BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 30, 2024
How old were you when you first watched “Bambi,” the animated Disney classic? Those sweeping landscapes of forests and mountains, those idyllic scenes of flowers, fields and woodland creatures are all inspired by Maine — and in fact, the film is actually set in Maine. That’s thanks almost entirely to Maurice “Jake” Day, a Damariscotta-born artist and animator who by the late 1930s was one of the top talents at Walt Disney Studios. Day — an established outdoors illustrator for magazines and publishing houses — was sought by Disney himself to add a painterly touch to his movies, specifically for his upcoming animated adaptation of the book “Bambi, a Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten.