1940-1941
One of the Bambi staff's
ideas was to introduce a squirrel and a chipmunk
to supply the film with a few slapstick gags. In
one Bambi happens to swallow a bee when grazing
in the meadow. The comedy duo hear muffled sounds
from the kneeling Bambi's stomach and they run
back and forth to his open mouth in order to hear
what the offended bee has to say.
Barks and his colleague Charles 'Chuck' Couch
wrote and sketched another sequence featuring the
duo trying to crack a nut in a tree fork (the
original sketches have since been lost). The
episode was planned to last for one minute, but
it was not used in the final film. Undoubtedly,
it was considered, though, because one of the key
animators, Kenneth 'Ken' Hultgren, made 9
finished storyboard sketches from the idea (shown
here in sequence).
Walt Disney commented on the overall duo idea by
stating: I like the screwball attitude with
the characters. I think we are getting something
that is not just the old type of gag.
But in the end, none of the squirrel/chipmunk
ideas were used in the film, presumably because
the Laurel and Hardy-like routines were out of
character in the more mellow, finished product.
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