MOVIES - July 22, 1988

Psychologist Louise Bates Ames--who contended in USA Today recently that the 1942 Walt Disney animated film “Bambi” may be too upsetting for some very young children to watch--now says she’s surprised by the public outcry over her comments. “I don’t have a vendetta against Bambi. I really don’t give a darn. It was just my personal opinion,” Ames said Wednesday. In the film, which is currently in re-release, Bambi the fawn loses her mother to a hunter’s bullet. “It’s a movie in which a child loses its mother, and there is no resolution,” Ames said. “I felt it would be too hard for many children.” Countered Disney spokesman Howard Green: “Children have been seeing (“Bambi”) since 1942, and I don’t think any damage has been done.”