Bambi, First Blood: In ‘The Reckoning’, Disney’s Gentle Forest Creature Has a Score to Settle With Humankind
The Poohniverse is expanding.
Though Winnie the Pooh and Bambi have no connection besides being Disney characters that have fallen from the protection of copyright law into the unforgiving realm of the public domain, but that isn’t stopping Umbrella Entertainment from grouping them together in its own horror movie expanded universe.
In Bambi: The Reckoning, the gentle creature from Disney’s 1942 animated feature has grown up and is now hell-bent on revenge. In the opening of the teaser, two hunters are getting ready to take a shot.
“You ever shot a deer?” one hunter asks the other. “No. Have you?” the second hunter replies. “Yeah, once,” the first hunter says. It’s probably safe to infer that this is one of the “men” that shot Bambi’s mom, assuming this Bambi has the same backstory as the original.
According to Umbrella’s blurb that accompanies the video, the film follows human characters Xana (Roxanne McKee) and her son Benji (Tom Mulheron) who have the misfortune of wrecking their car in “vicious killing machine” Bambi’s stomping grounds.
That certainly is not the extent of the mayhem in the meadow, as this is a feature-length film and not a YouTube parody video.
Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the writer and director of last year’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was alredy planning to adapt Bambi for the horror genre. The prolific Frake-Waterfield directed the Blood and Honey sequel that was released last month and is producing the Bambi film. His plan for a twisted-Disney universe will see characters like Bambi, Tinker Bell, Pinocchio and more teaming up “Avengers-style.” though for what purpose it’s hard to imagine.
Other characters expected to join the franchise include Sleeping Beauty, The Mad Hatter, and more characters from Winnie the Pooh.
So far we know the film series will also include Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Pinocchio Unstrung. ITN and Jagged Edge Productions are working with Umbrella to lay waste to your memories of the innocent characters you met as a child.
At this time, there’s no further casting announcements, no director chosen, nor a release date for Bambi: The Reckoning.