I actually read this book when I was in 7th grade. I found it in my school's library and decided to borrow it and read it. It is definatly different from the kid friendly movie, I can tell you that. When reading it, I was kind of surprised at how violent the story actually was.... "and it became a kids movie how?" is what I wondered. I would say more, but I don't want to put a whole bunch of spoilers on here for the people who want to read it and have not read it.
I really enjoyed reading it. That whole bit about the Nazis banning the book, someone actually told me about it on Deviant Art. Now that you mention one of the reasons why they banned the book, I can now see the message Felix Salten was trying to convey in this story.
I would recommend reading this book. But be warned if you are tender-hearted, you may not want to read it. It's not like the cute innocent Disney movie we all know and love.
Also, the book kind of has me confused as the where the setting of the story takes place. In the book, the species of deer Bambi is supposed to be is a Roe Deer, which is a deer commonly found in Europe. It looks like this...
(http://api.ning.com/files/4Pim9XeiuH8SjETcz1-UddPPuIBzhtrtKCILN9cgyE6i9iyDuFarTQZ4dUscQN-62KiK-gNS6PUgMp9AhixsvfSz5u77ix0s/roedeer25994.jpg)
However, there are animals in the story that aren't native to Europe. The story talks about elk, and has an illustration of these kind of elk.
(http://abingdonoutdoors.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/elk-in-kentucky.jpg)
Europeans call these kind of animals "Moose" whereas Americans just call them "elk". In Europe, they call what we know as moose, "elk". Also, there are other animals mentioned in the story that are not native to Europe.
So I am really confused as to where the story takes place. Does it take place in Europe, or North America. If it is in North America, were the Roe deer imported from Europe to be hunted by people, or were the Elk imported from America to be hunted by people? Or am I just a confused floof?
My guess is that it takes place in Europe, since that is where the author is from.
As for the Disney movie, it seems like Bambi appears to be a white-tailed deer (since he holds his tail up like a Whitetail would). Roe deer fawns and white-tail fawns do look similar in appearance.
(http://www.petstreet.co.uk/Images/61/roe_deer_fawn.jpg)
Roe deer fawn
(http://www.buckmanager.com/media/images/2008/04/fawn-standing-in-grass.jpg)
Whitetail fawn
So it seems that the Disney movie changed settings for the story. Since many of the characters in the movie are American animals; skunks, racoons, possums, etc, they must have changed Bambi from a Roe deer to a White-tailed deer. What do you think?
I think they changed the deer species to make these animals more familiar to an American audience, because your Average American Joe isn't going to know what a roe deer is. Personally, I kind of prefer the image of Bambi as a whitetail deer to a roe deer, simply because whitetails are more majestic, more 'princely'-looking than roes (in my opinion). But whitetails and roes are very similar animals anyway, and they both occupy similar niches in their respective ecosystems.
Again, your Average American Joe isn't going to know what a red deer is, so to make it consistent with the 'American' setting and the use of an American species like whitetail deer, the translators just turned Salten's Austrian red deer into American elk, which are very similar animals anyway so not much meaning is lost in the translation.
You got a good point there. That would make sense when it comes to the whole elk thing.
By the way, have you noticed the pheasant birds in the Disney movie. This may be a little off topic, but I recently found out that those ring-necked pheasants aren't naturally native to North America. I recently found out those birds were imported from China. And here I thought they were all American birds. o3o
(http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/OO6mfeHNA-o/mqdefault.jpg)
Also, the one thing I like about the movie is how good the animators did the motions of deer movements. They looked so realistic and believeable. You know they had to take some time to study the movements of deer to really make some good authentic animation shots.
(http://cdnimg.visualizeus.com/thumbs/db/86/disney,animation,bambi,milt,kahl,model,sheet,rough-db864657ea682b64da86fcdfe5904f32_h.jpg)
(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzropgS7Wk1qaoc2k.gif)
Looks like a good read, I'll try and find it in the library tomorrow after school.
I'm interested in how different the movie and the book are, hopefully it's not too emotional, because I'm a little baby when it comes to those things. XD
Well you might want to take some of these when you read it -hands over a box of tissues-. There ya go. Enjoy the book.