Welcome back, Twisted Childhood Universe fanatics. We’ve seen Winnie the Pooh slaughter innocents, watched Peter Pan kidnap children, and now we get the Poohniverse’s first creature feature in Bambi: The Reckoning. Writer Rhys Warrington morphs the lovable mule deer who first appeared in author Felix Salten’s Bambi, a Life in the Woods into a monstrous killing machine hellbent on vengeance. It’s a razor-toothed take on what might be one of Disney’s saddest animated classics, and stands as one of the TCU’s better films. Maybe that’s a low bar given it’s only the fourth entry and they’re all schlocky by design, but heck, at least we’re not reliving the worst-of-all terribleness of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.
This retelling opens with Bambi’s tragic backstory, but doubles down on the heartache. Bambi not only watches his mother die, but later finds his mate turned to roadkill by a Wilbexr Pharmaceuticals truck and his child taken. It’s the impetus for the titular reckoning, which comes to pass after he sips spring water tainted with the company’s toxic waste. A ghastly, demonic-looking Bambi mutation with jagged teeth and zombie-ish features appears in all its computer-generated glory, with muscular definition inspired by David Bruckner’s godlike deer entity in The Ritual (because, without any shame, these TCU films all ape ideas from far superior, more popular horror movies). The effects don’t look horrible, especially under the shade of night, but it’s still clearly a knockoff.
Enter Xana (Roxanne McKee) and her son Benji (Tom Mulheron), the central protagonists. Their relationship parallels Bambi and his child’s, given how Xana’s deadbeat husband, Simon (Alex Cooke), is as absent as Bambi’s dead lover. There’s an attempted commentary about chasing parental love from the wrong source and ignoring what’s available, but it’s hardly interesting. Bambi’s rage is provoked by humanity’s desecration of nature, which leads to a more inviting subplot about mercenaries hired by Wilbexr to track down Murder Bambi. Unshockingly, Bambi: The Reckoning is strongest when hunters are maimed and decapitated – that’s when this movie isn’t taking itself too seriously.
Director Dan Allen tries to balance B-movie splatter effects with an emotional tale of parental protection, but it’s a futile effort. The worst decision Bambi: The Reckoning makes is veering away from the grim fable’s inherent silliness, sucking the fun out of gruesome forest rampages. The inclusion of Benji’s extended family is merely victim fodder, never fleshed out beyond how their flesh will be ripped out. The best we’ve got is obnoxious teenager Harrison (Joseph Greenwood), a bratty youth so annoying that his death can’t happen soon enough. Allen desperately wants to take a stand for finding hope in dysfunctional family dynamics, yet his nobler intentions never align with the after-midnight thrills these TCU slashers chase. Either that, or he fails to read the room in terms of hammering us over the head with sadness, like that inexcusably bleak ending that left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
As for the violence, you’ll be delighted (die-lighted?) to hear that Bambi is a human-seeking missile carrying out Mother Nature’s cruelest orders, goring threats on his antlers and leaving trails of blood. Even better, an homage to Thumper gets in on the carnage, because any woodland creature could have sipped the same infected water, right? Bambi: The Reckoning finds its groove as guilty parties meet vile fates, with hooves and chompers causing repulsive brutality. Had it not felt weighed down by melodrama and throwaway development of uninteresting characters, perhaps the chaotic joy of Bambi’s murderous mayhem could have risen to the top of the TCU.
But, alas, Bambi: The Reckoning sinks into a forgettable cycle of one-by-one kills and nods to its superior influences. You can’t help but see Death of a Unicorn (minus the comedy) reflecting in countless scenes, which is a shame because Bambi: The Reckoning was supposed to be released before A24’s fantastical farce in 2024. There are also numerous Jurassic Park references, which feel doubly recycled because Death of a Unicorn itself remixes Jurassic Park: The Lost World.
Of course, Bambi: The Reckoning is hardly original, even beyond the public domain, because these movies tend to rely on imitation rather than reinvention. It’s a shame, because characters like Peter Pan and Bambi are begging for their own breakouts, not to become cut-rate versions of someone else’s successes.
