Bambi “Little April Shower” (1942)

Bambi opens, as several Disney films do, with a birth, Bambi’s birth that is. All the animals of the forest are gathering to greet the young Prince (in the original novel, deer are regarded as “Princes” of the forest, while elk are “kings.”) The movie quickly flashes forward to Bambi strolling around the forest with his mother, but still mute. This changes when Bambi meets Thumper, a hyperactive young rabbit, who proceeds to teach him how to talk (there is a humorous exchange where Bambi learns to say “Bird.”) Shortly afterward, thunder rings out in the distance and the two go their separate ways and head home. This leads to the introduction of “Little April Shower,” a song about a rainstorm. Interestingly, this song was originally going to be called “I like Falling” (referring to the raindrops).

If you watch the opening the song you’ll hear four separate notes in the introduction as the raindrops begin falling. In a previous version, those notes were supposed to be words (something like this): “I, I, I, I, like, fall, -ing, I, Iike, fall, -ing, I like falling, I like falling, etc.) Ultimately, the animators decided that this was detracting from the quality of the song and the song was modified into its current version.

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound?
Beautiful sound, beautiful sound
Drip, drop, drip, drop

Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
Your pretty music will
Brighten the day

Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along with a
Song right away
Come with your beautiful music

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound?

As the rain picks up in intensity, we see various animals running for cover, including a little field mouse who takes shelter under various objects or animals until he reaches the safety of his nest.

Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along, come along with your
Pretty little song
Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
You come along, come along with your
Pretty little song

Gay little roundelay
Gay little roundelay
Song of the rainy day
Song of the rainy day
How I love to hear your patter
Pretty little pitter patter
Helter-skelter when you pelter
Troubles always seem to scatter

Bambi finally tries to sleep, but as Bambi’s mom suddenly looks upward, you know something is about to happen. And sure enough, as the song briefly fades away, the sky fills with lightning! When I was very young, this scene used to scare me because it’s filled with bright flashes and loud noises (and I used to be terrified of thunderstorms). Poor Bambi is petrified and we see various scenes of the the forest reacting to the storm. Eventually, the storm passes with a last roll of thunder and Bambi and his mother go back to sleep, while the song slowly fades away (as do the increasingly slow drops of rain).

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound?

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune as you fall all around
Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare with your beautiful sound?
Beautiful sound

One of the things I like about this song is it ends as it began, with the rain drops slowly plunking down one by one, until all you hear is the “plink” of the clarinet that becomes slower and slower, until finally it fades away.

Let me know what you think about “Little April Shower” in the comments below and have a great day!