Patrick Stewart: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. The Great Prince of the Forest - Bambi II (2006)

Before John Lasseter became head of Walt Disney Animation, the studio had embarked upon a wave of straight-to-video sequels, prequels and midquels to many of its most famous titles. Most of these were made on tiny budgets by people who had no real understanding of the originals, and nearly all of them are either offensively bad or shockingly dull. But Bambi II deserves special derision, tackling a part of the original story that was unimportant and making it even less interesting.

Despite its title, Bambi II is not a sequel but a midquel. It takes place in the middle of the action of the first film, between the death of Bambi's mother at the hands of hunters and the flash-forward to birds twittering in the forest with Bambi now all grown up. It involves Bambi (Alexander Gould) being taken in by his dad (Stewart), who is forced to take care of him when a suitable doe cannot be found. The rest of the film is a mix of third-rate slapstick, awkward father-son bonding and a rival called Ronno, who gets his comeuppance at the hands (or beak) of a turtle.

Stewart isn't the first big-name star to take the Disney straight-to-video shilling: George Carlin turned up in the equally pointless Tarzan II just a year earlier. But while Carlin manages to put something of a stamp on the role, Stewart seems as completely disinterested as we are. He makes no effort to push the character in an interesting direction, being so sure of where he has to end up that he doesn't do the emotional legwork in the meantime. The whole film is boring and lazy as hell, but Stewart is especially lazy here and it remains his worst performance to date.

How would you rank Patrick Stewart's best and worst movies? Share your ranking below in the comments thread.