Bambi to Be Reimagined as a ‘Vicious Killing Machine’ in ‘Dark Retelling’ of Classic Disney Film

As if the original “Bambi” wasn’t traumatizing enough!

"Bambi" / Courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios
Courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Like Winnie the Pooh before him, the now public-domain Bambi is getting his own horror retelling.

DIrector Scott Jeffrey (“The Mutation”) is partnering with producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield, who helmed and wrote the upcoming and already notorious “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” (to be released in U.S. theaters on Feb. 15, 2023), to make “Bambi: The Reckoning,” billed as a “dark retelling” of the classic childhood cartoon, website Dread Central reports.

As if the original 1942 “Bambi” isn’t horrific enough — the title fawn witnesses the traumatic murder of his mother by an unseen hunter — Jeffrey told the outlet that the film will reimagine Bambi as a “vicious killing machine.” Will the sweet-faced deer be seeking to avenge his beloved mum’s death? The plot details are being kept under wraps.

“The film will be 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. Prepare for Bambi on rabies!” Jeffrey said.

In “The Ritual,” the 2017 British horror film starring Rafe Spall and directed by David Bruckner (2022’s “Hellraiser”), a group of friends hiking through the Swedish countryside encounter occult-like phenomena and are hunted by a creature known as Moder — in Norse mythology, an illegitimate offspring of the trickster god Loki — and a part of the class of beings called Jötunns, depicted in the film as a monstrous four-legged giant with antlers and horns alongside its back. If that’s any indication of what Bambi might look like in the upcoming film, we can’t even fathom Thumper’s reimagining.

ITN Studios and Jagged Edge Productions (also behind the “Winnie the Pooh” project) will produce the film, with Vince Knight back as cinematographer. Per Dread Central, production is scheduled to begin in late January.

Meanwhile, Disney announced plans back in 2020 to develop a live-action remake of “Bambi” à la “The Lion King” and “The Jungle Book.” Screenwriters Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”) and Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) were tapped to write the screenplay, with Chris and Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano’s Depth of Field producing.

Not for nothing, if Scott and Frake-Waterfield continue to carve out a niche in horror retellings of beloved and iconic characters, it bears mentioning that Disney’s own early version of Mickey Mouse is set to enter public domain in 2024.

Comments