He had fled to neutral Switzerland from his homeland of Austria because - as it may surprise some to learn - Bambi, along with Salten’s other works, was on a list of books banned by the Nazis in 1935. Salter never saw a penny of the Disney movie’s global success and died alone, forgotten, in exile. The original author did less well out of his gambolling creation. The resulting 1942 forest fantasia, which leaps in swooning bounds from one extravagantly coloured and orchestrated natural history lesson to another, was nominated for three Oscars, and by 2005 had grossed $102 million. ‘Suppose we have Bambi step on an ant hill,’ he offered at one script meeting, ‘and then cut away to see all the damage he’s done to the ant civilisation?’ After the Austrian author Felix Salten sold the rights to his 1923 bestseller Bambi for a paltry $1,000, Walt is reputed to have suggested myriad unhelpful plot additions to the simple story. The extent of Walt Disney’s grasp of the natural world remains unclear.
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