Bambi is a 1942 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13, 1942. The fifth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is based on the 1923 book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten. The main characters are Bambi, the young prince of the forest, his parents (the Great Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother), and his friends Thumper (a white nosed rabbit), Flower (a skunk), and his childhood friend and future mate, Faline (also a white-tailed deer). For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing Bambi's species into a White-tailed deer from his original species of Roe Deer, since roe deer don't inhabit the United States, and the white-tailed deer is much more familiar.
The story of the natural life cycle—birth, death and re-birth—is the true plot of the film. It is a case study in the very basics of life: the "doe-eyed" innocence of childhood; parental love; discovering and learning about the world around us (both its beauty and its danger); loss and grief; developing friendships; loyalty; balancing risk and need; growing toward independence; being at one and in harmony with nature; and romantic love.
Like the majority of Walt Disney's feature-length animated narratives, Bambi embraces both joy and tragedy. Bambi is a movie that alternates frequently between these two extremes, with the one typically being used to set up the other. For instance, the joy of Bambi's first walk through the forest is interrupted by a frightening thunderstorm. His first visit to the meadow is joyful until it is interrupted by hunters who fire upon Bambi and his mother.
The pivotal scene in the movie involves Bambi's mother and her death at the hands of a hunter. In the sequence, the audience sees the joy/tragedy motif used again. The scene is set in late winter, and Bambi and his mother struggle to find food as mournful music plays. Joy is felt as they discover a patch of new grass, signaling the arrival of Spring, and joyful music is heard on the soundtrack. As they feast, the mood changes again, and we hear Man approach off-screen, represented only by his theme music (a low, three-note motif). Bambi's mother suddenly catches Man's scent, and orders her child to run, but she is too late. As they flee across the snow field, shots ring out. The camera stays with young Bambi as he runs through the forest, finally stopping to catch his breath. He notices at this time (as does the audience) that his mother is nowhere to be seen.
In a series of heartbreaking dissolves, Bambi wanders desperately through the forest calling for her, but no answer comes. Bambi is startled by the sudden appearance of his father, the Great Prince, who informs him that his mother can't be with him any more. Bambi casts his head to the ground, and when he lifts it again, the audiences see that he is crying, realizing what has happened. Bambi follows his father into the forest, taking one last look back as he leaves his childhood and innocence behind.
The movie then skips (very abruptly) forward in time to the spring, when Bambi, Thumper, Flower, and Faline are all seen having grown up to adulthood. They become "twitterpated" over potential mates. Bambi and Faline become a couple, however their happiness is threatened by Ronno, a buck who is himself after Faline. He fights with Bambi and at first seems to have the upper hand until Bambi somehow manages to wound Ronno in his shoulder and throw him from the clifftop on which they were fighting. Ronno falls from the cliff and into the river, from which he is not seen again.
Man enters the forest again, and is responsible for a forest fire that sends all the life in the forest running for refuge in a river. Faline is cornered by hunting dogs while fleeing, and is rescued only when Bambi bravely fights them off. Bambi and his father barely escape.
The film ends with the birth of Bambi and Faline's two fawns, with Bambi standing proudly at the top of the mountain, looking down at them proudly as his father did at his own birth.
The death of Bambi's mother is one of the most famous moments in American film history, a moment so upsetting to certain children that they had to be carried sobbing out of the theater during Bambi's numerous theatrical presentations. For this reason, and because of the horror and violence of the climactic hunting/forest fire sequence, many critics question the suitability of Bambi as a film appropriate for very young audiences. When Bambi was shown duing the Christmas period in December 2006 on UK channel ITV 2, the scene of the death of Bambi's mother and the Prince telling Bambi of her death was edited out. When one takes Bambi together with the other Disney feature films created during the same period of the early 40s, such as the dark Pinocchio, the powerful Fantasia, and the serious Victory Through Air Power, one can see an attempt by Walt Disney to produce films pushing against the stereotype of Disney animation being "children's films". Nonetheless, it was more than forty years before Disney featured the death of a parent in the form of Tod's mom in the Fox and the Hound, and more than fifty years before they featured the on-screen death of a main character who wasn't a villain (Mufasa in The Lion King). The unseen "Man" has also became the most hated villain in animation history & has been placed #20 on AFI's List of Heroes and Villians.
Young Bambi: "What happened, mother? Why did we all run?"
Bambi's Mother: "Man was in the forest."
Thumper: "'Eating greens is a special treat, It makes long ears and great big feet. But it sure is awful stuff to eat.' I made that last part up myself."
Thumper: "He doesn't walk very good, does he?"
Thumper's Mother: "Thumper!"
Thumper: "Yes, mama?" [sheepishly]
Thumper's Mother: "What did your father tell you this morning?"
Thumper: [clears throat] "If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all. " [bashfully]
Thumper: "He doesn't walk very good, does he?"
Thumper's Mother: "Thumper!"
Thumper: "Yes, mama?" [sheepishly]
Thumper's Mother: "What did your father tell you this morning?"
Thumper: [clears throat] "If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all. " [bashfully]
Thumper: "I'm thumpin! That's why they call me Thumper!"
Thumper: "Whatcha doin'? Hibernatin'? "
Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] "Well! What's the matter with them?"
Thumper: "Why are they acting that way?"
Friend Owl: "Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated."
Flower, Bambi, Thumper: "Twitterpated?"
Friend Owl: "Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!"
Thumper: "Gosh, that's awful."
Flower: "Gee whiz."
Bambi: "Terrible!"
Friend Owl: "And that ain't all. It could happen to anyone, so you'd better be careful." [points at Bambi]
Friend Owl: "It could happen to you…" [points at Thumper]
Friend Owl: "… or you, or even..." [Flower looks at Owl shyly]
Friend Owl: "Yes, it could even happen to you!"
Thumper: "Well, it's not gonna happen to me."
Bambi: "Me neither."
Flower: "Me neither."
Friend Owl: "Same thing every spring. 'Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet! Tweet-tweet, tweet-tweet!' Love's sweet song. Hm! Pain in the pinfeathers, I call it!"
Friend Owl: "I was talking to myself about you the other day, we were wondering what became of you."