Bambi’s Mother in BAMBI (1942) & Debra Winger in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)



The actual moment that Debra Winger’s character dies in Terms of Endearment is all well and weepy (and fairly Goth, what with that deathbed make-up job), but the real reason James L. Brooks’ ten-hanky drama makes the list is the gut-punch scene where Winger’s dying Emma Greenway Horton says goodbye to her two sons in the hospital, easily the most harrowing family tragedy scene since the national trauma induced by the off-screen demise of Bambi’s mother (thanks to goddamn Man entering the forest) way back in 1942. In the all-time Top Ten of throat-lump-inducing lines of dialogue, it’s hard to beat Mr. Bambi’s grim pronouncement, “Your mother can’t be with you anymore.” But for me, no single moment of cinema is sadder than Winger’s Emma telling her youngest son, after their final visit together, “I think it went pretty well, don’t you?” -- except maybe the look on the little kid’s face when he bravely nods goodbye. (Now if you'll excuse me, I...uh...think there’s something in my eye...) (AO)

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The Disney "True-Life Adventure" series of nature films that the studio began putting out in 1948 were not begun with grand ambitions. Walt Disney wanted to provide his animators with actual footage of animals in their natural habitat for research purposes, and Disney was not a man to waste stuff. Originally produced by Walt's nephew Roy Disney, the series wound up running a dozen years, winning a shelf full of awards, inspiring comic books and a panel cartoon newspaper series that outlasted the film series by a decade, and being recycled on Disney's TV show. (They can now all be had as a four-volume, double-disc DVD series.) Now, emboldened, perhaps in the sense that the fox was emboldened by the sight of those grapes, by such successes as the elevesn-part Discovery Channel series Planet Earth, Disney is looking to tap back into the audience for nature documentaries, which is now associated with the enthusiasm for all things green. The new movie is called Earth, and you may feel that you're picking up hints about the mindset at Disney these days when you see the TV commercials for the film (which opens on April 22, Earth Day) and hear a disembodied voice insisting that it's "even better than March of the Penguins." One the other hand, Disney has a history of using animals, both live and animated, to mangle kids' hearts, that it may have to live down if it wants to appeal to this market. Donna Farmer, a Los Angeles Web designer with two kids, told The New York Times, “I don’t need another Bambi moment."

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Last week, it seemed like a good idea to salute The Top 20 Animated Feature Films of all time, which opened a Pandora’s Box of possibilities for this week’s obvious follow-up list:  the Greatest Animated SHORTS of all time.

And by “short,” of course, we mean anything from seconds to approximately 40 minutes, which is the length of time when (according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) a movie officially becomes a feature (which, I suppose, means 1999’s 75-minute Pokémon: The First Movie wasn’t technically a rip-off).

Anyway, as your post host, I should note that most of this week’s Jumbo Shorts list is the work of Screengrabbers Paul Clark and Phil Nugent, who both clearly have a severe case of Cartoon Fever. The condition is highly contagious and not even Acme has a cure, so don’t say we didn’t warn you!

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Disney, as Disney is fond of reminding us, is not just a movie company or an entertainment conglomerate:  it's a kingdom, a lifestyle, almost a religion.  And if that's true, its position on the major issues of the day are more than just fodder for the back pages of their annual stockholder report:  they're front page news, or even the subject of scholarly tomes. 

Such, as the New York Times reports, is the case with Disney's environmental record.  Throughout its history, Disney has played both sides of the ecological fence:  it recently announced the formation of a new film unit exclusively dedicated to creating nature documentaries, while its theme parks are denounced by environmentalists as resource-draining, pollution-spewing nightmares; its previous science films have sparked the interest of children in wildlife and conservation, while attracting charges of exaggeration or outright fakery; and its beloved animated children's classics have cemented a protective attitude towards nature in the minds of entire generations, while both hunters and animal rights activists claim that they present a distorted and dangerous view of animal life. 

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The death of animator Ollie Johnston, at 95, marks the end of our first-hand access to an era: Johnston, who worked at Disney from 1935 until his retirement in 1978, was the last member of the core group of the studio's animators who were known collevtively as "the nine old men." (Most of them were in their twenties when they were given that label.) Johnston worked in various major capacities on such features as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Bambi; among other accomplishments, he was famous, or notorious, for having animated the death of Bambi's mother, thus making him responsible for several generations of childhood traumas.

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