Unlike many other Disney classics, from “Cinderella” to “Frozen,” Bambi is not based on a fairy tale. It was adapted from “Bambi: A Life in the Woods,” a 1922 novel by the Austro-Hungarian writer and critic Felix Salten. However, while the book made Salten famous; the movie, which altered and overshadowed its source material, rendered him virtually unknown.

Source: New Yorker