Buzz
In 2015, Saturday Night Live parodied Disney’s growing obsession with live-action adaptations of beloved animated classics, releasing a mock 'trailer' for a Bambi remake. This high-octane, Fast & Furious-inspired clip features Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson’s Bambi, who leads a team of woodland creatures on a revenge-fueled mission to hunt down the men who killed his mother.
Now, as Entertainment Weekly reports, a live-action Bambi film is actually in production—and while the SNL skit didn’t predict the exact genre, it certainly captured the film's intended dark, mature tone.
ITN Studios and Jagged Edge Productions are currently working on Bambi: The Reckoning, a horror film where Bambi is reimagined as a brutal, bloodthirsty beast lurking in the wild,” director Scott Jeffrey revealed to Dread Central. “Get ready for Bambi with rabies!”
It remains unclear whether the murderous fawn will be seeking revenge for his mother's death or simply killing anyone who happens to cross his path, though Jeffrey's statements seem to suggest the latter. (After all, rabid animals aren't usually very discerning when it comes to choosing victims.)
Jeffrey also shared that he and his team of filmmakers—including producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield—will draw '[inspiration] from the design seen in Netflix’s The Ritual.' This 2017 British horror film, directed by David Bruckner, features a giant moose-like creature with some human characteristics. In other words, don’t expect this Bambi to resemble the one from Disney’s 1942 animated classic. The House of Mouse is said to have its own Bambi remake in the works, too.
This won’t be Jeffrey and Frake-Waterfield’s first time turning beloved childhood characters into nightmarish horrors. They’re also behind the upcoming horror film Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey, which is set for release in February 2023.
Though closely tied to Disney, Bambi didn’t originate as company IP. The animated film was adapted from Bambi, a Life in the Woods, a 1923 Austrian novel by Felix Salten that entered the public domain this year (along with A.A. Milne’s first Winnie-The-Pooh book). This means it's fair game to feature the orphaned deer in your own project without fear of legal repercussions.
