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Bambi is filled with the laughter of children, and their voices speak for the animals. Their genuine laughter was recorded by running off some Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons at the Disney studio for a group of neighborhood children. Thumper's all-boy voice rates an Academy award. It belongs to a youngster named Peter Behn. His dialogue was recorded early in the five years it took to make the $1,600,000 Bambi. Brought back for retakes several years later, Master Behn scarcely got his lines out before his voice changed.
Bambi has an all-animal cast, but man is present by implication. Disney's indictment of men who kill animals for sport is so effective that U.S. sportsmen who have seen the picture are gunning for him. They feel that Disney is undoing their lifework of conserving wild animals for future open seasons. After Bambi they may have a hard time convincing Disneyacs.