With the steady flow of Disney’s straight-to-video sequels, some purists were initially skeptical about the company’s recent release of Bambi II. However, the sequel to David Hand’s 1942 classic has done remarkably well in DVD stores and in overseas territories where it was released theatrically. Directed by Brian Pimental, the feature has also received strong reviews from critics around the world.

The sequel picks up at precisely the moment in which Bambi looks back in the snow after the fatal gunshot before he follows his emotionally distant father, the Great Prince of the Forest, deeper into the woods. Instead of having a heavy plot line, the film focuses on the gradual growing relationship between Bambi (voiced by Finding Nemo ace Alexander Gould) and his father (voiced marvelously by Patrick Stewart), how each learn from the other and how they cope together over the death of a loved one.

“I just couldn’t wrap my head around a story that didn’t deal in some way with the loss of his mother,” says director Brian Pimental. A Disney veteran who has worked on numerous animated features in the past two decades, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan. “Knowing that there must have been some connection there also from his father, the Great Prince. They were such polar opposites in their characters, it just lent itself to a good story. Bambi was so needy and so helpless, and the Great Prince was so self-sufficient and so isolated.”