Donnie dunagan i was bambi егэ английский

It was more than 75 years ago, but I remember that call. It came through on the kitchen phone at our home in Westwood, California, and my mother answered. It was Walt Disney on the other end. He wanted me to talk about a role in a new feature he was working on; a cartoon about a group of animals in a forest. My mother thought it sounded terrific.

My agent hated it. I was only five years old, but I’d been in six movies and he said he had a bigger part lined up for me in a western. He came over and started shouting. He said the Disney movie would ruin my career and started speaking down to my mother. That made me so mad I fired him. The following week, Variety ran a story: Five-Year-Old Actor Fires His Manager.

Soon afterwards, my mother and I were driven to the Disney studio. Disney was there to meet us, all smiles. He was this wonderful, gracious man. That was my first and lasting impression of him. In his office, he had several shots of me from my previous films. We talked for a while, then he turned to my mother and said: ‘He’ll be wonderful for this part.’

They had to capture my facial expressions for the animation, so I spent hours sitting on a stool with a semi-circle of artists around me. I remember thinking, they must have a million coloured pencils between them. They’d give me these instructions such as, ‘Look left, look right, hold it!’ There’s a scene where the girl deer, Faline, kisses Bambi on the cheek. To get me to pose for that, one of the men said, ‘Donnie, give me your worst face, like something awful has happened to you. Have you had a spanking recently, or some bad medicine?’ I said, ‘Sir, my mother gave me some castor oil. It was disgusting.’ And the man said, ‘Imagine you just had a double dose of that castor oil.’ I creased up my face and they shouted, ‘Hold it!’

The voice work took about three months. I was on my own in a little sound booth, reading lines, with the artwork in front of me, so I could see what the deer was doing.

The premiere in 1942 was packed, with people standing in the aisles. I remember the reaction when Bambi’s mother was shot. There were gasps and parents covered their children’s eyes. People still talk to me about the movie, and inevitably everyone mentions that scene. The original artwork had Bambi’s mother shot on camera, with a bullet hole and lots of blood. But because of the second world war, Disney said that was too sensitive. He had them tone it down and instead you hear a bang and she falls off screen.

By the time the second world war was over, I was done with movies. I kept quiet about my acting career through school, and then I joined the marines when I was 18. I worked my way up to major and I kind of forgot about that little deer.

But there was one incident in Vietnam that brought it all back. There’s a scene in the movie where Bambi is shot and you see his father appear. He says, ‘Bambi, get up, get up, you have to get up.’ During a mission in Vietnam, a grenade went off near me, and I took a bullet to the leg. I was down and dizzy, and then this young sergeant was standing over me, lifting my head. He said, ‘Sir, get up, you have to get up.’ And there I was Bambi again.

A lot of people don’t know it was shot almost 6,000 ft long. By late 1941, Disney was in enormous debt and America was entering the war. He needed to get Bambi out, so he cut it by over 2,000 ft. It’s a shame, because the film should be 38 minutes longer, and some beautiful scenes are missing. But I hear they recently unearthed that footage and are restoring it. That’s something I would love to see.

ВОПРОС 1: Donnie’s mother found Disney’s proposal …
1) awesome.
2) demanding.
3) excessive.
4) frightening.

ВОПРОС 2: Donnagan fired his manager because …
1) the boy wanted to be independent in his choice.
2) the boy was eager to try something else besides films.
3) the man hated Disney.
4) the man was rude.

ВОПРОС 3: Variety mentioned in the report is …
1) a magazine.
2) a reporter.
3) a theatre.
4) an animation studio.

ВОПРОС 4: Artists worked with Donnie for long hours …
1) to And a proper make-up for him.
2) to make the face of Bambi.
3) to train to him express the eeded emotions.
4) to understand whether the boy suited the project.

ВОПРОС 5: Donnie Dunagan first saw the deer on screen …
1) when the film was restored.
2) when the first night was on.
3) when the soundtrack was being made.
4) when he joined the army.

ВОПРОС 6: The memories of the film came back to the actor after a while when …
1) he experienced his first kiss with a girl at school.
2) he was wounded on the battlefield.
3) his father came to visit him in hospital.
4) his mother was killed.

ВОПРОС 7: Some episodes were withdrawn from the film because
1) they were too painful to see.
2) the film was too long to be watched by children.
3) the company was lacking money.
4) the company was failing to meet the deadline.

Donnie Dunagan: I was Bambi

It was more than 75 years ago, but I remember that call. It came through on the kitchen phone at our home in Westwood, California, and my mother answered. It was Walt Disney on the other end. He wanted me to talk about a role in a new feature he was working on; a cartoon about a group of animals in a forest. My mother thought it sounded terrific.

My agent hated it. I was only five years old, but I’d been in six movies and he said he had a bigger part lined up for me in a western. He came over and started shouting. He said the Disney movie would ruin my career and started speaking down to my mother. That made me so mad I fired him. The following week, Variety ran a story: Five-Year-Old Actor Fires His Manager.

Soon afterwards, my mother and I were driven to the Disney studio. Disney was there to meet us, all smiles. He was this wonderful, gracious man. That was my first and lasting impression of him. In his office, he had several shots of me from my previous films. We talked for a while, then he turned to my mother and said: ‘He’ll be wonderful for this part.’

They had to capture my facial expressions for the animation, so I spent hours sitting on a stool with a semi-circle of artists around me. I remember thinking, they must have a million coloured pencils between them. They’d give me these instructions such as, ‘Look left, look right, hold it!’ There’s a scene where the girl deer, Faline, kisses Bambi on the cheek. To get me to pose for that, one of the men said, ‘Donnie, give me your worst face, like something awful has happened to you. Have you had a spanking recently, or some bad medicine?’ I said, ‘Sir, my mother gave me some castor oil. It was disgusting.’ And the man said, ‘Imagine you just had a double dose of that castor oil.’ I creased up my face and they shouted, ‘Hold it!’

The voice work took about three months. I was on my own in a little sound booth, reading lines, with the artwork in front of me, so I could see what the deer was doing.

The premiere in 1942 was packed, with people standing in the aisles. I remember the reaction when Bambi’s mother was shot. There were gasps and parents covered their children’s eyes. People still talk to me about the movie, and inevitably everyone mentions that scene. The original artwork had Bambi’s mother shot on camera, with a bullet hole and lots of blood. But because of the second world war, Disney said that was too sensitive. He had them tone it down and instead you hear a bang and she falls off screen.

By the time the second world war was over, I was done with movies. I kept quiet about my acting career through school, and then I joined the marines when I was 18. I worked my way up to major and I kind of forgot about that little deer.

But there was one incident in Vietnam that brought it all back. There’s a scene in the movie where Bambi is shot and you see his father appear. He says, ‘Bambi, get up, get up, you have to get up.’ During a mission in Vietnam, a grenade went off near me, and I took a bullet to the leg. I was down and dizzy, and then this young sergeant was standing over me, lifting my head. He said, ‘Sir, get up, you have to get up.’ And there I was Bambi again.

A lot of people don’t know it was shot almost 6,000 ft long. By late 1941, Disney was in enormous debt and America was entering the war. He needed to get Bambi out, so he cut it by over 2,000 ft. It’s a shame, because the film should be 38 minutes longer, and some beautiful scenes are missing. But I hear they recently unearthed that footage and are restoring it. That’s something I would love to see.

ВОПРОС 1: Donnie’s mother found Disney’s proposal …
1) awesome.
2) demanding.
3) excessive.
4) frightening.

ВОПРОС 2: Donnagan fired his manager because …
1) the boy wanted to be independent in his choice.
2) the boy was eager to try something else besides films.
3) the man hated Disney.
4) the man was rude.

ВОПРОС 3: Variety mentioned in the report is …
1) a magazine.
2) a reporter.
3) a theatre.
4) an animation studio.

ВОПРОС 4: Artists worked with Donnie for long hours …
1) to And a proper make-up for him.
2) to make the face of Bambi.
3) to train to him express the eeded emotions.
4) to understand whether the boy suited the project.

ВОПРОС 5: Donnie Dunagan first saw the deer on screen …
1) when the film was restored.
2) when the first night was on.
3) when the soundtrack was being made.
4) when he joined the army.

ВОПРОС 6: The memories of the film came back to the actor after a while when …
1) he experienced his first kiss with a girl at school.
2) he was wounded on the battlefield.
3) his father came to visit him in hospital.
4) his mother was killed.

ВОПРОС 7: Some episodes were withdrawn from the film because
1) they were too painful to see.
2) the film was too long to be watched by children.
3) the company was lacking money.
4) the company was failing to meet the deadline.

Sauciest_Salmon

62 points

6 months ago

Imagine the man who was once Bambi as a commander in a Marine Corps boot camp, responsible for hundreds of recruits. Dunagan didn’t want his recruits drawing any connections, mocking him or calling him «Maj. Bambi.» So, he kept his mouth shut.

Of course, it got out eventually. Decades later, a Marine whom Dunagan had worked for several times, twice in combat, called him into his office in the early morning about a month before the two of them retired.

«I go in his office and he says, ‘Dunagan! I want you to audit the auditors,’ » Dunagan recalls. Swamped with other duties, Dunagan respectfully asked him: «General, when do you think I’m going to have time to do that?»

And, finally, the nightmare he’d harbored for years came true.

«He looked at me, pulled his glasses down like some kind of college professor. There’s a big, red, top-secret folder that he got out of some safe somewhere that had my name on it. He pats this folder, looks me in the eye and says, ‘You will audit the auditors. Won’t you, Maj. Bambi?’ «

More to the Story

Imagine the man who was once Bambi as a commander in a Marine Corps boot camp, responsible for hundreds of recruits. Dunagan didn’t want his recruits drawing any connections, mocking him or calling him «Maj. Bambi.» So, he kept his mouth shut.

Of course, it got out eventually. Decades later, a Marine whom Dunagan had worked for several times, twice in combat, called him into his office in the early morning about a month before the two of them retired.

«I go in his office and he says, ‘Dunagan! I want you to audit the auditors,’ » Dunagan recalls. Swamped with other duties, Dunagan respectfully asked him: «General, when do you think I’m going to have time to do that?»

And, finally, the nightmare he’d harbored for years came true.

«He looked at me, pulled his glasses down like some kind of college professor. There’s a big, red, top-secret folder that he got out of some safe somewhere that had my name on it. He pats this folder, looks me in the eye and says, ‘You will audit the auditors. Won’t you, Maj. Bambi?’ «

More to the Story

Believe it or not, Disney’s Bambi is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Originally released in 1942, Bambi was Disney’s fifth full-length animated feature. And because of Word War II, it would be the last true feature until 1950’s Cinderella.

If you’re looking to add this classic to your home library (and you don’t already own it), then you’re in luck! Next week sees a brand-new release of Bambi (on multiple formats) as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection. The film is already available on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere, but it comes out on Blu-ray, DVD, and on-demand on June 6.

To commemorate the anniversary of this Disney classic and its imminent rerelease, we had the opportunity to sit down with the original voices of young Bambi and Thumper: Donnie Dunagan and Peter Behn. Both were young children at the time – only 5 or 6 years old – and neither pursued a career in the industry after Bambi (though Dunagan had already been in several films as a child actor). As a result, both had perfectly “normal” childhoods, went on to live their lives on their own terms, and have no regrets.

Peter Behn (Thumper) came from an industry family. His father was a screenwriter dating back to the silent era, including films such as The Big Parade and Howard Hughes’s Hell’s Angels. For Bambi, Behn began recording at the ripe old age of 4, and the process was spread out over two years. He recalls working with a vocal coach to ensure he had the proper inflection, but mostly he remembers the small zoo that was on the Disney lot where animators could watch and draw real animals. Can you blame him?

For his part, despite his age, Donnie Dunagan (Bambi) remembers everything, almost down to the tiniest detail. “I remember the whole thing, vividly. That was my seventh film, and my first was in the winter of 1938. And I remember that one vividly, too. That’s a gift, by the way. That’s DNA; you don’t earn that one.”

I asked Dunagan if he recalled the audition and what he was asked to do, and interestingly, he was already so well established as a child actor that Disney chose him specifically for the role!

“I don’t remember an audition. I know they had auditions, but I had already done six films as a live actor – as a little runt kid with a lot of curly hair. Mr. Disney called my mother personally. I remember this well. Now, we didn’t know much about Disney at the time. My mother was very happy and took notes during the call. Then we drove up to see my agent, and we told him I was going to do an animated film with the Disney company. My agent did not like that, and he did not want me to do it. He was almost scolding my mother, telling her, ‘Don’t let him do this! I’m going to get him into a Western.’ He really pushed my mother hard. And my mother was a very gentle person, so I fired him.

“I remember getting out of the car on the Disney lot and people telling me that this was where Mr. Disney made all those funny little creatures come to life. And I thought, ‘Wow! This isn’t going to be boring like some of the other films I’d made.’ Mr. Disney greeted us the first day there and made us feel like we were at home.”

In 2017, it’s not often that you get to chat with people who worked directly with Walt Disney, so I probed a little about what he was like. Dunagan explains, “It was a wonderful experience. I really admired how he handled people. I had been in several films, and on some sound stages when executives came around, people were like, ‘Oh my gosh, here comes the boss.’ They were not like that with Mr. Disney. I was very sensitive to this already. He was a worker: sleeves up, helping people left and right. He made a great impression on me.”

Behn wasn’t quite as seasoned as Dunagan. Prior to Bambi, he starred in a few short Jungle Juveniles films, but by his own admission, they hardly prepared him for working in the industry or on a Disney film. After Bambi, he moved with his family to Arizona and “was just an ordinary kid.” His father left Hollywood to become a professor and, later, an author of children’s books.

While they were making Bambi, Dunagan and Behn (and all of the other actors) recorded their lines in isolation. They never met the other actors voicing Bambi and Thumper as they grew older, and they actually never met each other in person until they made joint appearance on The View in 2011 – some 70 years after they played those parts.

Before he was cast as Bambi, though, Dunagan was initially hired to be a life model for the character. Disney wanted his animators to give Bambi humanlike features that would engage the audience and make the deer more personable. Dunagan was originally hired for his face – not his voice. But that would soon change.

“For several hours, I sat on a stool, and a whole bunch of men sat around me with a million pencils. They’d say, ‘Look left. Look right. Look afraid. Look happy.’ And I think they spent most of the time on the eyes. I’d hold a pose, and they’d draw what they wanted. Then we’d take a break and come back and draw some more. Then one day, I was sitting at a table with my mother, eating ice cream, and Mr. Disney came up. Not as a pompous executive but as a working leader. He sat down and asked my mother if I could do the voice of Bambi.”

And when Mr. Disney asks you to be the star of his new movie, you don’t say no. Even as a young kid, Donnie Dunagan was no dummy.

Still, despite being a young, incredibly aware child, Dunagan didn’t completely grasp the enormity of the people around him. Before Bambi, he starred in Son of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff (who taught him to play checkers on set). I asked Dunagan if he knew how larger-than-life and important Karloff and Disney were at the time.

“I didn’t have a clue. I was reading at 5, and people said I was 6 going on 19. But I didn’t have a clue. And the truth is that after I saw Bambi when it was released in 1942, I did not see it again until I was an adult. When I first saw it as an adult – I was a captain or a lieutenant in the Marine Corps at the time – I was overwhelmed. And I never talked about it.

“Think about this. In 1977, I’m a battalion commander at the Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. I have drill instructors and hundreds of recruits on my hands. Then I saw in the newspaper that Mr. Disney was going to rerelease Bambi and put credits on it for the first time. Now mind you, I’m a battalion commander, and nobody knew anything about what I did. My thought was, ‘Oh my gosh. If he puts credits on this thing, and it’s shown in the base theater  – and I remember thinking this – these guys are going to write home, ‘Mom, guess what? My commanding officer is Major Bambi!’

“Bambi was a courageous figure. He evolved from a natural, healthy childhood into a very strong adult. He beat up the bullies. And he was very strong and courageous. But in those days, very few people had seen Bambi. They had just heard about it. I have some regrets I didn’t talk about it. Since Disney discovered I was alive about a decade ago, I’ve been able to get more positive things done – more not-for-profit things, more things for children, more things for Salvation Army – because of Bambi. That makes me regret a little that I didn’t talk about it.”

For Behn, though, there are no regrets. “I was able to have a perfectly normal childhood and had a great time as a child. I think I would’ve missed a lot of that if I had stayed in Hollywood.”