Bambi: The Reckoning

Development

In November 2022, a live-action horror film based on Bambi, a Life in the Woods by Felix Salten was announced as being in development with the title Bambi: The Reckoning. Dan Allen was named as director, with Rhys Frake-Waterfield serving as a producer. Originally, Scott Chambers planned to direct, before deciding to direct Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare instead, as he felt it was more of his type.^[10][11] The film was produced by Jagged Edge Productions.^[12] Chambers described the film as "an incredibly dark retelling of the 1928 story we all know and love. Finding inspiration from the design used in Netflix's The Ritual, Bambi will be a vicious killing machine that lurks in the wilderness."^[13] The film is set in the same continuity as Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) and its sequel,^[14] being teased in the latter film.

Allen stated that the team knew they wanted Bambi: The Reckoning to be an “emotional film”, as they felt it fitted the source text perfectly; the titular character loses his mother in the original novel.^[15] The film reportedly explores the themes of “loss of innocence” and the “death of childhood”, with for example the character Benji becoming aware of his parents’s upcoming divorce, and eventually discovering his father’s true nature as an amoral pharmaceutical employee.^[16][17] Allen envisioned the film as a “sequel” to the original book, with Bambi shown to have a mate and offspring around the time of the opening sequence before losing them both.^[18] Inspiration came from Jurassic Park (of which Allen was a massive fan of) and The Ritual. One particular sequence where the character Harriet runs across the front garden with Bambi behind her in slow-motion was inspired by The Host.^[19] Allen additionally wanted to expand on the original novel’s environmental message, having the hunters in the film embody “the mistreatment of nature” and the “disregard for it”.^[16] Discussing the film’s tone, Allen and cinematographer Vince Knight described it as being “somewhere in the middle” between the Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey films (known for their campy and fun style) and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare (known for its dark and serious tone), while leaning “a bit more, you know, towards Peter Pan side”.^[19] Despite its dark and gritty nature, Allen stated that the film still retained some comedic moments, as “you can’t make Bambi killing people and ripping people’s heads off without having a bit of a strong, like, wink to the audience and be like, “We know what this is”, you know.”^[15] The film’s screenplay was written by Rhys Warrigton.

Casting

On 15 December 2023, Roxanne McKee, Nicola Wright, Tom Mulheron and Samira Mighty joined the cast.^[8] Mighty originally auditioned for the role of Xana, but was deemed "too young".^[20] On 18 December, Joseph Greenwood revealed that he was cast as Harrison.^[21] Around the time of auditioning, Greenwood was unaware that Jagged Edge Productions was the same studio behind Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey until being informed by the public. Upon realising this, Greenwood knew that what he had signed on to was a "much bigger thing than [he] had initially realised."^[22]

Filming

Principal photography was originally slated to commence on 31 January 2023 in London, England, with Vince Knight serving as cinematographer, after working on Blood and Honey.^[23][24][25] Filming was later rescheduled to begin on 6 January 2024 in England,^[8] which Chambers confirmed via his social media.^[26][27] Originally, it was planned for Bambi: The Reckoning to be shot in April, with Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare being shot in January instead.^[28][11] However, script issues saw the filming dates for both projects switched around. Filming wrapped on 26 January 2024.^[29]

Crew members have considered Bambi: The Reckoning to be the hardest to film, mainly due to the nightly shoots in January.^[19][30] Where the crew wanted to shoot, it was too muddy and sloshy to get the equipment there, and where they could, it was too frozen. Allen stated that they were lucky it didn’t rain during filming as “otherwise, continuity would’ve been all over the place”.^[30] To help solve the problem, it was decided to have the actors wear coats for a majority of the film. However, upon shooting the first scene involving so, Allen and Chambers didn’t like the shot and ended up reducing the amount of scenes in which the actors wore “puffer faces”.^[19] The crew was inspired by Jurassic Park for the film’s lighting.^[18] For the scene in which Bambi flips the taxi over, a stunt team used both punitive pistons and an additional car mounted inside a massive tube that rolled on a motor, while a camera was attached to a roll rig. The actors reportedly disliked filming the scene.^[19] Mulheron enjoyed the scene involving an explosion, even claiming to have felt it while shooting.

Visual effects

Unlike in the Twisted Childhood Universe’s previous films, which were made using practical effects, the animals in Bambi: The Reckoning were made using entirely computer-generated imagery. Stephanie Bellgardt, head of Boiling Point Media, designed the model for Bambi.^[31][32] The VFX team was inspired by various quadrupedal creatures, including Moder from The Ritual (something Chambers himself had intended) for Bambi’s spine. They intentionally avoided making him a “zombie deer” and wanted him to still feel like a living, breathing creature. This involved tearing apart the model a little; to make the deer seem as if it had been through “many battles and wars,” while also preventing it from looking undead.^[15] The crew had wanted more practical effects for the deer, though due to budget reasons and the design for Bambi not being completed in time for filming, they ended up with merely a stand-in hoof and two stand-in heads. Other tricks were pulled off additionally.^[15] For example, during a scene where the character Xana comes face-to-face with Bambi, a large reflector was wafted near the actress’s face to portrays the deer breathing.^[33] Allen confessed he feared that the film would end up being “the next Birdemic” if the VFX wasn’t done right.^[15]

Box office

Bambi: The Reckoning grossed $172,187 in the United States, $361,843 in various international territories, and $24,062 in the United Kingdom, for a worldwide total of $558,092.^[5][4]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 17 critics' reviews are positive.^[38]