„Christopher Frayling visits Vienna to uncover the forgotten Jewish roots of Walt Disney’s Bambi — as a brutal parable of life in the forest by Austrian writer Felix Salten.
Most of us are familiar with the figure of Bambi – the wide-eyed young fawn at the centre of Walt Disney’s heart-warming 1942 animation, who finds love and friendship in the forest as he comes to terms with growing up. However, few people are aware of Bambi’s roots – as an unflinching and grisly parable about the violence of nature and the cruelty of man, which has more in common with Animal Farm than with Dumbo.
It is a work red in tooth and claw, where animals discuss the experience of „being born to be killed“. It is also largely forgotten. Cultural historian Christopher Frayling travels to Vienna to tell the true story of Bambi. Disney’s Bambi was based on the 1928 American translation of Austrian writer Felix Salten’s Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, originally published in Vienna in 1922.
This translation toned down the darker aspects of Salten’s story, to turn Bambi into a children’s book about furry animals and their friends. This may have been an astute commercial move, but latest research suggests that Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, in its original form, was an allegory of the persecution of Jews in Europe. Over 100 years on from the publication of Salten’s book, it is time to tell the true story of Bambi.
Interviewees: Dr Marcel Atze (archivist, Vienna City Library), Dr Brigitte Timmerman (historian, Vienna Walks and Talks), Prof Jack Zipes (translator of Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest).“ (BBC)
Sie können die Sendung, die am 11.4.2023 in der Reihe „Seriously“ lief, über die Seite der BBC nachhören oder als Audiodatei herunterladen.