Ronno

Ronno
Character Information
Species	Deer
Fur color	Dark reddish brown
Eye color	Brown (first film) Green (midquel)
Aliases	The Rival Stag
Parents	Unnamed mother
Love Interests	Faline
Behind the Scenes
First Appeared	August 1922
In	Bambi: A Life in the Woods
Created by	Felix Salten
Voiced by	Anthony Ghannam

Ronno is an enemy of Bambi. He first appeared in Bambi: A Life in the Woods.

Background

Personality

Ronno is not a very kind deer. He is disrespectful to everyone, including his own mother. He yells at her for constantly interrupting him while he's trying to "make new friends." However, whenever there's danger, he still yells: "Mommy!" He is a bully, braggart, a liar, a coward, a wimp, and manipulative and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

He hates Bambi out of extreme jealousy, because he's the son of the Great Prince of the Forest. He also develops a crush on Faline, but she hates him, because he's a bully.

Physical appearance

As a fawn, Ronno had dark auburn fur, green eyes, a torn right ear, and budding antlers.

As an adult, Ronno remains the same but his eyes changed from green to brown and his antlers have three points on them.

Judging by his appearance, Ronno is roughly a few months older than Bambi since as fawns, Ronno had budding antlers and no spots whilst Bambi had no antlers and still had spots. As adults, Ronno has three points on his antlers whilst Bambi only has two.

Biography

Sources differ greatly on Ronno's exact age, except that he was a few months older than Bambi. What is known is that he was born to an unknown doe, and he was a teenager with sprouting antlers when he and Bambi first met.

One source has Ronno meeting Bambi in the Spring when Bambi was still a fawn. They were introduced to each other, along with Bambi's friend, Faline, and immediately became rivals.

According to the 1923 book, Ronno was already an adult during Bambi's first winter. Sometime before meeting Bambi, he was injured by Man, who shot his leg and gave him a permanent, slight limp. He would spend much time that winter conversing with and enjoying the company of Bambi, Bambi's mother, Ena, Faline, Gobo, Marena, Karus, and Nettla. One day, the forest was attacked by Man, who killed many animals that day, including Bambi's mother. Ronno saw Bambi shortly after his mother had disappeared and was elusive towards the fawn, presumably not wishing to explain to him what had happened to his mother.

According to another source, Ronno would not meet Bambi until after the Bambi's mother died, in stark contrast to the other accounts which show him as knowing Bambi before his mother's death. As per this account, he met Bambi, Faline, Thumper, Flower, and Thumper's sisters shortly after scaring the groundhog, who had just predicted that an early spring would arrive for the forest. Ronno was still a fawn at this point, and his antlers had just started to come in. After realizing that his groundhog-scaring was impressing no one, he instead tried to impress Bambi and his friends with his stubby antlers that he had nicknamed "Stab" and "Jab". When this failed, too, he told them a story of how he had encountered Man on the meadow, which, yet again, failed to garner much of a positive response from the group, who called his story "unbelievable".

Though he failed to initially gain the approval of Bambi and his friend group, he continued to pursue relationships with them, focusing specifically on impressing Faline after developing a crush on her. He bragged and boasted in front of her, but she still remained unimpressed. One day, he and Faline were with each other when they heard the screams of Bambi, who had just been stabbed by the Porcupine. Ronno tried to persuade Faline not to follow the sounds of the screams, callously remarking that the sound was "probably just some poor, dumb animal caught in a trap". Faline ignored his advice and rushed to help Bambi, who was still in good health, despite the injury. Ronno joined Faline and Bambi and immediately began mocking Bambi for an incident in which he froze in fear at the sight of the Man's hunting dogs and then mocked him for being friends with Thumper and Flower. This angered Thumper who pushed Bambi and knocked down Ronno, setting off a wild chase as Ronno angrily raced after Bambi and Thumper. He was stopped from getting to and possibly hurting Bambi when the latter managed to jump over a large chasm, a jump Ronno was not able to make, since he fell into the mud.

He did not meet with Bambi again until he learned that Bambi's father was sending him away to be with Mena. Ronno took this opportunity to mock Bambi for having "a father that's so ashamed of him." This angered Bambi, who began to fight Ronno. The two fought until their fighting pushed Mena into one of Man's snare traps. The ensuing sound of dogs rushing to find the trapped animal put fear into Ronno, who fled the area immediately, screaming: "Mommy!"

Later, when Ronno sees Bambi again, he tells him that they'll meet again, and he was attacked by a turtle, and ran away screaming: "Mommy!"

According to the 1923 book, both Ronno and his friend, Karus began bullying Bambi once his antlers started to grow in.

When Bambi pursued a romantic relationship with Faline, Ronno stepped in between them, and tried to take Faline with him, but Bambi fought back, and a violent fight erupted between them, since Ronno still wanted Faline as his mate. According to one source, the fight ended when a badly-injured Ronno surrendered to Bambi, while another source shows that the fight ended when Bambi threw Ronno off of a cliff and into a river. Bambi won the fight and became Faline's mate.

What happened to Ronno after their fight is entirely unknown. It's possible he either died of his injuries, was shot to death by Man, or died in the forest fire.

Quotes

"If we didn't have cowards, we couldn't tell who the brave ones are."

"Oh, wook! It's the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk. Does the Young Pwince play with the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk?"

"Hello, Princess."

"It's got to be hard to have a father that's so ashamed of you that he'd give you away."

"Name's Ronno, and these are the boys, Stab and Jab."

Relationships

Bambi

A teenage Ronno taunts Bambi

Ronno first met Bambi when they were fawns, though sources vary on how old Ronno himself was at the time. One source has him as a young spotted fawn, another shows that he was a growing teenager with budding antlers, and another claims that he was a fully mature adult, possibly about the same age as Bambi's mother. According to many sources, the two were essentially rivals from the outset, thanks to Ronno's meanness. One source says that Ronno and Bambi met on the meadow. There, Ronno tricked the Bambi into getting close to Man, though the human which he saw was, in truth, just a harmless child. Another source says that Ronno first met Bambi, Thumper, Flower, Faline, and Thumper's sisters on Groundhog Day after he scared the Groundhog in an attempt to humor everyone. Their rivalry began shortly afterwards as Ronno apparently became jealous of Bambi's popularity. Another account claims that Ronno, a full-grown adult who had already been wounded once by Man, met Bambi, Faline, Bambi's mother, Ena, Gobo, Karus, Nettla, and Marena during Bambi's first winter. In this account, Ronno was at first very friendly towards Bambi, only becoming rough towards him after Bambi's mother died and Bambi became an adult and his rival for Faline's affections.

Ronno was jealous of Bambi's friendships, especially with Faline, happily throwing Bambi, Thumper, and Flower, all of whom are friends with Faline, under the bus while simultaneously gracing Faline with long-winded, exaggerated accounts of his bravery and heroism. Still, despite his willingness to mock Bambi, it's worth noting that according to one account, Ronno told his mother that he was "trying to make new friends" when picking on Bambi. Ronno also hated Bambi out of jealousy, because he was the son of the Great Prince of the Forest.

Bambi and Ronno fighting as adults

Ronno's jealousy continued into adulthood, as Bambi and Faline fell in love, which caused a violent battle for Faline. Bambi proved to be smarter and stronger, throwing Ronno off of a cliff and into a river according to some sources and injuring him otherwise according to another source. Indeed, a physical fight seems to be the logical conclusion of Ronno and Bambi's relationship. Even if he ever pictured him as a "friend," Ronno was still always abrasive, bullying, and hurtful towards Bambi, pulling nasty pranks on him, belittling him by calling him names, and deriding him for his family issues. The only source which disputes this is the one which states that Ronno was an adult during Bambi's childhood. According to that source, Ronno was somewhere from friendly to apathetic to Bambi until he became a rival for Faline's affections.

Ronno's mother

Perhaps one of the few who tolerates Ronno is his own mother. Though she is always kind towards him, he can be quite derogatory towards her, chiding her for constantly interrupting him while he was "trying to make new friends." Despite his mistreatment of her, he still sees her as a source of protection and safety. During his childhood, he would yell: "Mommy!" at the sight of danger. Whether or not they have a relationship when Ronno is an adult is unknown.

Behind the Scenes

Ronno first appeared in the 1923 novel Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. He was first depicted as a friend of a fawn Bambi and his mother. After Bambi grew into an adult, Ronno became one of the two stags to battle him for Faline's affections, the other being Karus.

Twenty years later, he appeared in the 1942 film Bambi, though his role was greatly diminished. In this animated movie, he appeared in no scenes during Bambi's childhood, but he made one appearance after Bambi was fully grown. He was also given no lines or backstory, and his fellow stag, Karus, was completely written out of the story. Nevertheless, Ronno's onscreen fight with Bambi was an important moment in the film and allowed the animators to become creative with their use of color, with the shades of colors seen during the fight representing who (Ronno or Bambi) was winning.

The model sheet which reveals the Rival Stag to be named Ronno.

Ronno's name was not actually mentioned during the course of the animated Bambi. Prior the film's release, a comic strip adaptation written by Merrill De Maris was released which simply referred to him as "The Rival Stag." Despite this elusiveness about his name and identity, it seems that the Rival Stag was indeed intended by Walt Disney Studios to be Ronno as opposed to Karus or a totally new character. This assumption is derived from a comparative size sheet for the making of the film dated May 31, 1940 which assigns the name "Ronno" to the character.

Ronno also appeared in Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, which established their rivalry as having begun in their youth. It depicted the two as being roughly the same age, in contrast to Bambi: A Life in the Woods which had Ronno be older than Bambi and more so a part of the generation of Bambi's mother.

Disney's version of Ronno was expanded upon significantly in the 2006 midquel, Bambi II. Here, Ronno appeared as a fawn only slightly older than Bambi. He was portrayed as a haughty, obnoxious, and arrogant bully who taunts Bambi while developing a crush on Faline. His appearance in the movie was reminiscent of Ronno from the 1942 film, bearing his darker shades of fur. Interestingly, Ronno's eye color in Bambi II is green even though he had brown eyes in Bambi. Still, despite the difference in eye color and personality, they were almost certainly intended to be the same, with Ronno's promise at the end of Bambi II that he and Bambi will meet again clearly foreshadowing their encounter in Bambi (which takes place later than Bambi II chronologically despite being released earlier) and with Bambi and Ronno briefly fighting in Bambi II in a manner identical to their fight in Bambi.