Animation Source Forums

What moral lessons did you get from the Bambi movies?

How many boards have you posted this same question on, BF?

Only Bambi Source and Balto Source, JC.

I see the possibility of learning morals from the Balto movies, BF. I don't particularly see how there are any moral lessons imparted from the Bambi movies.

I thought the same exact thing, there really isn't anything that can be learned from Bambi movies. Being said, that makes this topic rather pointless, and should be locked.

EDIT: Unlocked by request. Play nice.

Thanks Roi. I'll be on my best behavior.


I don't know about that. I've been looking over the movie for a Sourcecast review, and I noticed several lessons which, trivial as they may seem, are perhaps even more important in today's world than they were when the film was first produced.

Lesson One: Differences do not have to equal boundaries. The whole movie is full of that one, from things spread throughout like Friend Owl being a reasonably nice guy (ordinarily half the animals in the movie would be on his dinner menu) to small details like the Chipmunk and squirrel hanging out. In reality, they wouldn't normally share the treespace; chipmunks live in burrows.

Lesson Two: Sometimes love means rebuke. Like I pointed out some time ago with one of my fan images, Bambi's mother told him "no" (a veritable taboo in many circles today) to keep him alive. And Thumper's mom shows a fine example of keeping a kid in line while (clearly) not hindering his ability to have fun. Contrast that to some of the more typical depictions of authority, and you should see a noteworthy gap (compare these Disney parents to Sir Ector from The Sword in the Stone, for instance).

Lesson Three: Welcome the undesirables. Ordinarily, skunks would be just below mountain lions and wolverines on the "do not want" list of forest animals. In Bambi's eyes, however, Flower was welcome as a friend, and his scent is never presented as a problem (and as I understand it, even disarmed skunks tend to be rather odiferous).

Lesson Four: Respect your elders, and don't look down your nose at men. Let's face it, the aged, and particularly older men, tend to get a bum's rush in today's animation, and sometimes in the Disney classics too. Maybe I've only seen all the wrong shows, but from what I've seen of sitcoms and cartoons alike, dads are often depicted as dumb, often accompanied by such "endearing" traits as being goofy, overbearing, and sometimes even downright sleazy. Those who do have reasonable levels of intelligence and integrity are depicted as borderline totalitarian; just watch Lady and the Tramp 2 or The Little Mermaid for some examples. By contrast, the worst anyone could say about the Great Prince was that he was detached, and let's face it, he had a lot on his shoulders. This ties in to Lesson Two also.

Lesson Five: Think about your actions. All I have to say here is one word: Campfire.

For a film about nature, which is, let's face it, often pretty amoral in its workings, that's quite a bit of morality. In fact, out of the categories of content I've been looking at in the film, it seems as though the moral content equals all three of the other categories combined, including the infamous violence (forest fire, hunters, etc.) that make Bambi so distinctive in the world of classic Disney. All in all, not too shabby in my book.

All are fine points, DT. But this one, I could kick myself in the pants for not realizing:

As subtle as it was, it was still a VERY important lesson that should've been in the audiences face. I think it wasn't emphasized on enough though.

Those are all excellent points, a lot of which I never would have thought of.
One I could point out (though it perhaps is fairly obvious) is never to take advantage of the people and things you love, and treat them as if you may lose them the next day, because in fact you never know. Be grateful for all that you have because others sometimes are not as lucky. Living in and of itself is a gorgeous blessing.

Thank you. And I agree, that's one theme a lot of people have touched on in fanfics about the Great Prince. I'll have to remember that one.

My apologies for missing this earlier; my poor excuse is that I usually notice only the newest post. You're right; admittedly I only noticed that point when I watched the commentary at the end of the video.

If it makes you feel any better, they did make these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf7zfF74-Qw

There were others like that, though I can't find them. In fact, its interesting to note that Bambi was evidently the face of Fire Safety even before Smokey came along.