By Nick Nitkowski

“Bambi: The Reckoning” is the latest movie that is part of the franchise amply known as the “Poohniverse” featuring dark and twisted renditions of beloved public domain IP including Winnie the Pooh that started it all with “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey”. At this point, I have already seen both “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” movies as well as “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” and now I have seen “Bambi: The Reckoning” and with only one more film, “Pinocchio: Unstrung”, left to release before the grand debut of “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble”, it’s safe to say that I am invested in this franchise. So, how was this latest edition?

From the title and poster alone, it’s very safe to say that what you see is exactly what you get for a movie like this. And if somehow, you’ve become invested in this franchise like I have, then you already know what to expect. The story is simple. It’s about a family fighting for survival in the middle of the night when they come face-to-face with a monstrously mutated buck that we know as Bambi. 

My main impression of the movie was that it was just okay, even by B-movie standards. There were a couple of moments that made me laugh. Some intentionally and some I can only presume to be unintentionally. Based on the title, I couldn’t help but expect it to just go balls to the wall and be all out of chaos and carnage. “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey I” was laughably bad in every way and “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey II” while not exactly “good”, was a vast improvement and provided said chaos and carnage. “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” surprisingly took itself more serious and not created for laughs. “Bambi: The Reckoning” seems to find itself somewhere in the middle of “Blood and Honey II” and “Neverland Nightmare”.

Now, the movie isn’t long, clocking in at about an hour and 20 minutes long, and it could be due to the fact that the movie started at midnight, but I did find the pacing to be just a tad slow at times. I wasn’t dozing off watching, but there have been a few moments that felt like not much was going on. But like I said before, there were a few fun moments scattered through the film’s runtime, I just wish there was more of it.

The previous movies rely on costumes and practical effects for the most part. I remember some CGI being used for a certain scene in “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey II” but other than that, it was mostly practical. This movie, however, relies on a CGI monster deer rampaging in the woods, and it looked fine, in my opinion. There were a few moments where Bambi didn’t really blend well within the environment, but it really wasn’t as bad as it could have been for a movie of this nature. Trust me, I’ve seen way worse CGI on other films.

Overall, I’d say that “Bambi: The Reckoning” is passable for the B-movie horror crowd, but I don’t think it quite lived up to the batshit crazy potential that I was expecting. It did have some fun moments where I easily busted out laughing, I just would have liked to have had more of that. I reckon that the “Poohniverse” movie will provide that chaos I was hoping to see here, but this newest entry was a fun enough watch leading up to it. If you’ve been following the “Poohniverse” films, this is obviously a must watch, but to anyone else, I can not in good conscience recommend it for someone to watch.

3 stars