במבי

December 4, 2013 2:58 PM

Bambi's Jewish Roots

c/o Cartoon Brew

posted by overeducated_alligator (16 comments total)

See also: Why Bambi is the most Jewish Deer in Disneyland
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:22 PM on December 4, 2013

I can't help but read this as Vamvi. I don't recall if this is my Sephardic half asserting its dominance, or my Ashkenazi half. Moving from NY to FL in the middle of my hebrew training has confused me for life.

That being said, I kind of love the idea that Walt Disney didn't see the allegory and used the story anyway. Take that!
posted by blurker at 3:27 PM on December 4, 2013 [5 favorites]

One of them should have a little dot and the other doesn't, right?

hebrew school was literally in the last century for me lol
posted by elizardbits at 3:28 PM on December 4, 2013

elizardbits: "One of them should have a little dot and the other doesn't, right? "

Yes. It says "Vamvi."

This is an interesting read. Thanks for posting it. Had no clue that the author had Zionist roots. Ironic, considering how Ol' Walt is rumored to have felt about Jews.
posted by zarq at 3:34 PM on December 4, 2013

Other Jews in the comics: Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman.
posted by Obscure Reference at 3:38 PM on December 4, 2013

Somewhere I have a hardcover copy of bambi in German. Assume I have never read it.

I've read Buber, though. So there you go.
posted by clvrmnky at 4:02 PM on December 4, 2013

I am ashamed to admit I never even knew Bambi wasn't a Disney® original.

(I know all about Rudolph, though!)

I kind of love the idea that Walt Disney didn't see the allegory and used the story anyway. Take that!

Had no clue that the author had Zionist roots. Ironic, considering how Ol' Walt is rumored to have felt about Jews.

From the article:

[...] sold the rights to Walt Disney, who, with his visceral dislike of hunting, had been genuinely moved by Salten’s novel.

Of course, that didn’t stop Disney from transforming the story Bambi tells. Captiousness, melancholy, and a sentimental streak count among the prominent characteristics of Salten’s animals. The animals in the Disney film, which premiered in 1942, are altogether more frolicsome, brash, and affable. The plucky rabbit Thumper, for example, is Disney’s creation, not Salten’s. In the film, more than in the book, the forest, while no Eden, has an initial tranquility that is shattered by the cruelty of man. Indeed, some viewers regarded the film as registering the trauma of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the loss of America’s innocence.

In other words, the Disney version has the hunters as an external Yellow Peril, rather than giving them the sort of overlord role they had in the book; Disney may have thought of his version as purely anti-hunting, but it could very easily be read as xenophobic, with the moral beware of outsiders.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:20 PM on December 4, 2013

Well then, happy last night of Chanukah, Bambi!
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:26 PM on December 4, 2013

The dot (a dagesh) is usually omitted when Hebrew is printed without the diacritical vowels (nekudot). There's actually an anti-dagesh (rafe, a small line over the letter) to make it absolutely clear that you're dealing with a letter that never had a dagesh, rather than just one with the dagesh omitted.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:09 PM on December 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Bambi is worth reading.
posted by stbalbach at 9:14 PM on December 4, 2013

I just found out that the author of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer was Jewish, and now Bambi?
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 9:40 PM on December 4, 2013

Oh, Christmas songs. Don't get me started.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire? Jews. Winter Wonderland? Jews. Santa Claus is Comin' To Town? Not Jews, but they chose the very-Jewish Eddie Cantor to sing it. I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas? Jews. I'll Be Home for Christmas? Jews. Do They Know it's Christmas? Bob Geldof is only a quarter Jewish, but given the subject matter I bet that quarter did most of the composing.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:43 PM on December 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

Of course, it also goes the other way. The "Inappropriately Cheerful Roman" song written by Martin Luther and Pope Leo X in 1515 was quite different from the song so many Jews have grown to love as their own:

I have a little crossy
I made it out of wood,
And when I capture Jesus
I'll nail him up real good.
O crossy crossy crossy
I made it out of wood,
And when I capture Jesus
I'll nail him up real good.
Hey!

posted by pracowity at 12:39 AM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]

Learned something new today, as every day, on MetaFilter. Now I have to go find an original copy of Bambi.
posted by Sophie1 at 9:36 AM on December 5, 2013

If you want a real thrill, track down Bambi's Children.

[Spoiler]








Bambi kills a guy!

[/spoiler]
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:34 AM on December 5, 2013

Bambi's Children was a book that I loved as a child, and apparently the only thing that was lost in the move to FL when I was 8. Damn you Bunny Ultramod for reminding me!!
posted by blurker at 10:57 AM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]