Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Bambi (1942)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

Bambi (1942)

In Disney's classic feature-length animation - the visually-beautiful and musically-expressive film with a multiplane camera, and based on the 1923 Felix Salten story - about the maturing of Bambi and illustrating the struggles, turmoil, and changes that accompanied the changing of seasons, the passage of time, and life's survival, as the young fawn came of age and completed the cycle of life:

  • the highly-realistic opening birth scene ("the new prince is born") of a young fawn named Bambi in the depths and undergrowth of the forest - beautifully realized
  • as Bambi grew up in coming-of-age scenes, he walked through the forest, and stumbled over his spindly legs and had trouble with his footing when taught how to walk/run by his cute, energetic and lovable rabbit friend Thumper; during Bambi's first winter, Thumper offered lessons for Bambi on how to slide across the ice - causing Bambi to end up spread-eagled
  • other friends included bashful skunk Flower, Owl, and many other forest creatures, especially a female fawn named Faline
  • during Bambi's first visit to the meadow with his mother, he had a glimpse of his father - The Great Prince, who warned the other animals of the approach of Man - a hunter
  • in the most traumatic scene (with the sound of a gunshot off-screen), Bambi's mother was murdered by Man - a hunter in a snow-covered meadow; and the small fawn who had escaped harm gave fearful cries of "Mother, where are you?" during a raging snowstorm
The Traumatic Scene of the Death of Bambi's Mother by Man
  • Bambi's buck father's delivered a fateful message about her death to Bambi: ("Your mother can't be with you anymore") - one of the saddest sequences in film history
  • as Bambi matured into a young stag, wise old Owl delivered a humorous sex-education speech on the power of falling in love ("twitterpatted"); at around that time, both Flower and Thumper found romantic counterparts
  • Bambi courted pretty young doe Faline, but was interrupted by a rival older buck deer named Ronno, and Bambi was forced to fight for Faline's affection, in an expressionistically-filmed fight sequence
  • in another terrifying scene during the return and approach of hunters, Bambi protected Faline from a pack of mad and vicious hunting dogs unleashed by Man; although Bambi was wounded, he survived
  • three fearful pheasants cornered in the tall grass were also worried about their predicament; the most scared one exclaimed: "Listen, he's coming...He's coming closer!...We'd better fly"; others whispered: "Hush. Be quiet...Be calm. Don't get excited"; there was a warning and a plea: "No, no, don't fly. Whatever you do, don't fly!" - but the fearful pheasant did fly upwards as it shouted out: ("He's almost here. I can't stand it any longer!") - and was shot down; the lifeless body tumbled to the ground, followed by a flurry of feathers - and scattering of all the other animals
  • the forest was destroyed by a chaotic and raging wildfire (carelessly caused by a campfire set by Man), and the animals were helplessly caught in the conflagration as they attempted to flee
  • in the final springtime scene, a grown Bambi (with the recent birth of twins with Faline) proudly took his place and stood with his 'Prince of the Forest' father, silhouetted against the sky, before he ascended to the top position in the herd when his father stepped aside (and presumably passed on)

On the Ice with Thumper


Fearful Pheasants At the Approach of Hunters


Forest Fire


Bambi Proudly Standing with His Father: "Prince of the Forest"

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