Ornament Review: Lambert the Sheepish Lion - Storybook Classics Collection #4 - 2016 Disney Store Ornament

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Rare character captured in a great ornament

Cons: Moment captured is not a happy one

The Bottom Line:

Disney character

You don’t see often captured

In good ornament

Lambert Doesn’t Make a Sheepish Ornament

When my younger brother was picture book age, we discovered the wonderful picture books of Bill Peet.  A couple of years later, we discovered that he’d worked for Disney.  In fact, he was heavily involved in some of the films and shorts, even turning a picture book idea of his that wasn’t working into the short “Lambert the Sheepish Lion.”  So when they announced a Lambert ornament as part of the Storybook Classics Collection ornament series, I was super excited.

If you aren’t familiar with the short, it tells the story of Lambert, a lion who is accidentally delivered by a hapless stork (voiced by the short’s narrator and Disney regular Sterling Holloway) to a flock of sheep.  He is mocked by the other lambs until one day a wolf comes and tried to eat Lambert’s mothers.  Naturally, something clicks inside him, he finds his inner lion, and he saves the day.  By the time I saw the short, I knew the Bill Peet story behind it, but if I didn’t, I would have recognized his fingerprints all over it.  It feels like a Bill Peet book with themes that he went back to for many of his books.

This ornament comes before the heroic climax.  Instead, it captures a moment when Lambert has been pushed into the lake by one of his “brothers.”  Lambert is sitting in the water with a lily pad on his head.  There’s another one floating in the water near him.

No, this definitely isn’t a heroic moment, but it’s actually one of the most iconic moments in the short.  It perfectly captures his relationship with the rest of his flock until he saves the day.  It’s sad, but it’s hard to picture another moment that would work better, especially since anything heroic would be too big and involved to make a good ornament.

And this is a good ornament.  There isn’t much detail to be had outside the character himself, but any Disney fan would immediately recognize him.  In fact, this has been one of the bestselling ornaments in the Storybook Classics series to date.  The amount of detail we do get it appropriate for the ornament, like the ripples in the water.  It’s just that this is a simple scene captured, so there isn’t much needed.

The water provides a nice, flat base, so you can easily display him year round is you so desire.  But if you want to hang him, you’ll find a red ribbon already threaded through the loop on the top of the ornament.  He hangs straight.

Lambert is certainly a lesser known Disney short and character, but those who love the obscure were thrilled to get this ornament of him.  If you missed him, he’s definitely worth tracking down.

Don't miss a moment of the Storybook Classics Collection.

Original Price: $19.95