I really wish Bambi was remembered more as a serious and mature drama about animals living in the woods instead of a cutesy little kids movie about cute baby animals.
It feels most people just remember Bambi as this:
-Bambi is born
-Bambi and his cute little animal friends do cute shit
- Bambi’s mom dies (only dark and sad part)
- Bambi grows up and finds love
-Bambi has babies
-The end
And yes I know the scenes with Bambi as a fawn are adorable but that’s a necessary part of the film. It’s his childhood, he’s learning about the world and having fun with his friends to show as children do. And even his childhood scenes have their dark and intense moments.
This example is way lighter than the later ones I’ll be giving but during the last half of “Little April Showers” Bambi experiences his first thunderstorm and it frightens him. Again, pretty tame but I can definitely see how this part could scare some kids watching.
Now this is a more intense one. When Bambi’s mother takes him on his first trip to the meadow she stops him from excitedly running out by warning him that there could be danger. She then slowly examines the meadow to make sure the coast is clear and it’s done very slowly is very suspenseful, especially if you’ve never seen it but know what happens to Bambi’s mom (which everyone does because it’s common knowledge now).
Then there’s much later in the scene where the Great Prince warns everyone about Man’s presence and during the panic Bambi gets separated from his mother before his father finds him and helps him get back to her
(I hit the image limit so sadly I won’t be using screenshots going forward)
And of course there’s the famous heartbreaking scene: Bambi’s mother’s death. The terror when Bambi’s mother spots Man and runs away with Bambi, yelling at him not to look back and to keep running (her telling him not to look back implies she knows there’s a chance she’ll get shot…I’m tearing up typing this I’m ngl). Bambi gets away but we hear a gunshot off-screen…
When Bambi gets to safety and realizes his mother isn’t with him, he goes on a long search for her, calling for her into the night. Suddenly his father appears and tells him those heartbreaking words: “Your mother can’t be with you anymore.”
Bambi’s in shock…then slowly lowers his head in mourning before looking back up at his father with tears in his eyes…
Bambi’s father takes him in, and from that moment Bambi’s blissful childhood days are gone.
Fast-forward much later after Bambi’s grown up and after he’s become “twitterpated” with Faline. His adorable little love-struck fantasy with Faline is interrupted when a rival Buck (Ronno) fights for Faline’s affection. Bambi and Ronnie have a pretty intense fight, and of course Bambi comes out victorious.
(As a side-note from the dark stuff, the scene afterwards of Bambi and Faline having a romantic night while “I Bring You a Song” plays is just so beautiful. This is such a gorgeous film).
Now’s when the film gets really suspenseful. Bambi wakes up and sees smoke in the forest, and his father appears and tells him Man has returned. His father tells Bambi to come with him, but he remembers that Faline is still sleeping and he needs to get her. Faline wakes up and notices Bambi is gone and goes searching for him, leading her to get chased by hunting dogs before Bambi shows up just in the nick of time to fight them off.
Meanwhile the forest animals all look for shelter to hide from Man, leading to this absolutely horrifying scene of a pheasant panicking.
Back at Man’s campsite, their campfire spreads which of course results in the forest fire. I don’t really need to analyze why the forest fire is terrifying, of course a forest fire is terrifying, but I will talk about how after Bambi successfully fights the dogs off he gets shot. He tries getting up but is too wounded until his father shows up and encourages him to get up. Once he gets back on his feet, he and his father escape their burning home and safely reach an island where all the animals have escaped to and Bambi and Faline reunite.
And finally the happy ending. It’s Spring and the forest may still be burnt but there’s flowers and plants growing on the burnt stumps, showing that even after catastrophe, the forest will still regrow. Friend Owl is once again woken up to news that fawns have been born, and among the animals rushing over to see the new fawns are Bambi’s childhood friends Thumper and Flower, now with children of their own (also I just wanna mention that I love that Flower named his son Bambi after his best friend).
We then see that there’s not one but TWO fawns (the original book Bambi: A Life in the Woods that the film is based on has a sequel book called Bambi’s Children where Bambi has a son named Geno and a daughter named Gurri, if you’ve ever wondered if those fawns have names).
The films ends with Bambi and his father standing on a cliff looking over the new prince and princess, Bambi and his father glance at each other and his father leaves Bambi to look over his children, symbolizing Bambi as the new prince of the forest.
So yeah, it feels like this movie is mostly just remembered as a sugary sweet movie about cute baby animals shitting rainbows where only one sad thing happens but I just really wish it was remembered more as the serious film it really is.
