With the financial success of Disney’s Lion King remake, it was only a matter of time before they attempted another live action remake of a classic Disney animated film. Now we know that attempt will be of the 1942 film Bambi. Of course, it’s expected that they will receive the same treatment as The Lion King and The Jungle Book: technically being an animated feature with more realistic looking animals.
While there’s no word on who will direct this upcoming adaptation, there have been a few announcements on who’s already attached. Geneva Robertson-Dworet, writer of Captain Marvel and Tomb Raider, and Lindsey Beer, writer of Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, are set to write the screenplay while The Farewell producers Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz and Andrew Miano will produce. The film is still early on in production, so it will be awhile before we get an official announcement on the director and voice actors.
While the live action Disney remakes have gotten a rather bad reputation by animation enthusiasts, they make sense from a financial standpoint. Disney live action remakes have been some of the most profitable films from the company regardless of reception, with both The Jungle Book and Lion King remakes making over a billion dollars worldwide and the latter being the second highest grossing film of 2019 with $1.657 billion worldwide. With such massive success, it seems likely that Bambi will be the next animal Disney film to remake to experiment with Disney’s ever growing photorealistic technology. Only in time will audiences see this technology be used for forest animals as opposed to ones in the jungles of Africa.