The hallway on which I have my office has a glass door at either end. While I was walking down the hall a few moments ago, I looked out at the rain - particularly, how it was making concentric ripples in the standing water on the patio - and suddenly the song "Drip, drip drop, little April showers" popped into my head.

(Well, actually, it's June showers now.)

(That's from Bambi, in'nit? I tried searching for the lyrics using that phrase, plus "lyrics" plus "Bambi" and...well...on the second page of search results (the first one was mostly bloggers using the phrase as a post title) there were some, shall we say, startling, links...and I have "Moderate Safe Search" turned on).

Anyway. I thought of that suddenly. And I remembered all the Disney movie-watching of my youth (this is how my brain works: it finds some odd little thread in something I think, then unravels that thread down). Most of the Disney movies I've seen I don't remember all that well.

I do remember watching them. And I remember where. Most of them were shown in an auditorium/theater on the campus where my dad taught - there was kind of an older-movie revival-theater thing going on (like on many college campuses). Admission was cheap (I think maybe $1 for adults and fifty cents for kids). And my parents, in those days (the 1970s...) were very good at finding inexpensive yet enjoyable stuff for us to do as a family.

(Maybe today there'd be some families that wouldn't think it was "good enough" for them to sit in a college auditorium to see "The Aristocats" or "The Sword in the Stone"? This was also in the pre-dvd, pre-VHS, pre-widespread cable era. To watch movies, you had to go to a theater or hope they came on tv. The annual showing of "The Wizard of Oz," for example, was a big deal in my household.)

Anyway. Most of the Disney movies I saw and just dimly remember (The Aristocats, The Sword in the Stone, the Jungle Book, a couple of the Herbie movies, the original version of That Darn Cat, and the other goofy-wholesome 1960s era Disney live-actions) were seen on the University of Akron campus in an old auditorium.

I do think I saw Bambi in a "real" theater though - I think my friend Elizabeth's mom took both of us, during one of the periodic re-releases of the movie.

Unlike some people I've talked to, I don't remember being really traumatized by the death of Bambi's mother (yeah, a spoiler, but like is there anyone over the age of 8 who doesn't know). But I do remember the raindrop song (just not the lyrics) and "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all" (which is actually not bad advice). (Wikipedia says the movie was theatrically re-released in 1975; yes, that probably would have been about the right time...I think I was about 6 when I saw it).

As gorgeous as the movie is (and it is a gorgeous movie, in terms of the background and the usage of color), it's not my favorite Disney cartoon.

I prefer Dumbo. (Yes, even with the seriously politicially-incorrect crows and the creepy pink elephants scene). As a child, I identified with Dumbo...not so much the missing-mother thing (And you know? Disney must have had mother issues. So many of his movies...the mother either dies, or is taken away, or is replaced by a stepmother). But I liked the idea of the little outcast - the one who was laughed at for being different - in the end getting a bit of gentle revenge, and then, being accepted.

(And "Baby Mine"? Still makes me tear up a little when I hear it.)

And of more recent Disney productions (more recent = made during my childhood), I think I prefer "The Rescuers" because, well, it had mice. (I loved mice as a child. Not so much now as a homeowning adult who's had to set the occasional trap, but I still do like cartoon mice). (And The Rescuers was one I remember seeing in a "real" theater, I think with my dad, because my brother was still a baby and my mom was staying home with him).

Oh, and in searching for info on "Bambi," I ran across this article: "Bambi is the most Hichcockian Disney film".

I am not well enough versed in the arts of Cultural Studies and criticry to know if it's in earnest or tongue-in-cheek, but it's still an interesting thought, nonetheless.