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Bambi's mother was the wife of the Great Prince of the Forest and the mother of their son, Bambi. She was featured in the 1922 book Bambi: A Life in the Woods and the 1942 Disney film, "Bambi." She also made a cameo appearance in the 2006 midquel, "Bambi II" in Bambi's dream about visiting her in Heaven.
Background[]
Little is known about her background. She seemed to have spent a portion of her childhood with her grandmother.[1] It is unknown if her parents died when she was young or if her grandmother was just active in her upbringing. Another doe named Ena is usually said to be her sister,[2] though some sources say that Ena is actually her cousin.[3] In a sense, both could be true. They could have been cousins, whose parents died when they were young, causing them to be raised as siblings by their grandmother. However, this is only speculation.
She was childhood friends with another doe named Mena.
She was still young when she met a young male deer, who would become The Great Prince of the Forest. They eventually fell in love and they had a son, who seems to have been born either on December 22[4] or sometime in March or April.[5] She named their son Bambi.
She loved Bambi more than anything, and she educated him about forest life, along with its dangers. Sadly, she was shot and killed by hunters, and the Great Prince tells Bambi: "Your mother can't be with you anymore. Come, my son." Devastated, Bambi goes with him to his den.
In the midquel, while Bambi is resting, he falls asleep and has a dream about visiting his mother in Heaven. In the dream, they nuzzle each other, and his mother gives him reassurance that everything will be okay, and that she's always there, even if he can't see her. After waking up, Bambi thought he heard his mother's voice, but it turned out to be one of Man's tricks. After his father yells at him for falling for the trick and freezing instead of running, Bambi apologizes, and before going to sleep, he asks: "She's never coming back, is she?" His father sadly lowers his head and answers: "No."
Later, when Bambi is a teenager, The Great Prince takes him to a glade in the forest where he first met his mother. Bambi asks him what he was like, and he admits that he was a lot like him at his age, much to the delight of his son.
Relationships[]
Ena[]
Depending on the source, Ena is either Bambi's mother's cousin[3] or sister.[2] Either way, the two are good friends and seem to get along quite well.
Bambi's Great-Grandmother[]
Bambi's great-grandmother was Bambi's mother's grandmother. They seem to have had a close relationship even after she was fully grown, she continued to firmly believe what her grandmother had taught her about the powers and abilities of Man.
Other Relationships:[]
- The Great Prince of the Forest - Husband
- Bambi - Son
- Gobo - Nephew
- Faline - Daughter-in-law
- Mena - Childhood friend
- Geno - Grandson
- Gurri - Granddaughter
- Ferto - Grandson
- Rolla - Sister (possibly)
Gallery[]
Bambi: A Life in the Woods[]
Bambi[]
Comics[]
Miscellaneous[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Bambi's mother was created by Felix Salten for his 1922 novel, Bambi: A Life in the Woods to serve as the mother of titular character, Bambi. She played an important, major role in the story during the first months of Bambi's life. Thus, she played a prominent role in the book's 1942 film adaptation, Bambi. Whereas she was referred to as a roe deer in Bambi: A Life in the Woods, her animated version was inspired by white-tailed and mule deer viewed by the animators in preparation for creating the film.
Her death in the film, which occurs only partially offscreen, has become one of the most remembered moments in the movie, likely for the shock created by a main character dying around the middle of the film, with this shock only being amplified by the fact that the character in question is the loving mother to another character. The movie's version of her death has also given birth to many fan theories about who her killer, Man, really was, with viewers attempting to tie Bambi to other Disney films by hypothesizing that Gaston of Beauty and the Beast or Judge Doom of Who Framed Roger Rabbit might have been guilty. The Judge Doom theory is actually rooted in some behind the scenes facts, as an earlier version of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit script reportedly had Eddie Valiant say that the person who killed his brother -- this culprit is later revealed to be Judge Doom -- was probably the same person that killed Bambi's mother.
The model for Bambi's mother has been reused numerous times by the Walt Disney Studios, though it's not totally clear if the deer seen is actually Bambi's mother in-universe or another deer that coincidentally looks the same. The model for Bambi's mother was reused and seen in the background of such films as "The Jungle Book" and "Beauty and the Beast".
Notes and References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bambi: A Life in the Woods
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Most printings of Bambi: A Life in the Woods
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ena is stated to be Bambi's mother's cousin in a 1931 reprinting of Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Grosset Dunlap
- ↑ Disneystrology associates Bambi with December 22, though it is unknown if that means that he was born on that day or not.
- ↑ Bambi was born not long before the day he learned to speak, as the squirrel is amazed that he's "walking already." These scenes take place in April, as indicated by the song Little April Shower, suggesting that Bambi was born in either late March or April. All of this is as per Bambi.