,”这是众多电影业悖论之一。那些专门给小朋友的快餐电影通常是那些最使他们受惊吓的。我从未听说有孩子在观看那些为保护未成年人而定为儿童不宜的电影时有像他们在观看斑比和Dumbo小飞象(迪斯尼的第四部经典动画)时那样尖叫的。斑比妈妈被谋害了;小飞象的妈妈被刺激到疯癫,并离开了小飞象;这些电影的确是给了孩子深入内心的一击。”另一个评论员声称斑比妈妈的死亡是”所有电影中最令人心碎时刻之一”。甚至连恐怖小说家斯蒂芬·金都写道迪斯尼的卡通片是自己儿时最害怕的,包括《小鹿斑比》[8]。

Each time the film is rereleased parents worry about the impact of the death scene on their children. In the summer of 1988, for example, a psychologist told USA Today that the film “feeds into a young child’s worst fear, that of losing a parent,” and advised that children under the age of seven should not be allowed to see the movie.

每次《小鹿斑比》上映,家长们都担心影片中的死亡场景对孩子们的影响。例如,1988年夏天一位心理学家在接受《今日美国》的采访时就表示该影片”在小孩心中注入了最深的恐惧,即失去父母”,并建议禁止七岁以下的儿童观看该影片。

However, many parents found that their children handled the film well, especially if they prepared their children in advance for the death scene. One parent remarked, “I wonder if it was my own anxiety that played into what I’d heard about the movie. I’m a working mother and I’m loaded with guilt.”

但是家长们发现孩子们对电影的接受程度还不错,尤其是在他们提前剧透死亡场景后。一位家长表示,”我在想我对关于这部影片的传言是不是因为我自己的焦虑而过度紧张了。我是一名充满自责的上班族母亲。” 

Another commentator suggested that, “if parents want to use this movie for lessons, they might emphasize how Bambi learns to survive with his friends despite the terrible loss of a parent.” (Good advice at a time when single parent households are increasingly common.)

另一位评论员提议,”若是家长们想要用这部电影做教材,他们可以着重讲在失去了妈妈后斑比怎么学会和自己的朋友们在重重困难中生存下来。”(在当时是一个不错的建议,那时单亲家庭正变得越来越普遍。)

A Chicago Tribune editorial argued that it is really the parents who are most frightened by the scene. “What has made ‘Bambi’ arguably the most memorable of the Disney animated movies,” the editorial continued, “was that it did touch some real human emotions…. Besides, how are [children] going to know what to worry about when it’s their kids’ turn to see ‘Bambi,’ if they don’t get to cry at the movie now?“(9)

一位《芝加哥论坛报》的社论编辑认为其实是家长们自己最害怕那一幕。他说到:”让’斑比’成为可能是最令人难忘的迪斯尼动画电影是因为它的确触及到了人们内心的情感。另外,如果(孩子们)现在不在电影里哭一回,那当他们也为人父母的时候,他们怎么知道(他们的孩子)看到’斑比’时需要注意哪些问题呢?”[9]

This death scene is central to the film’s antihunting message. The dog pack chasing Faline, the shooting of Bambi, and the general panic among and killing of the wild animals during the hunt certainly contribute to this message. It is, however, the death of Bambi’s mother that people remember. Disney spent nearly three-quarters of the film building sympathy for Bambi as a cute, lovable, vulnerable child. His mother nurtured and cared for him, and then, just as they had come through winter’s hardships, she was killed. Bambi was left a virtual orphan, without his principal caregiver, alone until his loving but aloof and uncommunicative father appeared. The film never voiced a word against hunting. The antihunting message was conveyed on a completely emotional level through sympathy with its characters. It was targeted at children in their most impressionable, formative years. The memory of the incident remains with them even into adulthood.

那个死亡场景是本影片中反狩猎思想最重要一幕。当然,一群猎狗追逐Faline,猎人向斑比开枪和在猎杀野生动物时营造出来的普遍恐慌也支持了这一思想,但人们记住的确实是斑比妈妈的死。迪斯尼花了将近四分之三的时间来塑造一个聪明伶俐,可爱,脆弱的小孩。他妈妈抚养并照顾他,然后,严冬就要结束时,她被猎杀了。斑比成为事实上的孤儿,没有了监护人,独自一人,直到他的那个虽然爱他但冷漠少言的父亲出现。本片对反狩猎只字未提,反狩猎的思想却完全通过对人物情感上的同情来传递。它精准定位了孩子们最易受影响的成长阶段。该事件的记忆会伴随他们甚至到成年。

The film’s immediate impact was not limited to children. It also shaped the opinions of many adults. For example, one man told how his grandfather, an avid hunter, had taken him to the theater to see Bambi when he was a child. When the film was over and they were walking out into the sunlight, his grandfather said, “I’ll never hunt again.” He disposed of his hunting paraphernalia and never did hunt again.“(10)

电影的直接影响还不仅限于孩子,它同样改变了许多成年人的观念。例如,一位男士讲述小时候他热衷打猎的爷爷带他去看了斑比。当电影散场时走出影院来到阳光下,”爷爷说’我再也不打猎了。’从那以后,他扔掉所有的打猎装备,再也没有打猎。”(10) 

The “Bambi Factor” and the Anti-Bambi Backlash

“斑比因素”和反斑比潮

Hunter opposition to Bambi began even before the film was released. Following a preview of the film, Raymond J. Brown, editor of Outdoor Life, sent Walt Disney a telegram pointing out that it was illegal to shoot deer in the spring. The film, he argued, unfairly implied that the nation’s law-abiding hunters were “vicious destroyers of game and natural resources.” He asked Disney to add a foreword to the film explaining that it is a fantasy and is not representative of American sportsmen.

猎人们对斑比的反对声音甚至在电影上映前就开始了。在一场电影预映后,《户外生活》杂志主编Raymond J. Brown给迪斯尼发去了电报,指出春天猎鹿是违法的。他认为电影很不公正地暗示那些遵纪守法的猎人们是”游戏规则和自然资源的邪恶破坏者。”他要求迪斯尼在影片中加上前言说明该片是虚构的,并不代表美国的户外运动爱好者。

Receiving no satisfaction, he tried to have the film’s distributor force Disney’s company to attach a foreword to the him. When this failed, he condemned the film as an insult to American sportsmen and called upon the nation’s hunters to rally to their own defense, confident that they would have the last laugh.

没有得到满意答复的他试图通过电影经销商强制迪斯尼在片中加入前言。再次吃了闭门羹后,他指责该影片是对美国户外运动者的冒犯,并组织全美猎人们进行集会游行来捍卫自己的权利,俨然以为他们会笑到最后。

Commenting on the flap, the managing editor of Nature Magazine wrote that “few rod and gun editors who have rushed into print on Mr. Brown’s say-so” had probably even seen the film. For his part, though, he could not “believe that any real sportsman or conservationist will regard himself as the prototype of the invisible man in Bambi. As for the rest, we do not care what they think.”(11)

《自然杂志》的总编辑对此评论道,”个别争着印刷Brown先生讲话的枪械编辑大概根本没看过电影。在他看来,他不能”相信任何真正的猎人或自然资源保护论者会把他自己当做《斑比》中的隐形猎人的原型。至于别人,我们不在乎他们的想法。[11]”

It is not surprising that some hunters viewed the film as a threat. Public opposition to hunting did not originate with Bambi. Even before the twentieth century many people, particularly those who were economically comfortable, appreciated the grace and beauty of deer and regretted seeing them killed. This attitude became increasingly widespread in the late nineteenth century. An 1887 primary school reading lesson, for example, told of a child’s delightful encounter with deer and ended with the hope that “the hunters will not find those deer.”

不出意料的是一些猎人把该电影看做一个威胁。然而公众反对狩猎并非源于影片《小鹿斑比》,其实早在20世纪之前反狩猎就存在,尤其是那些经济条件优越的人,他们不忍目睹那些优雅美丽的梅花鹿被猎杀。反狩猎在19世纪晚期就有得到广泛传播。以一篇1887年的小学课文为例,讲述了一个小孩奇遇小鹿并希望”猎人找不到那些小鹿们”。

Disney provided a morality play and a national symbol that became touchstones for opposition to hunting. For example, although public outcries against killing does were not new, Bambi fueled the fire. In 1943, the year after the film was released, Aldo Leopold pressed for an antlerless deer season to control an overpopulated Wisconsin herd by reducing both its size and its rate of reproduction. Public opposition killed the proposal. Both Susan Flader and Curt Meine have suggested that Bambi played a role in shaping public opinion on the issue. (12)

迪斯尼则奉上了一出道德大戏和一个民族符号,并成了反狩猎运动的标杆。例如,虽说公众反狩猎的诉求并不新鲜,但”斑比热”成了助燃剂。1943年,电影上映后,Aldo Leopold提议设立”无茸猎鹿季”【编注:狩猎季或狩猎许可分两种,一种只允许猎杀有茸鹿,另一种允许猎杀无茸鹿】来减少鹿群规模并控制生育率以控制威斯康辛州泛滥的鹿群。公众的反对扼杀了此议案。Susan Flader和 Curt Meine 都表示斑比在改变公众观念中发挥了作用[12]。

“Take Bambi’s mom. Please …,” recently urged a columnist addressing similar issues in Sports Afield. He complained that, whether from a misplaced sense of sportsmanship and sentimental reluctance to kill females or a fixation on antlered trophies, hunters are themselves responsible for much of the opposition to policies that encourage shooting does. Some of these hunters, he suggested a bit facetiously, “still felt responsible for Bambi’s losing his mom.”(13)

“朝斑比妈妈开枪吧……”近日一位急切的专栏作家在《野外运动》表达了相似的观点。他抗议道,无论是因为运动精神的错位以及情感上难以接受猎杀雌性,还是对战利品鹿角的迷恋,狩猎者们自己应该对那些针对鼓励猎鹿政策的反对意见担负主要责任。他调侃地说道,在这些狩猎者中有人”仍然觉得自己要对斑比妈妈的死负责。”[13]

Over the years, “Bambi” has become almost synonymous with opposition to hunting. “Naturally,” wrote Field & Stream columnist George Reiger, “once Bambi is raised in status from mere deer to Jesus Whitetail Superstar, man’s hunting of deer becomes a crime comparable to the persecution of Christ.”

多年来,”斑比”的名字几乎就等同于反狩猎。《原野与河流》杂志专栏作家George Reiger写道,”自然而然,一旦斑比的地位从单纯的小鹿一跃成为’鹿中救世主’,人们猎杀鹿就和迫害耶稣的罪行相提并论了。”

The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that, “A poll taken by supporters of a June ballot measure that banned mountain lion hunting in California found that people reacted more negatively to the lions when told that they regularly kill deer than when informed that lions had mauled a couple of children.” Although the public may have responded to the mauling as little more than isolated incidents, the executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy concluded that “there was a real Bambi constituency out there.”

《旧金山纪事报》近来报道,”由加州反对捕猎美洲狮的支持者在六月发起的投票调查显示,比较人们在得知美洲狮会常常猎鹿和被告知美洲狮伤害儿童这二者的反应,被调查的人显然对前者反应更为负面。”虽然公众认为美洲狮伤人事件仅仅是独立事件,但圣塔莫尼卡山林管理委员会负责人断定”这儿有一群真正的斑比拥趸。”

“After seeing ‘Bambi,’ nobody wants to kill a deer,” commented an Institute for Advanced Study scholar regarding efforts to reduce the size of the deer herd on the institute’s New Jersey grounds. On the same issue, Peter Benchley, author of Jaws, called the deer “wretched, sickly creatures starving to death” and lamented, “If only they didn’t have those saucer eyes and Walt Disney behind them. The Bambi complex seems to have taken over around here.”(14)

普林斯顿高等研究院的一位学者就在该研究院土地上缩减鹿群数量的努力进行评论时说,”看了《小鹿斑比》后,没人愿意猎鹿了”。【编注:除校园之外,普林斯顿高等研究院管辖着589英亩林地、湿地和牧场。】《大白鲨》的作者Peter Benchley哀叹道:”若非那水汪汪的大眼睛和背后的迪斯尼,鹿只是不幸的、孱弱的正在挨饿的生物”,”而现在’斑比情结’似乎已经取而代之成为主流了”[14]。

The “Bambi complex,” “Bambi factor,” and “Bambi syndrome” are three terms used interchangeably for sentimental, sympathetic attitudes toward wildlife, especially deer. They are usually used derogatorily and reflect a backlash against the humane, antihunting, and preservationist values, and the excessive sentimentality that Bambi has often come to symbolize.

“斑比情结”、”斑比因素”和”斑比综合症”这三个词汇互相通用,用来形容这种对野生动物尤其是鹿的滥情和过分同情心。它们常带贬义,用来表达对人道主义、反猎杀、动物保护主义价值观以及斑比常常象征着的过分感情用事的强烈反对。

Anthropologist Elizabeth Lawrence found that, “Ranchers invariably ‘love deer,’ both by their own admission and the observations of wildlife personnel, who call this mystique ‘the Bambi complex.’… Cattlemen are very proud of the fact that in winter they willingly let deer eat from their haystacks, ‘even with the high price of hay.”’

人类学家伊丽莎白·劳伦斯发现,”牧场主们都’热爱鹿’,这不仅被他们自己所承认,也被野生动物相关工作人员所观察到。此种神奇的现象被称作’斑比情结’……在冬季农场主们让鹿群吃他们的干草堆并为之感到骄傲,即使那些干草价值不菲。”

National Park rangers also refer to visitors’ willingness to treat wild bears as if they are tame storybook animals, or to oppose the use of controlled fires as a management tool because they may injure some animals, as manifestations of the Bambi complex. People who oppose hunting have been diagnosed by those who support hunting as suffering from the Bambi complex. “They anthropomorphize these animals and exhibit the brightness akin to a 10 watt lightbulb,” wrote one such diagnostician.“(15)

国家公园守林员指出很多游客倾向于把野生熊当做故事书中那些驯服的动物来对待,或者反对使用管制枪支进行公园管理,因为这可能会伤害到动物,而这也可以看做”斑比情结”的表现形式。狩猎活动的支持者们将那些反对者诊断为患上了”斑比综合征”。”他们把动物进行人格化,如同10瓦的灯泡一般散发着人性的光辉,”一个诊断医师这样讽刺道。[15]

The anti-Bambi backlash is generally associated with people who support hunting or who view the issue as more complex than do those “suffering” from the Bambi factor/complex/syndrome. It can also be seen in the black humor voiced by the owner of a herd of fifteen hundred deer on his New York venison farm. He worried that the “Bambi syndrome” might cut into his market, but “[w]hen asked how he can possibly kill such beautiful animals, his response was: ‘They’re much easier to eat when dead.”

“反斑比逆流”基本上由那些支持狩猎的人推动,或者是那些认为该问题远比”斑比因素/斑比情结/斑比综合症”患者所认识的要更为复杂的人。”反斑比逆流”也出现在的黑色幽默中。一位拥有1500头鹿的纽约农场主担心”斑比综合症”也许会影响他的经营,但”当被问及他如何能狠心杀害这样美丽的动物时,他回应道:’死的鹿吃起来更方便’。”

The backlash is perhaps best symbolized in the film Bambi Meets Godzilla, which makes no reference to hunting.(16) This short bit of animation consists of little more than an idyllic, cute image of Bambi grazing peacefully in the meadow until suddenly and without warning a gigantic reptilian foot descends from the sky, squashing the fawn. End of film.

“反斑比逆流”的顶峰要算是”斑比遇上哥斯拉”这部丝毫未提及猎杀的长度不足两分钟的 动画短片[16]。该片一开始展示的仅仅可爱的斑比在草场平静进食的田园风光,直到突然间一只巨大的哥斯拉之脚从天而降将小鹿压得粉碎。全片结束。

There have been many satirical jabs at people suffering from the Bambi syndrome. A magazine article titled “Should They Shoot Bambi” began with a full page illustration of Bambi standing in the sights of a hunter’s rifle, with Thumper watching aghast. “Whether or not starving deer feel pain,” wrote the author Ted Williams, “will likely be debated until one of them, other than Bambi, speaks.”

对于”斑比综合症”患者的嘲讽挖苦的段子无数。某杂志中一篇名为《他们应不应该射杀斑比》文章开篇以一整幅插图描画斑比站在猎人的来福枪口下,而一旁是看得呆若木鸡的小灰兔。作者泰德·威廉姆斯写道,”饥饿的鹿能否感到痛苦这一问题很可能会被他俩讨论,直到他们当中不是斑比的那个开口为止。”

Williams was writing about animal rights activists who had argued that starvation is painless. This was part of a controversy over the use of hunting to reduce an overpopulated herd of white-tailed deer on the Crane Memorial Reservation in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The controversy led to a number of tongue-in-cheek articles using and abusing Bambi.

威廉姆斯评论的是当时动物权利激进分子们”饿死并不痛苦”的说法。当时人们正在对是否应该用打猎来控制马塞诸塞州伊普斯维奇的Crane纪念保护区过度繁殖的白尾鹿数量进行争论。该争议导致当时很多口水文章过度消费斑比。

The Boston Globe published a hypothetical conversation among Bambi, Thumper, and Flower in response to an opponent of the hunt who proclaimed, “I’d rather see [the deer] starve to death than shot.” An emaciated Bambi explained to his friends that he was starving because there were too many deer and the population had grown beyond the reservation’s carrying capacity. His mother was already dead, not by hunters’ guns, but killed by pet dogs when she was too weak from starvation to run. “Why are you sitting?” Flower asked, “Fawns don’t sit.” “I’m too weak to stand,” said Bambi. “I think I’ll lust sit here for a few days until I fall over and die.” And he did.“(17)

波士顿环球报发表了一篇文章描写了发生在斑比、小灰兔和花花之间的一场假想对话,来回应那些声称”我宁愿看着鹿饿死也不扣扳机”的猎人。对话中瘦弱的斑比对自己好友说他饥饿是因为鹿群数量太大,已经超越草场的牧养极限。他的妈妈已经死去,但不是被猎人的枪所害,而是饿得跑不动而被宠物狗杀害。’你为什么要坐下啊?’花花问,’鹿不是不能坐吗?’ 斑比回答:’我饿得站不起来,我想我得在这儿坐着休息几天,直到死去。’之后他确实这样死了。[17]

Another, more lighthearted contribution was a response to the proposal that the problem be solved by administering contraceptives to the deer herd. Science writer Chet Raymo concocted a conversation between Bambi and his father.

另外更令人捧腹的是,对通过使用避孕药来控制鹿群数量这一提议,科学作家切特·雷默在回应文章中杜撰了一段斑比和他爸爸的对话。

“Bambi,” the Old Stag said, “It’s time we talked about the birds and the bees.”

爸爸:”斑比,是时候来给你谈谈鸟和蜜蜂(birds and bees,意指生殖器,即性教育内容)了。”

“The birds and the bees,” Bambi responded, “I often talk to Magpie, Jay and Owl. They tell me lots of things. I know all about the birds and the bees.”

斑比:”‘鸟’和’蜜蜂’,我常常和Magpie(喜鹊), Jay(松鸦) and Owl(猫头鹰)交流。他们给传授了很多东西,我涨了很多姿势。”

“Hmm,” muttered the Old Stag, “That’s not what I had in mind.”(18)

爸爸(沉思道):”额...这和我想得不太一样。”[18]

In some cases, the backlash against Bambi has even grown to encompass the whole environmental movement. A strongly negative review of Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature, for example, appeared in Forbes. The reviewer wrote that McKibben “yearns to return to a nature ‘independent’ of mankind.” But, he argued, independent nature produced the bubonic plague and “bound most of mankind to stoop labor. But never mind: People like McKibben and his admirers weren’t raised on history but on a Walt Disney view of nature. For McKibben, nature is solely a ‘sweet and wild garden.’ Hi there, Bambi.“(19)

某些情况下,反斑比潮甚至发展为一场全面的环保运动。例如,福布斯杂志上面甚至出现一篇对 比尔·麦克吉本《自然的终结》一书言辞激烈的负面评论。评论人这样写道,麦克吉本”渴望回归独立于人类之外的自然。” 然而真正独立的大自然产生黑死病,”自然让几乎所有的人类弯腰劳作。但这也没事儿,像麦克吉本这样的人和他的追随者不是立足于历史,而是活在迪斯尼描绘的自然观里(行文者其实就是要贬低麦克吉本和他的拥趸刻画为迪斯尼的托)。对于麦克吉本而言,自然仅仅是个’甜蜜而狂野的花园。’(作俏皮状打招呼) 嗨,斑比。”

What Disney did to Bambi

迪斯尼对斑比做了什么

What is the “Disney view of nature?” Does Bambi actually present a terribly distorted view of animal behavior and woodland ecology? Walt Disney and his staff went to great lengths to present an accurate representation of deer and other wild animals in Bambi. In an effort to ensure accuracy in the film’s backgrounds, he had an artist spend six months sketching forest scenes in Maine’s Baxter State Park.

“迪斯尼眼中的自然”是什么样的呢?斑比是否呈现的是一种对动物行为和林地生态极为扭曲的态度呢?沃特迪斯尼和他的员工用心良苦地在《小鹿斑比》中呈现鹿和其他野生动物的准确形象。为了确保电影背景的准确性,他派出一位画家花了六个月在缅因州巴克斯公园丛林中素描场景。

A pair of fawns, named Bambi and Faline of course, was shipped from Maine to Disney’s California studios where they became models for his artists, who underwent special training in drawing wildlife. Bambi, a Black Forest roe deer in Salten’s book, thus became a white-tailed deer in Disney’s film. The task of animating accurately the movements of four-legged deer as they walk, lie down, and get up, and of maintaining correct perspective for a rotating rack of antlers as a buck moves his head was daunting. The film set a new standard for naturalistic realism in animated films.(20) The “April Showers” segment, for example, ends with an image of ripples radiating from the last raindrops to fall on a pool of water. The splash of the raindrops is accurate even to the momentary central pillar that rises when the drop hits the water, although viewers must slowly advance their Bambi video frame by frame to notice it.

一对鹿的幼崽,理所当然地被命名为斑比和Faline,并从缅因州被运到了迪斯尼所在的加利福尼亚工作室,成为接受过特殊野生动物绘画训练的画家的创作模特。就这样,斑比这个原本在Salten原著中的一头黑色野生狍(矮鹿)从此成为了迪斯尼影片中的一头白尾鹿。准确描绘鹿的各种行为——包括行走、躺下、起身、在鹿动脑袋的时候保持正确的透视以展现鹿角的角度旋转——是令人敬畏的工作。该片为自然主义的动画片树立了新的行业标杆[20]。例如,影片”四月阵雨”部分,以最后一滴雨落入一汪水中所泛起的涟漪结尾。我们甚至可以清晰看见水珠落水瞬间所形成的水柱,当然观影者必须缓慢地一帧一帧地播放影片才能发现这些细节。

Disney, like Salten, tried to establish a relationship between Bambi and his father while respecting the biological fact that male deer do not form a lasting bond with females and do not participate in rearing the young. This is why the Great Prince remains a loner, aloof and uncommunicative. Bambi’s father stands on the distant rock ledge because a buck would not be present at the birth of his offspring. In Salten’s Bambi even Bambi and Faline are only temporary mates. Although Disney’s version does not progress beyond their first mating season, Bambi joins his father on the ledge when Faline gives birth. Nevertheless, for the sake of the story both Salten and Disney set a limit to authenticity and anthropomorphize deer by establishing a caring relationship between father and son.

迪斯尼和Salten一样,试图在尊重雄鹿不饲育后代且无固定配偶的生物规律的基础上在斑比和他父亲之间建立起某种情感联系。这也是为什么老王子始终是个独行者,少言喜静。电影中斑比的父亲远远站在巨石边,这是由于雄鹿不会现身于子嗣出生现场。在Salten的书中的斑比,斑比和Faline也只是暂时的伴侣。虽然迪斯尼的动画版本的内容没有超出他俩的第一次交配期,当Faline生下斑比的子嗣时斑比还是同他父亲一起站在了巨石崖边。尽管如此,为了赋予故事真实性和拟人化,Salten和迪斯尼都对父亲对孩子关爱的刻画张弛有度。

Disney, however, changed the nature of this relationship. The ability of Bambi’s father to live a solitary life, to appear without warning, and then to vanish into the forest, are keys to his survival. To be visible is to be vulnerable. Bambi’s maturation in Salten’s story is a process of learning the lessons of survival. “If you live, my son,” his mother explains, “if you are cunning and don’t run into danger, you’ll be as strong and handsome as your father is sometime, and you’ll have antlers like his, too.”

然而迪斯尼改变了这层关系的性质。斑比父亲独自生活,贸然出现,接着又消失在森林之中,这些对他的生存至关重要。可见即可害。斑比的成长与成熟在Salten的书中是一个学习生存课程的过程。斑比妈妈说道:”孩子,如果你活下来的话,你得足够机灵,避开危险,不久之后你将会成为和你父亲一样强壮和英俊,你也会有和他一样的鹿角。”

Bambi’s father, the Great Prince, achieved his stature by surviving to become the oldest and wisest of the deer. In Salten’s book, the Great Prince is a teacher who passes his survival wisdom on to Bambi. He teaches mostly by example, but also with words. His first words to Bambi come at a time when the fawn is alone, crying for his mother. The stag suddenly appears and scolds, “Can’t you stay by yourself? Shame on you!”

斑比的父亲,伟大的森林之王,通过生存技能达成到如此地位并成为长者和智慧的雄鹿。Salten的书中,森林之王是一个传授斑比生存指南的老师。他主要靠身体力行来授课,有时也加以解释。第一次他对斑比说话时是在斑比独自一人哭闹着找妈妈时。雄鹿(斑比爸)突然出现并怒斥道:”你难道不可以一个人待一会儿吗?我都替你害臊。”

Bambi learns his lessons well and eventually becomes as skillful and solitary as his father; he learns “the most vital lesson of the woods: ‘Be alone’.” These lessons in survival come full cycle years later when, at the very end of the book, old Prince Bambi comes across a pair of fawns crying for their mother. “Can’t you stay by yourselves?” he scolds.(21)

斑比很好地习得了该技能,并且最后成为了一个和他父亲一样独立、精明的人;他学会了”丛林法则最重要的一条:’独处’“。这些生存功课在多年之后圆满循环。在该书结尾,已经年长的王子斑比偶遇一对嗷嗷待哺的小鹿哭着找妈妈,然后他怒斥道:”你们不能自己一边待着去吗?”[21]

In his effort to wrest a coherent plot out of Salten’s episodic novel, Disney did away with the cycle of survival lessons and replaced it with the cycle from Bambi’s birth to the birth of his own children. In the process, Disney made Bambi’s father primarily a protector rather than a teacher and turned Bambi and Faline’s love story into the film’s central plot. It is a story of childhood’s end as Bambi matures from an awkward child, who continually falls down, into a buck who must learn to stand up for himself and for his mate. This is best symbolized when he lies shot and in the path of the forest fire and his father appears and urges, “Get up, Bambi. Get up. You must get up.”(22)

迪斯尼为了从原著中洗炼出流畅的剧本,以斑比出生再到斑比孩子出生作为一个循环,代替了原著中生存课程的传授。在此演变中,迪斯尼俨然把斑比父亲塑造成了的一个保卫者而非原著中的老师形象。而且还把Faline和斑比的爱情故事写成了主要情节。这是一个关于童年的故事,以斑比从一个青涩的、不停摔倒的小孩开始,到他变得成熟并为一个真正的雄鹿并学会为自己和同伴争取权利而结束。最好的象征场景就是当他在丛林大火的小径中趴下,父亲突然出现鼓励他:”站起来斑比,站起来,你必须站起来。”[22]

“All too often, animal books are highly emotional, over-sentimental stories of creatures who act amazingly like humans,” pointed out the teacher’s guide accompanying a Walt Disney Educational Products record album of Bambi. “Although the animals in Bambi speak, they still retain their animal characters, and the portrayal of their way of life is scientifically true. From Bambi, children learn accurate information as well as feel deep concern and tenderness for the characters.”

“关于动物的书籍大多写得非常感性,动物都拟人化且故事感情泛滥”,迪斯尼教育产品中与斑比专辑配套发行的教师指南这样指出。”虽然影片中斑比作为动物可以说话,他们仍然是动物身,而且对于他们生活方式的表现形式是符合科学依据的。孩子们从斑比身上准确地获取了影片要传达的信息,并且深深地为角色担心、怜悯。”

However, the same teacher’s guide included an absurd picture of Bambi staring at a family of opossums hanging by their tails from a tree limb.” In the film, Bambi meets these improbable opossums during his first walk. The forest fire segment even shows an opossum finding safety on the island, with her children hanging by their tails from her tail! Although opossums are capable of hanging by their tails, this is not a preferred behavior and they certainly do not sleep hanging by their tails.(24)

但是,同样是这份教师指南却包含了一个斑比盯着一大家子负鼠用尾巴倒挂在树枝上的奇怪画面。”影片中,斑比第一次学步就遇到了这些不合时宜的负鼠。森林火灾场景中还展现了一只负鼠和她的孩子们在岛上安然无恙的画面,此时孩子们用尾巴吊在她的尾巴上!虽然负鼠可以用尾巴把自己倒挂起来,这并非他们的习性,而且他们也绝非用尾巴倒挂着睡觉[24]。

Nevertheless, this bit of nature fakery appears again and again in children’s books based on Bambi, even in spin-off books minimally connected with the movie.(25) The film and books have done more than anything else to perpetuate this folklore. The Disney Stores are even selling coffee mugs emblazoned with this scene.

然而,这点虚构的情结一次又一次地通过斑比出现在儿童书籍中,甚至在一些与原著大相径庭的衍生版本中都存在[25]。影片与衍生书籍对这些错误信息的流传更是极尽所能推波助澜。迪斯尼商店甚至还在销售映着此场景的咖啡马克杯。

The film is an extraordinary work of animation artistry. On another level, it is an odd mixture of beautiful, impressionistic backgrounds, naturalistic forest and wildlife images, and classic Disney cartoon characters. Virtually all of the film’s birds are cartoon fantasies. Friend Owl can even turn his head completely around two or more times without choking to death or breaking his neck. The artists give Bambi antlers in springtime; fanciful appendages necessary to help the viewer distinguish his sex from Faline’s. Bambi’s touted authenticity is severely limited. The film is faithful to visual, artistic accuracy in the general appearance and movements of many of its animals, not to a scientific or ecological accuracy. Even the visual accuracy is compromised for the sake of cuteness: for example, the more traditional cartoony cuteness of Thumper and Flower, and the tail-hanging opossums.

本部影片可算得上动画界极为上乘的作品。从另一个层面讲则是印象主义的背景与自然主义的森林以及野生场景和经典迪斯尼卡通角色的迥异混搭之美。影片中几乎所有鸟类都是卡通杜撰。斑比的朋友猫头鹰甚至可以把脑袋转两圈以上而不扭坏脖子或窒息而死。艺术家们在青春期就给了斑比鹿角;这样毫无根据的画蛇添足是为了让观众能够分辨出斑比和Faline的性别。电影在真实性方面能值得称赞的地方极为有限。影片忠于动物的外貌、动作和视觉效果,在生态学和科学方面欠佳。甚至为了看起来可爱,视觉准确度上都沦陷了:例如,片中过多的传统卡通式可爱:小灰兔、花花和用尾巴倒挂着的负鼠。

In short, despite their efforts to be accurate, Salten’s original version of Bambi underwent a transformation as Disney and his staff reshaped it to fit a different medium, their own sensibilities, and a mass market. In the process much of Salten’s ecological and moral subtlety were winnowed away. From the start, what attracted Disney to Bambi was its potentially interesting cast of characters. It was the director/producer Sidney Franklin and the artist Tyrus Wong who managed to educate Disney and his staff to appreciate the artistic and poetic potential of the story. Nevertheless, Disney realized that to win the viewing public’s attention he had to provide an upbeat story with sympathetic animal characters. The spotted fawn has long been recognized as a particularly cute and attractive image. This image of cuteness has become so popular that even adult deer are sometimes mistakenly shown with spots.(26) Disney, however, had a well-tested technique for carrying cuteness to an extreme.

简言之,Salten原著中的斑比经历了一次转型。尽管迪斯尼的工作人员想要达到准确(动作、形象),他们重塑斑比来满足荧幕的、他们自己的、以及大众市场的需求。在此过程中,Salten原著中许多生态学和道德微言都被过滤掉了。起初,吸引迪斯尼的就是斑比这个潜在的有趣的角色。导演兼制作人的西德尼·富兰克林和美术指导泰勒斯·黄对迪斯尼的员工进行了指点让大家欣赏故事中潜在的艺术感与诗意。不过,迪斯尼也意识到了要赢得大众的关注必须得有一个含有值得同情的动物角色的欢乐故事。剧中幼鹿(斑比)从出生开始就被公认是一个特别可爱并有吸引力的形象。这种可爱的形象变得非常流行甚至成年鹿有时被误认为是小鹿[26]。然而是迪斯尼通过使用自有纯熟的技术将可爱发挥到了极致。

Both Salten and Disney gave their characters distinctive personalities. However, Disney’s medium required that he accomplish this quickly and visually, and the film lost much of the subtlety of Salten’s novel. His artists habitually exaggerated the size of their cartoon characters’ heads and eyes and reduced their muzzles, thus giving them the proportions of human infants.

Salten的原著和迪斯尼都赋予了独特的人物性格。但是动画这一媒介需要速成、直观的性格塑造,所以影片失去了Salten原著中许多微妙之处。迪斯尼的设计师们习惯性地夸张地放大他们卡通人物的头和眼睛,缩小他们的鼻口,以此来赋予动物们以人类婴儿的比例。

Initially, Disney’s staff had tremendous difficulty rendering the deer in Bambi as sympathetic personalities capable of dramatic expression because they were trying to draw them too realistically. They finally solved the problem by reverting to some of their standard cartoon techniques. “A smaller muzzle and much larger cranium,” wrote two of the supervising animators, “finally created the new design and made all of the expressions available to the animators.” Note the difference between the preceding description and the photograph accompanying this article. Young Bambi’s head became almost as large as the rest of his body. (One of Disney’s artists called him “little pumpkin-head.”) Disney’s artists also added exceptionally large white eye patches surrounding and exaggerating his enormous eyes.

起初,迪斯尼的员工们在构建一个让人怜悯、拥有戏剧性表情的斑比原型时困难重重,因为他们画得太逼真。他们最终通过复古部分卡通技术使问题迎刃而解。

“小鼻口,大脑门儿,最后终于创作出了新的版本满足了动画家所需要的表现形式”,两位动画监制写道。请注意前面的描述和本文附带的照片之间的差异。年幼的斑比的头几乎和身体一样大(一位迪斯尼的艺术家叫它”小南瓜头”)。迪斯尼的艺术家们也额外添加一大圈眼白来夸张地表现它的大眼睛。

“With a huge head dwarfing its trunk and a pair of oversized eyes with pupils and lashes,” writes anthropologist Elizabeth A. Lawrence, “Disney’s Bambi arouses sympathy and nurturance and a sense of parenthood toward this relatively sociable species that sometimes responds to human attention.”(27) This technique of manipulating the viewer’s emotions is also used in “motel art” paintings of sad-eyed puppies, kittens, and human waifs. Similarly, the large eyed, anthropomorphic face of baby harp seals help to motivate efforts to prevent their slaughter.

另一位人类学家Elizabeth A. Lawrence写道:”大头,矮化的躯干,一对带着瞳孔和睫毛的大眼睛,迪斯尼小鹿斑比唤起了人们的同情心和抚养欲,对这种时而对人类的关注可以做出反应的生物产生了一种发自本能的父母之爱[27]。”这种操控观众情绪的伎俩同样运用在”汽车旅馆艺术”画作中,如忧伤的小狗小猫和流浪儿。同样,大眼睛,拟人化的娃娃脸对预防竖琴海豹被屠杀出了力。

No wonder that Bambi, Thumper, and Flower win our sympathy; they display the features that elicit our nurturing sympathy for human children. Disney’s Bambi relies on the child Bambi to win viewer sympathy. Although Bambi was an antlered buck through half of Salten’s book, he remains a fawn through three quarters of the film. It is not surprising that most people picture only a cute, vulnerable fawn when they think of Bambi.(28) On a subliminal level, the Disney version of Bambi motivates opposition to hunting, in part, by representing deer visually as surrogate human children.

难怪小鹿斑比、灰兔和花花赢得了我们的同情。它们显现出的一些特质引发了人类的舐犊之情。迪斯尼靠孩童斑比俘获观众的同情。虽然斑比在Salten半本原著中都是成年雄鹿,但他在四分之三的影片中都是小鹿。所以大多数人的想象中斑比只是一个可爱又脆弱的小鹿就不足为奇了[28]。在潜意识层面,小鹿斑比的迪斯尼版本推动反狩猎靠的是在某种程度上通过视觉将鹿呈现为人类小孩的替代品。

Disney also presents a distorted image of woodland ecology, one in which all animals live at peace. For example, Friend Owl, who appears to be a great homed owl, is Thumper’s and Flower’s friend. Apparently great horned owls do not consume their normal quota of rabbits and skunks in Disney’s forest because Disney’s world is a world without predation. In the world of Disney’s Bambi, all wild creatures are friends. Children’s books based on the film, including spin offs only loosely tied to the film, perpetuate this image of nature.

迪斯尼还呈现了一种扭曲的丛林生态形象,在这样的丛林中所有动物都和平共处。例如,朋友猫头鹰看起来是一只不错的驯化猫头鹰,是灰兔和花花的朋友。这显然是因为迪斯尼是一个没有捕食行为的世界,因此巨角猫头鹰也不会像通常那样食用迪斯尼森林里的兔子和臭鼬。在迪斯尼小鹿斑比的世界里,所有的野生动物是朋友。基于影片的儿童衍生读物包括一些与电影鲜有关联的作品,都不断加深迪斯尼式的自然形象。

For example, a recent children’s activity book shows all creatures, predators and prey alike, in happy proximity. It even has Bambi and Thumper asking a friendly fox for travel directions. Predation does appear in one spin-off book when a fox tries to make a meal of Thumper. Bambi and his father save the day. This rare appearance of predation is placed within a very clear moral framework, however. Flower describes it as “a very mean fox,” and it is obvious that the fox is morally flawed. But what alternative has the fox? Predation must be akin to original sin in this moral universe.(29)

例如,近来一些儿童活动书籍传达的讯息就是所有的生物——天敌和猎物无异——悠然共处。甚至还出现斑比和灰兔向一只”友好”的狐狸询问旅行路线。在衍生读物中确实有一幕狐狸尝试把灰兔做午餐,但斑比和他父亲救了兔子。然而,出现这种鲜有的捕食是在非常明确的道德框架内的。花花(臭鼬)称它为”一只很卑鄙的狐狸”,而很明显,狐狸在道德上是有缺陷的。但是,狐狸有的选吗?捕食几乎等同于迪斯尼道德世界中的原罪[29]。

The Disney version of life in the woods stands in sharp contrast with that of Felix Salten, which presents a far more ecologically and philosophically complex vision of nature. Although Salten’s vision has its own limitations, comparing the two underscores the trouble with Disney’s. Salten’s Bambi found a very different world when, during his first walk in the forest, the fawn heard something rustle in the foliage.

迪斯尼版与Felix Salten原著中描述的丛林生活有鲜明的差异,后者构建了一个在生态和哲学上远更复杂纷繁的自然。虽然Salten的视野有其局限性,但相较之下迪斯尼的局限就严重多了。Salten原著中斑比在第一次在丛林中学步的时候听到有东西与树叶从中发出沙沙声。这时斑比发现了一个非常不同的世界。

“A thread-like, little cry shrilled out piteously; then all was still…. A ferret had caught a mouse. He came slinking by, slid sideways, and prepared to enjoy his meal.”

Bambi asked, “What was that?”

but his mother answered only, “Nothing.”

”‘But,’ Bambi trembled, ‘but I saw it.’

‘Yes, yes,’ answered his mother. ‘Don’t be frightened. The ferret has killed a mouse.”

’ When Bambi asked, “Shall we kill a mouse, too, sometimes?”

“No,” his mother reassured him, “Because we never kill anything.”

“一个凄凉长久的刺耳的尖叫,随后归于平静……一只鼬抓了一只老鼠。它潜行,开溜,并准备美餐一顿。”

斑比问:”发生了什么?”

但他的母亲只答道:”没什么。”

斑比颤抖道:”但是,但我看到了。”

“是的,是的,”他的母亲应道。”别怕,只是鼬杀死了一只老鼠。”

斑比:”我们偶尔也能杀死一只老鼠吗?”

“不,”他母亲再次安慰他说:”因为我们从来不杀生。”

George Reiger has argued that this conversation underscores the book’s failure as a life history, because the mother avoided the whole issue of death by saying deer “never kill anything.” Also, she did not explain that ferrets must kill to live. She implied, he wrote, “that such creatures have a choice–like man.” It seems more reasonable, however, to interpret her response to Bambi’s questions as an effort to calm her very young child, who will soon learn more about such things. Reiger also noted that, “because even foliage talks to itself in Bambi and apparently has a soul, if not an afterlife, Bambi does ‘kill things’ by eating grasses and later destroying shrubs while thrashing the velvet from his antlers.”(30)

George Reiger认为这段对话让本书作为生命的历史书来说是浓重的败笔,因为用”从不杀生”斑比妈妈逃避了死亡这一话题。况且,她并未解释鼬必须吃掉老鼠才能存活。George Reiger写道,斑比母亲暗示了这些生物如同人类一样可以选择是否杀生。但如果把她这些回应斑比的话理解成一个母亲对年幼的孩子的安慰就合理多了,而小斑比很快就将对这样的事有了更多了解。Reiger还指出,”因为在影片中树叶都会自言自语而且显然有自己的灵魂,那么如果树叶没有灵魂转世,斑比吃草包括随后因为摩擦自己未成熟的鹿角上的 鹿茸而毁坏了灌木这些行为就是杀生。”[30]

Nevertheless, Salten’s Bambi lives in a world in which the food web is a very active presence. The mouse’s death was not an isolated incident. During a winter that produced far more suffering than Disney’s, “the crows fell upon Friend Hare’s [the original model for Thumper’s] small son who was lying sick, and killed him in a cruel way. He could be heard moaning pitifully for a long while.” In other incidents a fox killed a pheasant, a fox killed a duck, an owl killed a mouse, and a squirrel (that Bambi mistook for its father) explained that its grandmother was killed by a ferret and its father by an owl. These incidents are all presented in almost a casual manner. They are normal occurrences that may cause momentary pain and consternation (“You never know who’s going to go next,” one autumn leaf said to another as they debated the nature of death), but they are neither out of the ordinary nor evil.(31) Predation and death are ever present, independent of Man’s presence, in Salten’s woodland drama.

尽管如此,Salten原著中的斑比生活在一个食物网非常活跃的世界里。老鼠的死并非一个孤立事件。整个冬季期间的苦难远比迪斯尼的多,”乌鸦落在朋友野兔(灰兔Thumper的原型)病躺着的小儿子身上,并且残忍地杀害了它。它痛苦地呻吟了很久。其他”杀生”事件包括狐狸吃野鸡、鸭子,猫头鹰捉老鼠,和一只松鼠(被班比误以为其父亲)说道它的祖母被鼬杀害,父亲被猫头鹰吃掉。所有这些事件几乎都是以轻松随意的方式呈现。他们只是导致短暂痛苦以及惊恐的一种常态,(”你永远不知道谁是下一个”,一片秋叶在和对另一片讨论死亡的本质时说道。)但他们既不是偏离常轨的,也不是邪恶[31]。在Salten的丛林中,捕食和死亡是独立于人类而永恒存在的。

The process of creating the Disney version of Bambi was a process of erosion as the normal and pervasive, although uncomfortable, presence of predation and death emphasized in Salten’s version was omitted or blunted. This process continues in the children’s book spin-offs based on the film. They tend further to reduce the severity of winter starvation. They also have difficulty acknowledging that Bambi’s mother was actually killed.

创造迪斯尼版本的小鹿斑比是一个逐渐侵蚀的过程,因为Salten原著中所强调的虽然令人不适但正常且普遍的捕食和死亡被省略或弱化。以电影为基础的衍生读物也继续着这个过程。他们倾向于进一步降低冬季饥荒的惨烈程度。他们也难以接受斑比妈妈被杀害这一事实。

In two coloring books, for example, Bambi says, “My mother’s gone!” and his father says only, “You’ll live with me now, son.” Another book reports only that “The hunters had caught her,” thus suggesting that she was still alive. A read-along booklet accompanying a Bambi audio tape omits any reference to the incident.

例如,两本儿童彩色书籍中小鹿斑比说”我妈妈不见了!”他的父亲却只是说”你从现在就跟我住一起,儿子。”另一本书仅提到”猎人抓了她。”从而暗示她还活着。另一附带原声磁带的读物略去了所有与斑比母亲被杀的相关内容。

As another example of this process, one children’s book ends with a picture of Bambi in an anthropomorphic family setting with Faline and their fawns, rather than off on the distant hill.(32) As a result, Salten’s sharp, naturalistic vision of woodland life is degraded into a fantasy of nature cleansed of the traumas and difficulties that may trouble children and that adults prefer to avoid.

作为这一侵蚀过程的另一实例,一本儿童读物故事结尾斑比、Faline和他们的子嗣竟然被拟人化地组成了美满家庭,而非原著中斑比伫立在远方山崖的结局[32]。Salten锐利的自然主义丛林生活被降级成了不会让孩子们揪心让大人们逃避的没有伤痛和困难的幻想故事。

One wildlife biologist has argued that despite its shortcomings Disney’s film is really quite accurate in its representation of deer ecology, and that it presents a strong argument in favor of using hunting as a tool to manage deer herds.(33) In the film neither Bambi nor Faline has brothers or sisters. This presents a problem, since deer usually give birth to more than one fawn. Their mothers must have been under some sort of stress that caused them to produce only single births.

一位野生动物学家则持另一种看法:尽管有其短板,但该片对鹿的生态呈现得相当准确,因为影片提出了使用狩猎作为管理鹿群的有利依据[33]。在影片中斑比和Faline都没有兄弟姐妹。问题就在于此,因为通常鹿是一胎产多子。所以他们的母亲一定是因为某种压力导致只产单胎。

The evidence, he argues, was in the meadow. On Bambi’s first visit he saw a great many stags in the meadow, evidence of an overpopulated deer herd. Malnourishment must have led to the single births. During the winter, Bambi and his mother could find food only by stripping bark from high in the trees. This is a sure indication that the size of the herd had exceeded the carrying capacity of its range. Although the film blunted the severity of the winter’s hardships, many deer in that overpopulated herd must have starved. However, starvation and the toll taken by hunters must have brought the herd back down to a reasonable size, thus reducing the stress on individual deer. The evidence? As the film ended Faline gave birth to twins.

他认为证据就是在草场上。在斑比的第一次到访草场时,他看到了大量的鹿在草地上,证明鹿群数量过剩。营养不良很可能导致单胎。在冬季,小鹿斑比和他的母亲只能通过剥离地面很高的树皮来寻找食物。这个迹象明确地表明鹿群规模超出了草场的承载能力。虽然影片减弱冬季的严酷,但是在这个过剩的鹿群中必定会有鹿饿死。然而,饥荒和猎人的猎杀也能把鹿群降到一个合理的规模,从而减少对个体的压力。证据就是电影结束时Faline生下了一对双胞胎。

This is an interesting argument that has biological merit, but Disney never intended the film to be open to this interpretation. Although this argument may tease animal rights activists, it is simply not apparent to the film’s viewers. Disney’s is a “Sunday school” vision of nature as a place without stress, conflict, or death. The sole exceptions are the difficulties of winter, which the film acknowledges but minimizes, and the short period of conflict between bucks during the mating season (they are friends at other times). The state of nature is a simple, uncomplicated, romantic state of happiness and virtue–an escapist fantasy. Disney did not create his audience’s desire for such fantasies, but he did feed it. In short, he presented nature as an earthly Eden. There is, however, no place for humans in this garden.

这是一个具有生物学价值的有趣说法,但是迪斯尼从未打算为电影赋予这层诠释。虽然这种说法可能戏谑动物权利主义者,而对于电影的观众却没那么显而易见。迪斯尼的影片要营造的是一种就像”主日学校”般没有压力、冲突或死亡的大自然。个别的例外是片中承认了的但被弱化处理了的冬天的严酷,以及雄鹿交配季节期间的冲突(他们在其他时间的朋友)。自然的状态是一个简单不复杂的、浪漫、幸福以及和谐的状态——逃避现实的幻想。迪斯尼没有刻意制造观众对这种幻想的渴望,但的确助长了这种渴望。总之,他把大自然呈现为一个俗世的伊甸园。然而,在这个花园里却没有人类的位置。

Bambi and the Problem of “Man”

小鹿斑比与”人类”的问题

Humans, although never seen in the film, are the sole source of evil in the Disney view of nature. “‘Bambi’ does have a more vivid sense of evil than any other Disney film,” wrote a movie reviewer, “perhaps because the evil isn’t personified…. The warning issued by Bambi’s mother–‘Man is in the forest’- has the compacting force of a phrase from Brecht.” Another reviewer called this line memorable and intimidating, and recalled that it “still creates shudders.” No wonder that People Weekly listed “Man” among the top movie “Hot Heavies” adding, “That’s the hunter who kills the hero’s mom–the ultimate in dastardly deeds.”(34)

即便从未真正现身,人类却是迪斯尼眼里大自然中邪恶的的唯一来源。 一位影评人写道”‘小鹿斑比’中的确比其他迪士尼影片更生动地诠释了邪恶,也许是因为邪恶没有人格化……斑比母亲发出的警告’人类来丛林了’有着布莱希特(德国戏剧家,诗人)式一语惊人的魄力”。另一个电影评家称此句台词令人深省且有威慑力,并回忆道”仍然让人不寒而栗”。难怪《人物周刊》列出的本片中所以”人”的形象,并称,其中”那正是杀死了英雄的母亲的猎人——极其卑劣的行为”[34]。

Hunters not only kill Bambi’s mother, they also kill the woodland creatures indiscriminately, their dogs attack Faline, and their fire ravages the forest. The fierce, hungry flames that devour the forest and its creatures become a surrogate for Man that continues and subliminally magnifies the hunters’ destructive hunger for the lives of Bambi and his friends.(35) Hunters are represented virtually as a satanic force. Disney adds to this impression by using crows, circling and cawing ominously over the forest, as dark harbingers of Man.

猎人不仅杀了斑比的妈妈,他们也不加区分地杀丛林里的生物,他们的狗攻击Faline,他们放的火摧毁了森林。而毁坏森林和生物的熊熊烈火成为人类的替身,下意识地放大了猎人对斑比和他的朋友们的极具破坏性的渴望[35]。猎人几乎被妖魔化。迪斯尼通过乌鸦在森林上空盘旋发出不祥的鸣叫加强了这一印象,乌鸦成了预示人类到来的黑暗前兆。

Salten’s version of Bambi also presents hunters as objects of fear, perhaps even more than did Disney. Salten’s hunting scenes are far more terrifying. Disney protected his viewers from the full force of the horror of Salten’s major hunting episode, transforming Salten’s wave of panic into a forest fire that appears only in the film. However, Salten represents “Man” not as satanically evil, but as a powerful force of godlike proportion. “Man” is always capitalized, just as one capitalizes “God.” In Salten’s book, Man is both a force to be feared and a puzzle. In the children’s books based on Disney’s Bambi, Salten’s “Man” becomes “MAN.” The awesome word spoken both with wonder and fear in Salten’s book thus becomes virtually a scream in Disney’s.

Salten原著也把猎人呈现为恐惧的对象,甚至比迪斯尼有过之而无不及。Salten书中的狩猎场面则更加可怕。迪斯尼为了让观众免于被原著火力全开的恐怖狩猎情节所吓到,把Salten的一波波恐慌转化为了一场只出现在电影中的森林火灾。然而,Salten描绘的”人”并非十恶不赦,却像是拥有神一般力量的存在。原著中”人(Man)”总是大写,正如”上帝(God)”这个词一样。在Salten的书中,人既是令人生畏的力量也是谜团般的存在。基于迪斯尼小鹿斑比的儿童读物把Salten的”人(Man)”变成了大写的”人(MAN)”。这个炫酷的词汇在Salten原著中包含着神奇和恐惧,但在迪斯尼的影片中却只能引发恐惧尖叫。

Bambi and the other creatures try to understand the nature of Man. They watch, they speculate, and they fear. A crow observed that, although she often saw Man, “no one can explain Him.”(36) The problem of Man is one of the book’s central themes, a problem that Bambi must solve in his effort to learn the lessons of survival.

小鹿斑比与其他生物试图了解人的本性。他们观察、推测,同时也惧怕。乌鸦发现虽然她经常看见人,但是却无法看透”他”[36]。人的问题是本书的核心主题之一,斑比必须要努力解决该问题才能学习到生存之道。

At one point, when the deer have gathered together during the long winter, they discuss the nature of Man. The aging deer, Old Nettla, hates Man, saying “He is loathsome!” But young Marena offers, “They say that sometime He’ll come to live with us and be as gentle as we are. He’ll play with us then and the whole forest will be happy, and we’ll be friends with him.” Old Nettla heatedly scoffs at such youthful idealism. “Friends with Him! He’s murdered us ever since we can remember, every one of us, our sisters, our mothers, our brothers! Ever since we came into the world He’s given us no peace…. And now we’re going to be friends with Him. What nonsense!” Nevertheless Marena persists, “‘Love is no nonsense,’ she said. ‘It has to Come.’”(37)

漫长冬季的某天,鹿群聚集在一起讨论起人类的本性。老鹿Nettla讨厌人类,他说:”人类可恶!”但年轻的Marena 说:”他们说,有天他会来和我们住在一起,并且和我们一样温顺地对待彼此。他会和我们一起玩,我想整个森林会很欢乐,我们也会跟他成为朋友。”老Nettla激烈地嘲弄了如此幼稚的理想主义,”和他成为朋友?从我们能够记事开始,他就已经对我们展开了杀戮,没人能幸免,我们的姐妹,我们的母亲,我们的兄弟!自从我们来到世上他就让我们不得安宁……现在我们却要跟他做朋友?胡说八道!”然而Marena仍然坚持,她说”爱是本来就是不讲理的,该来的始终会来的”[37]。

With this dialogue Felix Salten framed a critical question for his readers. Is human nature mutable or is it fixed? Can humans make peace with the deer? Salten does not present an easy answer. The reader could see that Faline’s brother, the weakly fawn Gobo, was not able to survive the harsh winter, and his life appeared to be shortened only a little more quickly when he lost his strength and was unable to flee the hunters. But Gobo reappeared in the summer. He had been rescued by the hunters, nursed back to health, and released. He had, however, lost his fear of Man and trotted out to meet his human friends during the next hunt.

Felix Salten用这段对话为他的读者设计了一个关键的问题:人的本性是可变还是不变的?人类可以和鹿和平共处吗?Salten没有给出一个简单的答案。读者可以看到,作为Faline的弟弟,柔弱的小Gobo无法在苦寒中生存,当他失去力气再也无法逃脱猎人的追赶时,他的生命也仅仅是消亡得快了一点点而已。但Gobo再次出现在夏季,他被猎人救了,并且康复后再放归森林。经历过这些以后,他放下了对人类的恐惧,并且提出想在下次狩猎过程中与人类朋友见一面。

It was a fatal mistake. “Gobo lay with his bloody entrails oozing from his torn flank,” and when the hunters reached him the other deer “heard Gobo’s wailing death shriek.” The hunters could give both life and death, a power proclaimed by a hunting dog in his argument with a fox he was about to kill. “He’s all-powerful,” the dog shouted exultantly. “He’s above all of you. Everything we have comes from Him. Everything that lives or grows comes from Him.”(38)

这是一个致命的错误。”当Gobo躺在那,血淋淋的内脏从他的侧腹撕裂处一点一点地渗出”,当猎人走到他的身边,其他的鹿听到Gobo哀号着发出死亡般的惨叫声。猎人可以掌控生死。 猎狗向嘴下的狐狸表明他的观点,”人类有随时杀你的能力,人类无所不能,”狗张扬喝道,”他是你们的王。我们现在拥有的一切来源于他的恩赐。万物生死都由他决定。”[38]

The climax of Salten’s novel comes when Bambi learns that what the dog had said was wrong. His father brought him to see the corpse of a poacher lying against a tree. The bullet wound in his neck “gaped like a small red mouth. Blood was oozing out slowly.” “He isn’t all-powerful as they say,” his father explained. “Everything that lives and grows doesn’t come from Him. He’s lust the same as we. He has the same fears, the same needs, and suffers in the same way. He can be killed like us, and then He lies helpless on the ground like all the rest of us, as you see Him now.” Bambi pondered upon this lesson and concluded, “There is Another who is over us all, over us and over Him.”(39) With this final lesson the old stag’s work was done. His responsibility to Bambi was over, and he went off to die. The lesson, of course, was intended for Salten’s readers. Humans and deer, he was arguing, are equal before the eyes of God.

Salten小说的高潮部分在小鹿斑比明白猎狗所讲是错的时候到来。他的父亲带他去看一个偷猎者躺靠在树上的尸体。在他脖子上的枪伤”伤口开得像一张鲜红的嘴,鲜血慢慢渗出来。”“他并非他们口中说的那样无所不能,”他的父亲解释说。”万物生长并非来自他的恩赐,他和我们一样有欲望,有恐惧,有各种需求,并且所遭遇的痛苦也一样。他也可以像我们一样被杀掉,然后无助的躺在地面像我们所有生灵一样,就是你现在看到的这个样子。”小鹿斑比思考着,并得出了一个结论:”一定还有另一个谁在俯瞰着我们所有生灵,俯瞰着我们,俯瞰着人类。”[39]上完最后一课,老公鹿的使命已完成。他对小鹿斑比的责任也尽于此,可以安心离开并死去。当然这个故事是为了让读者明白:不管是人类和鹿,在上帝面前都是平等的。

Walt Disney intended to conclude his version of Bambi with this powerful scene and argument against hunting. It was to be the climax of the film. Bambi and his father were to find the corpse of a dead hunter amid the charred remains of the forest, killed by the fire caused by his own carelessness. But Disney’s staff were unsure how to present a “real” death, rather than a fanciful or fairy tale cartoon death, in a way that was acceptable to the audience. They tried one version on a test audience and “four hundred people shot straight up into the air” when the corpse appeared. Thus ended Disney’s efforts to bring a philosophical conclusion to the film. All that remains of Salten’s powerful scene in the Disney version is the symbolic departure of the old stag, leaving Bambi on the mountain side overlooking Faline and her fawns.(40)

迪斯尼本打算用强大的动画场景和反狩猎主题来结束斑比的故事。整部影片的高潮正是小鹿斑比和他的父亲在一片烧焦的森林中发现一具因开枪走火而丧生的猎人的尸体。但迪斯尼的工作人员不知如何呈现一个”真实”的死亡,而不是天马行空或童话卡通般的同时又是观众可以接受的方式。他们做了一个测试版本给一部分观众先看,当尸体镜头出现时”400多人都不敢直视”。迪斯尼便打消了做一个充满哲理的结局的念头。所有Salten原著中犀利的场景,能留在迪斯尼版本中的只有标志性的老鹿的离去,留下小鹿斑比在山崖边,俯瞰Faline和她的子嗣[40]。

The Trouble with Bambi

小鹿斑比的议题

Both Felix Salten and Walt Disney represent humans as intruders whose presence disrupts the Edenic forest garden of nature. However, it is not a human nature-lover whose contemplation of the garden is disrupted by the intrusion of hunter and gun. Nor is the viewpoint that of a frontier father hunting to feed his family or a sportsman seeking a trophy. Instead, the reader and audience are shown nature as experienced by the forest dwellers, the objects of the hunt. It is not the presence of the machine that disrupts this garden, but the presence of the human.(41)

Felix Salten和迪斯尼都把人类作为扰乱伊甸园般森林的入侵者。然而,花园被猎人和枪的入侵破坏的构图并不是一个人类自然爱好者的想法,靠狩猎来养活家人的父亲和竞逐奖杯的运动员也同样不会这样想。读者和观众的所看到感受到的是森林里的居民和狩猎的目标们的视角。扰乱了伊甸园的并不是机器,而是人类的存在[41]。

Despite this similarity, Salten’s and Disney’s versions of Bambi differ in their treatment of this theme. Both versions appear to represent biocentric views of nature. The test of their biocentrism, however, lies in the faithfulness of their fictional animals to the reality of their biological counterparts. Disney’s Bambi falls this test even when granted the wide latitude that is appropriate for children’s fiction.

尽管有这些相似性,Salten的小鹿斑比和迪斯尼的版本在对待这个主题上仍然有所不同。这两个版本似乎都代表自然的生物中心主义的观点。但其生物中心主义的考验,在于他们虚构的动物是否忠于现实中的生物原型。即使考虑到迪斯尼的斑比因为需要适合儿童小说的要求而应有更广阔的发挥空间,它也是不合格的。

Salten’s Bambi presents a poetic vision of woodland life and a powerful statement against hunting. Although he humanized his animal characters, they live in a world of complex ecological relationships that includes the ever present reality of death by predation and winter starvation, as well as by the hunter’s gun. Humans often bring death, as do other creatures in the forest, but Salten presents humans as a problematic force, rather than as an unmitigated evil. His Bambi offers some hope, however remote, that we may be able to establish a more gentle relationship with nature. People may, depending on their own views, praise or condemn his position on hunting. Regardless, Felix Salten should be commended for conducting his morality play on a naturalistic stage.

Salten的斑比诗意地呈现出森林生活,给出了强有力的反狩猎声明。虽然他把动物角色拟人化,但他们生活在复杂的生态关系中,其中包括有捕食而造成的死亡和冬季饥荒,以及猎人的枪口。人类往往会带来死亡,森林中其他生物也一样,但Salten把人类呈现为一种可以带来麻烦的力量,而非十恶不赦。他的小鹿斑比带来一丝尽管渺茫但依然存在的希望,那就是我们人类也许能够与大自然建立更加柔和的关系。人们可以根据自己的观点赞扬或谴责Salten对待狩猎的态度。无论如何, Felix Salten在自然主义舞台进行了一场道德演绎,这值得被赞誉。

Walt Disney’s Bambi is an extraordinary work of cinematic art that also evokes a poetic vision of nature and makes a strong antihunting statement. It presents, however, an extraordinarily one-sided view of nature and of people. There is no predation in Disney’s forest. With few exceptions–Bambi, his mother, a few birds, and the rabbits–the animals do not eat at all. Although winters may be harsh, death comes only by the hand of Man, an evil force in the world. Disney did not set out to present this as his philosophical view of nature. Instead, Salten’s complexities were whittled away in the pragmatic process of shaping the story for a visual medium and a mass market. Financial problems also forced Disney to cut the length of the film by nearly a third.(42) As a result, the story lost its ecological and philosophical depth, but the film gained an aesthetic elegance and simplicity that have earned it a reputation as one of Disney’s finest works of art.

迪斯尼的小鹿斑比是一部非凡的电影艺术作品,同时也唤起大众对诗意的大自然的想象,成为了强烈的反狩猎宣言。然而它对自然和人的看法是极其单方面的。在迪斯尼的丛林中没有捕食。除了少数如小鹿斑比、他的母亲、几只鸟和兔子以外,其他的动物们完全不进食。虽然冬天可能会非常艰难,但只有人类这个迪斯尼世界上的邪恶力量才会带来死亡。迪斯尼并没有特意将此作为他的自然哲学观而突出。相反,Salten故事的复杂性,在为了塑造故事视觉效果和迎合大众市场的制作过程中被削弱了。财政问题也迫使迪斯尼近剪掉了三分之一电影的长度[42]。因此,虽然这个故事失去了生态和哲学深度,但电影在美学上的优雅和简洁使它作为迪斯尼最优秀的艺术作品之一享有盛誉。

Nevertheless, what gives the film artistic elegance also gives it ecological shallowness. Bambi is not unique in its lack of ecological sophistication, and despite its shortcomings it is a joy to watch. However, the film was praised for establishing a new standard of naturalistic realism for its medium, including scientific accuracy. Its problems are compounded by the film’s enormous popularity and the Disney corporation’s tremendous, sustained success in bringing it to a mass market. The marketing of Bambi has also been the dissemination of a vision of nature, and its success also marks the success of that vision.

然而,给予电影艺术风采的东西也同时让电影在生态学上表现浅薄。斑比并不是唯一失去生态学复杂性的角色。尽管有这样的不足,观看电影仍然是享受的。不过,影片被称赞为媒体树立了自然现实主义的新标准,包括科学的准确性。电影的巨大成功和迪斯尼公司的大体量,让影片经久不衰并广泛传播,使得问题持续发酵。小鹿斑比成功的营销也让电影所呈现的自然观被广泛传播,而电影的成功也标志着这一自然观的成功。

Marketing Disney’s Bambi

迪斯尼小鹿斑比的营销

Bambi was not the first wild animal character to capture the attention of the American public. Naturalistic stories and books sympathetic to the perspective of wild animals were first published nearly fifty years before Bambi appeared in theaters. Jack London’s dog, Buck, triumphed in winning freedom in the Alaskan wilderness and leadership of a wolf pack. Charles G. D. Roberts’s Red Fox raised his family and learned how to avoid hunters and traps. Ernest Thompson Seton’s wolf, Lobo, symbolized wild cunning and devotion to one’s mate. Seton’s stories, in particular, have been read, reread, and continue to be read by generations of children and adults. However, no other wild animal character achieved the stature of Walt Disney’s lovable fawn. No others have been so carefully shaped to appeal to a mass market or so successful in capturing the hearts and wallets of the nation.

小鹿斑比不是第一个受到美国公众关注的野生动物形象。最早从同情野生动物的角度出发的自然主义故事和书籍在小鹿斑比被搬上大荧幕将近50年前就出版了。杰克·伦敦的狗,巴克,在阿拉斯加荒野上带领一群狼赢得自由。查尔斯·G·罗伯茨的红狐狸喂养了他的家人并学会如何避免猎人和陷阱。欧尼斯特·汤普森·西顿的狼,洛波,象征着野性的狡黠和对同伴的忠诚。尤其是,西顿的故事仍然被一代代人传阅,不论儿童或成人。然而,没有其他野生动物的角色能获得迪斯尼的可爱小鹿的地位。没有其他动物被如此精心塑造以吸引大众市场,并在俘获国民的心和钱包上如此成功。

The film received its world premier at the Radio City Music Hall on 12 August 1942. The following week, on 21 August, Disney released it for distribution via RKO Radio Pictures. it was generally well received despite some reviewers’ difficulty in adjusting to an animal cartoon without zany characters and slapstick humor. (“Mickey wouldn’t be caught dead in this,” complained one critic.) The film did not recover its production expenses, however, and was considered a financial failure.

该片于1942年8月12日在无线电城音乐厅迎来它的全球首映。一周后,8月21日,迪斯尼公司通过RKO影业把该动画分销到各个影视公司。除了个别评论家’难以适应动物卡通形象没有滑稽的特点和闹剧式的幽默’以外,大多数观众都觉得很不错。 (”米老鼠才不会在电影里被弄死”,一位评论家抱怨着说。)但这部电影当时没有收回其成本,无论如何都被认为是一个财务上的失败案例。

Nevertheless, subsequent releases following World War 2 made the film one of the industry’s great money makers. Based on total rental fees paid to distributors through 1988, Bambi earned $47,265,000. By comparison, Casablanca, also released in 1942, earned $4,145,178 during the same period. Only two films released between 1939 and 1969 had accumulated more rental income by the end of 1988: Gone with the Wind (1939), and The Sound of Music (1965). Gross sales during this time, estimated by Disney at $490 million, are even more impressive. In the last six months of 1988, the film’s latest rerelease grossed $38.1 million .(43)

然而在第二次世界大战后的放映让该片成为了摇钱树。按1988年间代理所支付的版权费推算,小鹿斑比获得了4726.5万美元的利润。1942年同一时期上映的卡萨布兰卡,只赚得了414.5178万美元。积累到1988年底为止,只有两部在1939年到1969年间上映的影片,即1939年的《乱世佳人》和1965年的《音乐之声》在版权收入上超过小鹿斑比。在此期间迪斯尼的毛利总额更达到了令人印象深刻的4.9亿美元。在1988年下半年,这部电影的最近一次重映获得了3810万美元的毛利润。

These figures do not include income from the video version of Bambi. In 1989, Disney launched an aggressive marketing campaign for Bambi and Roger Rabbit videos at a combined cost of $60 million. A senior Disney/Buena Vista executive called it “the largest [marketing] program ever in home video.” The campaign included marketing tie-ins with Crest Toothpaste and M&M candies. Sixty percent of the initial release of ten million units of the Bambi video were shipped to mass outlets, such as K-Mart and Target. Finally, nearly fifty years after its premier, Bambi was first broadcast on television, via the Disney Channel, of course, on Sunday, 3 February 1991. The broadcast was repeated seven other times that month, and we are bound to see it on television again in the years to come.(44)

这些数据还不包括《小鹿斑比》影视录像产品的收入。1989年,迪斯尼以6千万美元的投入为《小鹿斑比》和《兔子罗杰》录像做了大规模的市场营销活动。一位迪斯尼/博伟影业的高管称之为”史上最大的家庭视频市场推广项目”。该活动还同时联合佳洁士牙膏和M&M糖果的营销。一千万份小鹿斑比首发录像的百分之六十被运至众多店铺,如Kmart和塔吉特百货。最后,在首映近五十年后,《小鹿斑比》首次通过迪斯尼频道在电视上播出,时间则理所应当是在1991年2月3日星期天。动画片在当月其它时间重复播放了七次,相信在今后的岁月里我们仍会反复看到它[44]。

It is fair to say that Bambi has become an inevitable part of the childhood education of most people in America and in many other parts of the world. As a result of Disney’s aggressive promotion, merchandising, and licensing enterprises, many children meet Bambi long before they see the film. Throughout the 1940s Disney used these mechanisms to bring Bambi to the public’s attention and keep it there, and also to ensure a steady flow of collateral income. In 1941, the year before the film was released, a Bambi comic book giveaway was distributed through Horlick’s Malted Milk and toy stores

可以说,小鹿斑比已经成为大多数美国人和世界其他许多地区人们的童年教育中不可或缺的一部分。作为迪斯尼积极营销、商业推广和企业授权的成果,很多孩子都是在看到电影前就已经认识斑比了。整个四十年代迪斯尼利用这些商业手段把小鹿斑比带进公众的视野,并让它牢牢抓住大家的注意,同时还能保证自己持续盈利。在1941年,即电影上映前一年,小鹿斑比漫画书通过在好立克麦乳精店和玩具商店分发。

A BambiSunday comic strip began running in newspapers on 19 July 1942, a month before the film was released, and continued to 4 October. RCA Victor released a three record set based on the film. Dell Publishing Company released a Walt Disney Bambi comic book in the same year and another in 1948. A Thumper comic book also appeared, as did Bambi’s Children, a comic book based on Felix Salten’s sequel to Bambi.

一栏名叫BambiSunday连环画从1942年7月19日也就是电影首映的一个月前开始在报纸连载,并持续连载到10月4日。RCA Victor公司发布了关于电影的三份录音。多本根据Felix Salten的小鹿斑比的续集相继面世,同年戴尔出版公司发布了迪斯尼小鹿斑比漫画书,在1948年又发布了另一部。基于Salten的续作的有关灰兔Thumper ,以及斑比的孩子们漫画,也出现了。

In addition, the 1940s saw the publication of at least nine other Bambi books based on the original Salten story, the Disney film, or characters from the film. At least three manufacturers produced a variety of ceramic figurines based on Bambi, Thumper, and Flower. One company produced a set of Bambi children’s dinnerware (plate, bowl, mug, and pitcher), and Bambi lovers could purchase their own Ingersoll Bambi wristwatch. In 1947, the New York Graphic Society advertised full color prints of scenes from Bambi.(45)

不仅如此,四十年代见证了其它至少九个基于Salten原著故事或者迪斯尼的电影和人物而改编的斑比相关的故事书。至少有三个厂家生产各种以斑比、灰兔(Thumper)和花花(Flower)为主题的陶瓷玩偶。一个公司生产了小鹿斑比儿童餐具套件(盘、碗、杯和水壶)。斑比爱好者还可以购买自己的英格索尔品牌的斑比手表。1947年,纽约图形学会制作了小鹿斑比的全彩色印刷作品[45]。

More books and other products continued to appear as the years passed. From 1950 to the present dozens of books, not to mention such items as an alarm clock, a lamp, and stuffed toys, based on Disney’s Bambi have appeared in addition to new editions of Salten’s classic novel. These include coloring books, a “scratch-and-sniff” book, children’s introductory “A-B-C” and counting books, new comic books, ViewMaster 3-D reels, and new stories based on the Disney Bambi characters. A video comprised of clips from various Disney films was released for the Christmas market. It included the Bambi segment with Bambi and Thumper playing on the ice, opportunistically called “Bambi’s first Christmas Day.”

时间流逝,更多的书籍和其它产品不断出现。从1950年到现在有几十本书得以出版,更不用说除了各种Salten的经典小说新版出版外还有基于迪斯尼斑比的闹钟、台灯和毛绒玩具层出不穷。那些书包括各种上色书、一本”擦嗅”的书、给孩子介绍”A-B-C”和计数的书籍、新的漫画书、虚拟现实体验以及基于迪斯尼斑比形象的新故事。针对圣诞节市场迪斯尼发布了一段来自不同迪斯尼电影片段编辑的视频剪辑,其中小鹿斑比的片段是斑比和灰兔在冰面上打闹的情节,迪斯尼机会主义地把它称为”斑比的第一个圣诞节”。

Recorded versions of the Disney story continually appear on records and tapes, a number of film strip versions have been produced for classroom use, and Disney now markets packages that include a Bambi audio cassette and “read along” books for elementary school reading programs. Disney Educational Products has mined Bambi for a variety of educational offerings, including a film and video based on Bambi’s first, memorable walk. The advertisement promises, “An encouraging lesson for youngsters who must overcome embarrassment at failure or fear of trying is demonstrated as the newborn Bambi tries to walk and talk for the first time.” In addition, new Bambi character ceramic figurines and stuffed dolls, posters, books, and other items are sold through a growing national chain of well over one hundred Disney stores.(46) The presence and influence of Disney’s Bambi has been and remains pervasive.

迪斯尼故事的音像版本不断出现在唱片和录音带上,一些胶片版本已经使用在课堂上了,而现在迪斯尼推销包括斑比录音带以及包括与小学阅读课程配套的”伴读”书籍的套餐。迪斯尼教育产品已利用斑比开发各种教育课程,包括基于斑比令人难忘的初次学步经历的影片和视频资料。该广告承诺”这是一个为青少年定制的鼓励课,专门为了让青少年们克服失败的尴尬和恐惧,就像刚出生的斑比第一次学走路和说话一样。”另外,新的斑比形象的陶瓷玩偶和毛绒玩具、海报、书籍和其他物品通过全国一百多个迪斯尼连锁商店同步出售[46]。迪斯尼斑比的存在和影响力一直持续着。

The Impact of “Bambi” on American Culture

“小鹿斑比”对美国文化的影响

The name Bambi has become a part of our language and is often used as a synonym for “deer.” Examples abound. “Look,” a parent will tell his or her child on spotting a deer, “there’s Bambi!” When an orphan fawn wandered into an Iowa barnyard, the family raised it and named it Bambi. A Los Angeles Times article about radio tagging deer was titled, “Now, Bambi has a Beeper.” When a Virginia game warden placed a stuffed deer beside a road to catch hunters illegally shooting from their cars, newspapers dubbed the operation “Bambi scam.” Esquire gave a “Dubious Achievement of 1990” award to the hunter whose shotgun fired, killing him, while he was clubbing a deer with it. The magazine announced this honor under the score, “Bambi 1, Asshole 0.”(47)

班比的名字已经成为我们语言的一部分,通常被用作 “鹿”的同义词。示例不胜枚举。”瞧,”父(母)会告诉他(她)正在看一只鹿的的孩子 “那就是斑比(鹿)!”当一头孤儿小鹿流浪到爱荷华州的一个谷仓前,主人会把他养在家里,并把它命名为斑比。关于无线电标记鹿的新闻事件,《洛杉矶时报》的文章的标题是,”现在,斑比有一个BP机了”。当弗吉尼亚州狩猎监督官把鹿标本放在公路上,然后”钓鱼执法”抓那些在从车上非法射猎的猎人,报纸把该行动冠以 “斑比骗局”。《时尚先生》把”1990年度可疑成就”奖颁给了一个在用棍子打小鹿时不小心擦枪走火射死自己的猎人。该杂志宣布了这一荣誉时给出了比分,”斑比得分1——混蛋得分0”[47]。

Bambi has also become synonymous with something soft and sentimental, even wimpy. An article in Art News told of a group of Native American artists who were “outspokenly opposed to the more lyrical, nostalgic and even, as they maintain, ‘Bambi-like’ traits of so much Indian arts around and before them.” In a 1988 speech supporting the Dukakis/Bentsen presidential campaign, Senator John Glenn said, “Lloyd Bentsen believes that when other countries take advantage of us, you can’t talk like Rambo and act like Bambi.” Johnny Carson took advantage of the sharp contrast between the images of Bambi and Rambo. Disney was violent enough to kill Bambi’s mother, the comedian offered, but he drew the line at creating “Bambo,” and Carson displayed a drawing of an angry deer returning fire with an assault rifle.(48)

斑比也成为温柔和感伤甚至是懦弱的代名词。《美术新闻》的一篇文章讲述一群美国原住民艺术家”直言不讳地反对很多在他们周围或先于他们存在的印第安艺术带有的更加抒情怀旧甚至用他们的话说是’类斑比’的特点”。1988年参议员约翰·格伦在支持杜卡基斯/本特森总统竞选的演讲中说,”劳埃德·本特森认为,当其他国家占我们便宜时,你不能说起来像兰博和做起来像斑比”。喜剧演员强尼·卡森利用了小鹿斑比和兰博形象的鲜明对比优势,他指出,迪斯尼暴力到足以杀死斑比的母亲,但却反对制造一个”班博”(斑比和兰博的合体),卡森还展示了一幅愤怒的鹿拿着突击步枪还击的画[48]。

The film’s influence has been far-reaching and sometimes quite surprising. Shortly after the film and its forest fire sequence appeared, the Wartime Council used Bambi and his friends in a national poster campaign to promote fire prevention. (Bambi was replaced a year later by the newly invented character Smokey Bear.) The Wall Street journal reported that former daredevil Evel Knievel had become an artist, selling inexpensive limited edition prints based on his paintings on various themes, including Bambi.

这部电影的影响力之深远,有时着实让人惊讶。在电影原作和森林大火续集上映不久后,战时理事会用小鹿斑比和他的朋友们做海报在一个全国海报运动中宣传森林防火。(斑比一年之后被新创造的护林熊代替。)据《华尔街日报》报道,前特技演员Evel Knievel已经成为一个艺术家,售卖一些便宜的个人独家绘画作品的副本,主题宽泛,其中就包括《小鹿斑比》。

A columnist spoofing the National Rifle Association reported seeing “ads for video tapes from the NRA, with the latest tips for Uzi-toting psychopaths. ‘How to Shoot Bambi’s Mother While Bambi’s Watching.’” And, amazingly, actor Kiefer Sutherland told Playboy that Bambi was the first film he ever saw and, he said, “it’s still the film with which I compare everything…. It taught me about–I guess on a broad scale–sexuality. I was in love with Thumper’s girlfriend from the time I was seven until I was ten. She’s got all that eye shadow on and she’s looking real good.”(49)

一位专栏作家嘲弄全美步枪协会说,看到”来自NRA(全美步枪协会)录像带广告给身背乌兹冲锋枪的疯子的最新提示:’如何当着斑比的面击毙他母亲’“。而且令人惊讶的是,演员基弗·萨瑟兰在接受《花花公子》访问时透露,小鹿斑比是他看过的第一部电影,他补充道,”它仍然是我比较一切的标准……我猜想这部电影在广义上告诉了我什么是两性关系。从七岁到十岁我都一直爱着灰兔的女朋友。她画着眼影,看上去美极了。”[49]

More important to the present study, Bambi has made an enduring mark on popular American ideas about the environment. One commentator recalled vividly remembering three things from her childhood viewing of the film: 1) “The extraordinary lyrical beauty of the forest setting;” 2) “The must-touch cuddliness of the major characters;” and 3) “The death of Bambi’s mother.”(50) Its powerful antihunting message, especially the death of Bambi’s mother, left a lasting impression on the public.

对当下研究更为重要的是,小鹿斑比已经在环境问题上对美国流行思想留下了难以磨灭的烙印。一位评论员生动地回忆她童年观影时的三件事情:1)”森林环境非凡的诗意美”;2)”主要角色令人难以抗拒的萌”;3)”斑比母亲的死亡[50]。”其包含的强烈的反狩猎信息,尤其是斑比母亲的死亡,给公众留下了深刻的印象。

“Yes, it’s sappy and sentimental,” wrote a Sierra Club reviewer, but “this 45-year-old lawyer cries at every viewing.” He added that the film promotes “at least a few wistful ecocentric thoughts.” People Weekly, not known as an environmental publication, found that despite its anthropomorphism and “several too many shots of cute, twitching little tails… there is also what amounts to an early pro-environmental message about the havoc wrought in the forest by man’s incursion.”(51)

“是的,有点傻和情绪化”,一个Sierra 俱乐部评论员说,但”(他)这位45岁的律师每次看都会哭。”他补充说,电影宣扬”至少些许伤感的生态中心主义思想。”《人物周刊》,作为一个非环境类的出版物,发现除了电影的拟人化与”过多的可爱图片,和摇曳的尾巴……里头称得上早期亲环境的信息,那就是人的入侵给森林造成了浩劫。”[51]

We are in the midst of a national debate over hunting and our proper role in the forest. It is a complex debate involving a tremendous diversity of perspectives and arguments. At one extreme are people who are defending an American tradition and a way of experiencing nature that is personally fulfilling. They argue that hunting is an essential and humane means of keeping game populations in balance with their environment. At another extreme are those who value the lives of individual wild animals and seek to prevent their destruction, arguing that hunting disrupts the balance of nature. Advocates on both sides profess a keen interest in wildlife protection. Effective action for the benefit of wildlife, however, requires a sound understanding of the natural history and ecology of wild animals, as well as humane values and a deep personal commitment to the cause.

我们正处于一个全国性的关于狩猎和人类在森林中适当角色的辩论中。这是一个复杂的辩论,涉及到极其多样的观点和争论。辩论的一极是那些捍卫美国传统以及依靠自我实现的方式体验自然的人。他们认为狩猎是保持动物种群数量与环境达到平衡的必要且人道的手段。在另一极的人们则重视个体野生动物的生命,并寻求保护它们不受侵害。他们认为狩猎破坏了大自然的平衡。双方都声称对保护野生动物有浓厚的兴趣。然而,对野生动物有益的行动需要对大自然的历史和野生动物的生态有良好的了解,以及人道的价值观和对此项事业深深的个人投入。

It may be that more people have, consciously or unconsciously, based their understanding of deer and woodland life on Walt Disney’s Bambi than on any other single source. Its images and concept of nature have been impressed on the American psyche and reinforced through decades of exposure to the film, its multitude of spin-offs, and Disney’s marketing magic. Bambi has become one of our most widespread and emotionally powerful national symbols of nature, one that motivates deep concern, and dedicated action to protect wildlife.

可能很多人对鹿和森林的了解最主要是基于迪斯尼的电影。通过几十年的观影和海量的电影衍生品以及迪斯尼的神奇营销,电影的影像和它表达的有关自然的概念深入美国人之心。小鹿斑比已经成为全美传播最广也最有情绪感染力的大自然象征,它激起社会深层次的关注和保护野生动物的专注行动。

However, Disney’s Bambi is an empty symbol, because the concept of nature that his fawn represents is impoverished. The film motivates, but does not educate. It may stimulate action, but not understanding. Instead of affirming nature, it represents a flight from the natural world into a comfortable nature fantasy. Ironically, it offers no hope for us poor humans to be anything other than destroyers of the natural world.

然而事实上,迪斯尼的斑比只是个空洞的符号,因为这只小鹿给观众呈现的大自然概念是苍白贫乏的。这部电影激励大众但却不能教育大众。它可能激发行动,但却不能引发理解。它代表着人们对大自然舒适的幻想,但它无法对大自然做出切实的肯定。讽刺的是,除了作为大自然的破坏者,我们这些可怜的人类没有被赋予任何希望。

Nature, symbolized by Disney’s infant Bambi, an infant with endearing human qualities, becomes something fragile and vulnerable. It becomes something that we must nurture and protect. (52) This can be a useful metaphor, given our enormous technological abilities to destroy our environment. However, grave problems lie ahead if we confuse a fetching metaphor with the living reality of deer, other wildlife, or our environment. After all, the challenge we face is to protect real wildlife in a real environment, not the Disney version.

迪斯尼的婴孩斑比象征着自然,它有着让人喜爱的人类特质,却变得脆弱和易受伤害。它成为了一种我们必须培育和保护的东西[52]。考虑到我们极为先进的破坏环境的技术能力,这可以成为一个有用的比喻。然而,如果我们把感人的故事和现实中的鹿和其它野生动物以及环境想混淆,那么我们将面临严峻的问题。毕竟,我们所面临的挑战是在真实的环境中——而非迪斯尼电影中那个——保护现实中的野生动物。

NOTES

Acknowledgments.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Society for Environmental History Conference, Houston, Texas, 3 March 1991. I am grateful to the many friends who shared their own experiences with Bambi and who provided Bambi citations, insights and clippings. I also thank David O. Percy and anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.

致谢

该文的早期版本呈现在1991年3月在得克萨斯休斯敦的美国环境历史学会会议上。我感谢众多分享与斑比相关的经历和为此文提供参考和引述以及见解和材料的朋友。同时感谢David O. Percy以及匿名评判人对该文给予的有用评论和建议。

The Disney Company denied permission to use images from the film to illustrate this paper. Readers are urged to view the video version of Bambi (Burbank, California: Walt Disney Home Video, 1989).

迪斯尼公司不允许我在该文中使用影片中的图像。我建议读者观看斑比的家庭录像版本(Burbank, California: Walt Disney Home Video, 1989)。

  1. Bernard Nietschmann, “The Bambi Factor,” Natural History 86 (August/ September 1977): 84; Eleanor Ringel, “Want to Pat Bambi, Marry Cinderella? A Psychological Profile of Disney Fans,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 24 July 1988, p. M I .

  2. Felix Salten, Bambi (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1928). Bambi has gone through a number of editions and paginations. I am citing the first American edition. Grosset & Dunlap’s Thrushwood Books edition is identical in content and pagination to this first Simon and Schuster edition.

Disney produced other films based on the “Felix Salten” books written by Siegmund Salzmann (1869- 1945). The film Perri was based on Salten’s Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel, and The Shaggy Dog was an adaptation of Salten’s The Hound of Florence. Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, eds., Twentieth Century Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1942), p. 1224, provides biographical information about Salzmann, as does Anne Commire, ed., Something about the Author (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co., 1981), pp. 207-12, who also lists his books.

On Chambers’ love of nature and revulsion at cruelty to animals, see his autobiography Witness (New York: Random House, 1952), pp. 93-95, 114, 117, 123-24, 146-48, 719. Then a Communist, Chambers accepted the job of translating Bambi to augment his meager earnings as an employee of the Daily Worker. Twenty years later, he appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify against Alger Hiss and communism (Witness, pp. 239, 537).

  1. “Screen: Bambi,” People Weekly 30 (18 July 1988): 17. Disney reserved the status of woodland “prince” for Bambi and his father, although all bucks were princes in Salten’s novel. There are no princesses in the one-sided aristocracy of both Salten and Disney. Their bucks and does model culturally stereotyped male and female role models. Selfless mother stays home with the fawns while father, an authority figure, is away most of the time at work on the job of survival. He does show up to offer wisdom at critical points in his child’s life.

  2. David I. Berland has presented a psychoanalytical interpretation of Thumper and Flower. “In addition to Mickey, Donald and Goofy, Disney created another world of animated feature films,” he wrote. “These films contain characters with purely superego traits. They serve as guides, advice givers and teachers. They include Thumper the rabbit and Flower the skunkin Bambi Berland, “Disney and Freud: Walt Meets the Id,” Journal of Popular Culture 15 (Spring 1982): 97.

  3. Disney does not establish this relationship, but in Salten’s novel Bambi’s mother and Faline’s mother are sisters. Thus, Bambi and Faline are first cousins.

  4. “Man,” as used by both Felix Salten and Walt Disney, is synonymous with “hunter(s),” although it can also be interpreted as referring to humans in a generic sense. Man, with a capital M, acquires a concrete identity as a character both in the novel and the film. For this reason, I will use the name “Man” when referring to this character.

  5. Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi: The Story and the Film (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1990), pp. 170-75. Storyboard sketches of the mother being shot appear on pp. 170- 71; Jamie Portman, “Generations Stunned by Death Scene in ‘Bambi’,” Boston Globe, 15 July 1988, p. 32; Charles Solomon, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), pp. 129-30.

  6. Pauline Kael, Going Steady (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown & Co., 1970), p. 225; David Kehr, “‘Bambi’ Handles Emotion with Maturity, Sensitivity,” Chicago Tribune, 15 July 1988, sec. 7, p. L; Stephen King, “A Master of Horror Stories has some Provocative Thoughts about Tots, Terror and TV,” TV Guide 29 (13 June 1981): 8.

  7. Barbara F. Meltz, “The ‘Bambi’ Quandary,” Boston Globe, 12 September 1988, p. 22; Dr. Louise Bates, associate director of the Gesell Institute of Human Behavior, telephone interview with author, New Haven, Connecticut, 3 January 1991; Meltz, “The ‘Bambi’ Quandary,” p. 23; Michael Blowen, “‘Bambi’ Fends with Help from his Friends,” Boston Globe, 24 September 1989, p. B96; “Bambi’s Back and Guess What?” Chicago Tribune, 18 July 1988, sec. 1, p. 10.

  8. William Shear, 17 January 1991, personal communication with author.

  9. Raymond J. Brown, “Outdoor Life condemns Walt Disney’s film ‘Bambi’ as Insult to American Sportsmen,” Outdoor Life 90 (September 1942): 17, 66; Richard W. Westwood, “Battle of Bambi,” Nature Magazine 35 (October 1942): 441.

  10. “What Charlie Saw,” Primary 7 (March 1887): 203; Susan L. Flader, Thinking Like a Mountain, Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves and Forests (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), p. 199; Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988), p. 442.

  11. Thomas McIntyre, “Shooting Bambi’s Mom,” Sports Afield 206 (October 1991): 35.

  12. George Reiger, “The Truth About Bambi,” Field & Stream 84 (March 1980): 17; Maura Dolan, “The Bambi Constituency,” San Francisco Chronicle: This World, 13 January 1991, pp. 14-15; James P. Sterba, “Even A Real Genius Notes that Bambi is a Relevant Factor,” Wall Street Journal, 12 October 1989, p. A10. Reiger’s analysis ofBambi, although sometimes overreaching, is one of the most interesting ones available,

  13. Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, Rodeo: An Anthropologist Looks at the Wild and the Tame (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), p. 254; Angus K. Gillespie and Jay Mechling, American Wildlife in Symbol and Story (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987), p. 6; Comments of a ranger-naturalist at the Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas, 28 February 1991; Kevin M. Wood, “The ‘Bambi Syndrome’ Strikes,” Boston Sunday Globe, 18 December 1983, p. A18.

  14. Dyan Machan, “Bambi and the Baron,” Forbes 144 (11 December 1989): 300; Bambi Meets Godzilla, by Marr Newland, is included among the satirical films collected on video, Hardware Wars and other Film Farces (Burbank, California: Warner Home Video, 1983).

  15. Ted Williams, “Should they Shoot Bambi?” Boston Magazine 76 (November 1984): 179, 248; Alan Richman, “Shedding a Tear for Bambi,” Boston Globe, 1 December 1984, p. 69. For information about the Crane Memorial Reservation controversy, see Ralph H. Lutts, The Nature Fakers: Wildlife, Science and Sentiment (Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum, 1990), pp. 200-202,

  16. Chet Raymo, “Birds and Bees and Bambi,” Boston Globe, 25 April 1988, p. 34.

  17. Ronald Bailey, “Hi there, Bambi,” Forbes 144 (16 October 1989): 46.

  18. Johnston and Thomas, supervising animators on Disney’s Bambi project, describe the artistic problem in Walt Disney’s Bambi. Their book includes a large collection of study sketches prepared in the early phases

of the project. See also Janet Martin, “Bringing Bambi to the Screen,” Nature Magazine 35 (August- September 1942): 350-52; the sketches in Adrian Bailey’s Walt Disney’s World of Fantasy (New York: Everest House, 1982), pp. 143-45; and Robert D. Field, The Art of Walt Disney (London: Collins, 1947), fig. 179, p. 241. Field examines the artistic problems of Bambi in detail, especially in pp. 174, 176, 179-83, 196-212, 240-46, 264-66.

  1. Salten, Bambi, pp. 62, 81, anonymous blurb on dust jacket rear end flap (emphasis in original), p. 293.

  2. Kehr, “‘Bambi’ Handles Emotion with Maturity, Sensitivity,” p. L. Some of the children’s books spun off from the film do add the “live alone” lesson to the conclusion of mother’s death scene. In this case, Bambi’s father tells him that his mother cannot be with him and adds, “You must learn to walk alone.” Walt Disney’sBambi, A Big Golden Book (New York: Golden Books, 1984), p. 11. See also Walt Disney, Bambi (New York: Gallery Books, 1989), p. 51; Jan Carr, Walt Disney’s Classic, Bambi (New York: Scholastic, 1988), p. 46.

  3. Bambi: A Listening Story Lesson (Glendale, California: Walt Disney Educational Products, 1970), Record No. LS-6. Walt Disney Educational Products did not respond to my letter asking if they were aware of the problem with the opossums and whether they had any material for teachers to help counteract this misinformation.

  4. Charles W. Schwartz and Elizabeth R. Schwartz, The Wild Mammals of Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1959), p. 21; George H. Lowery, Jr., Mammals of Louisiana and its Adjacent Waters (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974), pp. 63, 64.

  5. See, for example, Walt Disney’s Bambi, A Little Golden Book (New York: Golden Books, 1984); Walt Disney’s the Bambi Book, A Golden Super Shape Book (New York: Golden Books, 1987); Walt Disney, Bambi; Albert G. Miller, Walt Disney’s Bambi Gets Lost (New York: Random House, 1972); Walt Disney’s Bambi: Friends of the Forest, A Little Golden Book (New York: Golden Books, 1975); and “Bambi to the Rescue” in Disney’s Two-Minute Good Night Stories, Mary Packard (New York: Golden Books, 1988).

  6. Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, revised and updated version (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 176; Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, pp. 106-25 ff. See, for example, the “handcarved wood reindeer family” shown in the cover illustration on the Lillian Vernon Corporation (Virginia Beach, Virginia) 1990 Christmas mail order catalog. All three figures, two adults (one with antlers) and a fawn, sport spots. See also the reindeer ornaments in the “CARE Package Catalog: Volume One” (Holmes, Pennsylvania), [Fall 1991].

  7. Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, pp. 123-25, 160; Elizabeth A. Lawrence, “Neoteny in American Perceptions of Animals” in Perceptions of Animals in American Culture, ed. R. J. Hoage (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 72. See also Stephen Jay Gould, “Mickey Mouse Meets Konrad Lorenz,“Natural History 88 (May 1979): 30, 32, 34, 36; Elizabeth A. Lawrence, “In the Mick of Time: Reflections on Disney’s Ageless Mouse,” Journal of Popular Culture 20 (Fall 1986): 65-72; Harold A. Herzog, Jr. and Gordon M. Burghardt, “Attitudes toward Animals: Origins and Diversity” in Animals and People Sharing the World, ed. Andrew N. Rowan (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1988), pp. 79-80.

  8. By page count, Bambi is a fawn through 48 percent of Salten’s book. In contrast, he is a fawn through 73 percent of the length of the video tape of the Disney film, not counting opening credits.

One reason for emphasizing Bambi as a fawn was that Disney’s animators found it difficult to make adult deer “communicate effectively.” “Adult deer still had not proven as successful as hoped, even when animated by the top men.” Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, p. 179. The problem probably flowed from the fact that they tried to draw the adults in a more naturalistic style than the fawns.

  1. A Day in the Forest with Bambi and Thumper, Disney Little Q Storybook (Los Angeles, California: Price Stem Sloan, 1990); Walt Disney’s Bambi: Friends of the Forest (New York: Golden Books, 1975).

  2. Salten, Bambi, pp. 23-24; Reiger, “The Truth About Bambi,” p. 12.

  3. Salten, Bambi, pp. 128, 129, 154, 262-63, 105. Disney intended to include the autumn leaves dialogue in the film, but eventually cut it. All that remains is the image of two leaves falling from a branch just before the winter sequence. Storyboard sketches and dialogue for the Disney leaf scene appear in Field, The Art of Walt Disney, pp. 189-90, 191.

  4. Walt Disney’s Fairy Tales: Four Stories with Activities, A Deluxe Color/Activity Book (Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company, Golden Books, 1987); Walt Disney’s Bambi, A Big Coloring Book (Racine, Wisconsin: Western Publishing Company, Golden Books, 1986); Walt Disney’s Bambi (New York: Derrydale Books, 1988); Walt Disney’s Story of Bambi, audio tape & booklet (Burbank, California: Disneyland/Vista Records and Tapes, 1977). Disney, Bambi (Burbank, California: Walt Disney Records, 1990) has a text identical to the previous audio tape/read-along booklet set, but features new artwork. Walt Disney, Bambi, p. 94.

  5. J. Frederick Milton, presentation at a meeting of the Virginia Chapter of The Wildlife Society, Richmond, Virginia, 8 February 1991.

  6. Kehr, “‘Bambi’ Handles Emotion with Maturity, Sensitivity”, p. M; Philip Wuntch, “Innocence is Eternal in 1942’s ‘Bambi,”’ Atlanta Journal and Constitution, I5 July 1988, P. B2; “Hot Heavies,” People Weekly 30 (8 August 1988): 14.

  7. Walt Disney’s animators were guided by his description of a forest fire as “a very hungry beast that’s out there devouring everything in its way.” Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, p. 165.

The emotional impressions evoked by the fire and the deer’s flight to safety on an island in Disney’s Bambi are similar to, although less horrifying than Red Fox’s flight from a forest fire and escape to safety in a pond atop a beaver lodge in Charles G. D. Roberts’ classic fire scene in Red Fox (Boston, Massachusetts: L. C. Page & Co., 1905), pp. 251-70. It would be interesting to know if Disney or his staff were familiar with Roberts’ forest fire.

  1. Salten, Bambi, p. 125.

  2. Ibid., pp. 120-27. See Reiger, “The Truth About Bambi,” for his analysis of the debate between Nettla and Marena.

  3. Gobo was Faline’s twin brother. He does not appear in the Disney version of Bambi, which portrays her as an only child. Salten, Bambi, pp. 142-48, 193-210, 229-33. In Felix Salten, Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forest Family (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), the sequel to Bambi, gamekeepers also rescued injured deer and released them when they regained their health. Salten, Bambi, p. 275.

Disney had explored including a version of this debate with the dog in the film. It would have appeared as part of the segment when the dogs were pursuing Faline. The woodland animals were to argue with the dogs and try to convince them to give up the chase. Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, pp. 168- 69.

  1. Salten, Bambi, pp. 285-87.

  2. Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, pp. 176-81. Sketches of the dead hunter appear on p. 178.

  3. I am playing with ideas presented by Leo Marx in his book, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (London, England: Oxford University Press, 1964).

  4. Johnston and Thomas, Walt Disney’s Bambi, pp. 181, 183.

  5. Manny Farber, “Saccharine Symphony,” New Republic 106 (29 June 1942): 893-94; see also Schickel, The Disney Version, pp. 267-68; and Kenneth MacGowan, “Make Mine Disney: A Review,” Hollywood Quarterly 1 (194546): 376-77. Elizabeth Leebron and Lynn Gartley, Walt Disney: A Guide to References and Resources (Boston, Massachusetts: G. K. Hall and Company, 1979), p. 25; Susan Sackett, The Hollywood Reporter Book of Box Office Hits (New York: Billboard Books, 1990), pps. 36, 330-33; Dennis Hunt, “‘Roger Rabbit,’ ‘Bambi’ on Video this Fall,” Los Angeles Times, 9 June 1989, part 6, p. 16; Leonard Klady, “‘Bambi’ was Real Box Office Champ in 1988,“Boston Globe, 7 January 1989, p. 14. Rental income figures, the fees paid by theaters to distributors, are the most consistently available data for long term comparisons. Figures for gross sales (box office receipts on ticket sales) are, naturally, higher.

  6. Hunt, “‘Roger Rabbit’, ‘Bambi’ on Video this Fall,”; Rhonda L. Rundle, “Disney to Launch Two Home Videos at $60 Million Cost,” Wall Street Journal, 9 June 1989, p. B3; “‘Bambi’ Making Television Debut Tonight,” Greensboro News & Record, 3 February 1991, p. H2; “Bambi,” Hotel Cable Guide, February 1991, p. 4.

  7. Cecil Munsey, Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974).

  8. Harry L. Rinker, ed., Warman’s Americana & Collectibles, 2d ed. (Radnor, Pennsylvania: Wallace- Homestead Book Co.), p. 168; A Disney Christmas Gift (Burbank, Califorma: Walt Disney Home Video, n.d. [1989]); “Bambi: A Lesson in Perseverance,” Disney Educational Productions, 1990: Film and Video Catalog (Deerfield, Illinois: Coronet/ MTI Film & Video, 1990), p. 29. Most of the information in this paragraph is derived from Library of Congress catalog data, Disney catalogs, and items found in stores.

  9. People Weekly 30 (19 September 1988): 103; Rich Roberts, “Now Bambi Has a Beeper,” Los Angeles Times, 12 April 1989, part 3, p. 8; Clarence Peterson, “In Praise of Passing the Buck,” Chicago Tribune, 8 March 1987, p. T1; “Dubious Achievements of 1990,” Esquire 115 (January 1991): 78.

  10. Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, “Getting Rid of Bambi,” Art News 77 (September 1977): 155; John Glenn, “Featured Speaker,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 22 July 1988, p. C17; Johnny Carson, “Tonight Show,” 28 February 1991, NBC.

  11. Stephen J. Pyne, Fire in America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988), p. 176; Francine Schwadel, “For his Next Stunt, Evel Knievel will jump a Pile of Unsold Prints,” Wall Street Journal, 8 July 1985, p. 15; Howie Carr, “Oh Deer, Time to Dodge Hunters in it for the Doe,” (Boston) Record American, 5 December 1985; “20 Questions: Kiefer Sutherland,” Playboy (October 1990): 125.

  12. Ringel, “Want to Pat Bambi, Marry Cinderella?” p. M1.

  13. Daniel Conner, “We say ‘Two Paws Up’ to these,” Sierra 75 (March/April 1990): 19; “Bambi,” People Weekly 18 (2 August 1982): 17.

  14. See Aaron Honori Katcher and Alan M. Beck, “Health and Caring for Living Things” in Animals and People Sharing the World, pp. 67-68.


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