Music From Bambi (Green Vinyl)

Frank Churchill was the main composer; he wrote musical themes and motifs that were taken and arranged into the final score. Churchill had enjoyed huge success with his soundtrack to Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, featuring the classics “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work.” He had also written “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf” from the 1933 animated short, Three Little Pigs. Churchill had a talent for writing melodies so simple and memorable they felt timeless; as if they were folk songs rather than newly written for groundbreaking animated films. Churchill’s training was in soundtracking silent films, and he was a skilled improviser, which made him the perfect candidate for Bambi. The composer’s knack for flourishes to complement scenes in which Bambi faltered on her feet, or Thumper showed his rambunctious side added an extra dimension to the characters.
Edward Plumb provided a counterpoint to Churchill’s intuitive melodic genius. Plumb is said to have studied with Johann Strauss and brought a classically trained sophistication to the orchestrations. Plumb had previously been the musical director on Fantasia, an experience that served him well when fleshing out Churchill’s themes into a pastoral symphony.
While Bambi’s immediate commercial fortunes were affected by its release during World War II, it has since become one of the studio’s best-loved feature films. Still, it was celebrated by critics at the time – Bambi earned three Academy Award® nominations, for Best Sound, Best Score, and Best Song. (The latter for “Love is a Song,” sung by Donald Novis).