Jan. 5, 2017

How ‘Bambi’ Got Its Look From 1,000-Year-Old Chinese Art

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The Chinese-American artist Tyrus Wong, who died last week at 106, was an incredibly accomplished painter, illustrator, calligrapher and Hollywood studio artist. But as Margalit Fox wrote in her obituary for Mr. Wong, “because of the marginalization to which Asian-Americans were long subject, he passed much of his career unknown to the general public.”

Work on ‘Bambi’

Mr. Wong is most renowned for his essential contribution to Walt Disney’s 1942 animated classic, “Bambi.” While he worked a drudge’s job at the Disney animation studio during the day, he spent nights painting hundreds of watercolors to show his own vision of the film’s look. Mr. Wong’s style emphasized the film’s animal characters in the foreground, evoking the lush surrounding forest with minimal brushwork, gentle washes and slashes of color.