Bambi Meets Godzilla is the title of the cartoon created entirely by Marv Newland

Marv Newland

Marv Newland is a filmmaker who specializes in animation.Newland began a career making animated motion pictures in Los Angeles with the creation of the short Bambi Meets Godzilla...

. Less than two minutes long, the film is a classic of animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

—#38 in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons

The 50 Greatest Cartoons

The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant...

 (1994).

Newland was originally planning to do a live-action film; but, when he lost an essential magic hour shot, he drew this film in his room, rented from Adriana Caselotti

Adriana Caselotti

Adriana Mitchell Caselotti was an American actress and singer. She was the voice of the title character in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Caselotti was named as a Disney Legend in 1994.-Early life:...

, the voice of 1937 film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...

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Plot

The opening credits scroll over an animated image of the character Bambi

Bambi

Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...

 serenely grazing while the Call to the Dairy Cows

Ranz des Vaches

A Ranz des Vaches or Kuhreihen is a simple melody traditionally played on the horn by the Swiss Alpine herdsmen as they drove their cattle to or from the pasture...

from Rossini

Gioacchino Rossini

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...

's political opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 William Tell

William Tell (opera)

Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...

(1829) plays in the background. After the credits, Bambi looks up to see Godzilla

Godzilla

is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

's foot coming down, crushing him (set to the final chord of The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' "A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

"A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions...

"). After a moment, the closing credits scroll over the image of Godzilla's foot. At the very end, Godzilla's claws twitch once.

The bulk of the movie's running time is consumed in the opening and closing credits—all for Newland—except for "Marv Newland produced by Mr. & Mrs. Newland", Miss Caselotti as the studio owner, and the city of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 "for their help in obtaining Godzilla for this film."

Screenings and distribution

This cartoon prefaced Godzilla 1985 on New World Pictures' VHS release but was omitted when that film was licensed to Starmaker.

Two sequels were later made without Newland's involvement: Son of Bambi Meets Godzilla and Bambi's Revenge, giving Godzilla a hot foot

Hot foot

The hot foot is a prank where the prankster sets the victim's shoe laces on fire with a match or lighter. There are several other versions of the hot foot prank, but all involve using a source of flame near a victim's foot...

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