A screenwriter who worked on Disney’s planned live-action remake of Bambi said some of today’s children and parents are too sensitive to handle the original movie’s pivotal death scene, in which Bambi’s mother is shot and killed off-screen.
Lindsey Anderson Beer, who worked on the remake but has reportedly since moved on, said the new version will be more kid-friendly in an interview with Collider.
Anderson Beer said the original Bambi has not been seen by a wider audience of young viewers because of the way it handles the death of a parent.
“Not to spoil the plot, but there’s a treatment of the mom dying that I think some kids, some parents these days are more sensitive about than they were in the past. And I think that’s one of the reasons that they haven’t shown it to their children,” she said.
Beer said the new Bambi will have “more of a scope to it. And I just think that to be able to bring it to life for kids these days in a way that maybe they relate to a little bit more would be of service to the original.”
The Walt Disney Company is raiding its intellectual property closet of popular animated films to churn out live-action remakes. While some have been hits — like The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast — the more recent efforts have flopped with audiences.
Disney’s remake of The Little Mermaid fared poorly with audiences and critics, as did Pinocchio, which went straight to streaming despite starring Tom Hanks.
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