The Great Prince of Entire Meadow Forest

: "For of all the deer in the forest, not one has lived half so long. He's very brave and very wise. That's why he's known as the Great Prince of the Forest.”―Bambi's mother[src]
The Great Prince of The Meadow Forest is Bambi's father, the protector of the forest and a supporting character in Bambi, and the deuteragonist of its midquel Bambi II. He is the widower of Bambi's unnamed mother, and the grandfather of Bambi's twins, Geno and Gurri.
== Background ==
Little is known about the Great Prince's early life, except that as a young fawn, he went to a glade in the forest, and he met and fell in love with a young doe who would become Bambi's mother.
=== Personality ===
According to the Great Prince, he was a lot like Bambi when he was a fawn. As an adult, he is shown to be highly dignified, and he sometimes treats his son coldly without realizing it. Despite that, he loved his son more than anything else.
Although he has an intimidating appearance, the Great Prince has a very loving heart. After the death of Bambi's mother, the Great Prince was devastated, but he had to appear strong for his son, and he would get upset whenever Bambi mentioned her.
== Biography ==
=== Early-Life ===
The Great Prince might have been born on April 29 to an unknown doe. Very little is known about his fawnhood. When he was still young, he met a young doe, and they fell in love, and later produced a son, Bambi. At some point in his life, he gained the title and position of Great Prince of the Forest, though it is unknown when or how this happened.
=== Bambi (1942) ===
The Great Prince is first seen watching his wife and newborn son while standing on top of the hill. Later, while the other deer are enjoying the meadow, the Great Prince appears, causing all the other deer to stand still in reverence. The Great Prince stops and looks at Bambi, his ears move forward in curiosity, and he walks away. Bambi asks his mother why everyone was still when he came on the meadow, and she explains that everyone respects him for being the oldest surviving deer in the forest, and he's very brave and very wise. That's why he's known as the Great Prince of the Forest. A few moments later, the Great Prince senses danger and he signals for all the other deer to run. The Great Prince also finds a frightened Bambi, and leads him to his mother. After Bambi's mother was shot and killed by hunters, the Great Prince finds Bambi, and he tells him that his mother can't be with him anymore. Bambi sheds a single tear, and he tells him to come with him, calling him his son. After arriving at his father's den, Friend Owl comes to visit, and asks if he can be of any help. The Great Prince tells Friend Owl to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi, since it's the doe's job to raise fawns, but Friend Owl says that food is scarce in the winter, and that the does can barely feed themselves. The Great Prince then decides to let Bambi stay with him until Spring.
At one point during the winter, the Great Prince allows Bambi to go with his friends to see the groundhog, who is supposed to foretell the end of winter. Bambi and his friends then meet Ronno, a mean and vicious bully of a deer who scares away the groundhog, and taunts Bambi, along with calling Faline "Princess." His mother soon calls him, and he gets angry at her for constantly interrupting him when he was trying to "make new friends." Bambi later falls asleep, and he has a dream about visiting Heaven, and he sees his mother, and they nuzzle each other. Bambi tells her he misses her, and asks her why she had to go. His mother gives him reassurance that everything will be okay. Bambi later awakens to hearing his mother's voice calling him, but the calls turn out to be one of Man's tricks. Bambi freezes in fear after seeing 3 of Man's hunting dogs, and the Great Prince fights them off. After leaving the area, the Great Prince tells Bambi that it was one of Man's tricks, and he yells at him for freezing instead of running, like he was told to. Bambi apologizes to his father, and when they return to the den, Bambi asks about his mother coming back, and his father says no. The Great Prince then goes off by himself to be alone so he can calm himself down. When Spring comes, the Great Prince learns that Bambi made a jump over a large chasm, which impresses him, and he comments that he didn't make a jump like that until he had antlers. Afterward, Bambi and his father begin to bond by having fun together. Later, while the Great Prince and Bambi are playing, Friend Owl brings a doe named Mena, who was the childhood friend of Bambi's mother, to become Bambi's new mother. Bambi's asks his father why he was sending him away with Mena, and he tries to explain his reasons, but Bambi is too angry and hurt to listen, and he tells his father that he wishes his mother was there instead of him, and he runs off to tell his friends. The Great Prince then tells Friend Owl that everything is his own fault, because Bambi needs a mother, and that a prince should not be raising a child. Before leaving with Mena, Bambi runs back to his father and nuzzles his chest, and his father is surprised and sad to see Bambi go, but he believes it's for the best. After Bambi is attacked by Ronno, and they start fighting, the Great Prince finds Mena and rescues her from one of Man's traps after seeing that Bambi has driven off some of Man's dogs. As the Great Prince goes to Bambi, he sees him kick one of Man's dogs off the mountain, but when he jumps to another cliff, it collapses and Bambi falls. Afterward the Great Prince finds Bambi unconscious, and thinks he's dead, and he sheds a single tear. However, Bambi regains consciousness, much to the joy of his father. At the end of the film, the Great Prince takes a now teenage Bambi on a walk through the forest, showing the him a glade where the he first met Bambi's mother. Bambi asks his father what he was like, and he answers that he himself was a lot like him as a fawn, much to the joy of his son. Later, when Bambi is a young adult, Man returns to the forest (an entire group, as opposed to the last two times when there was just one), and the Great Prince orders Bambi to follow him deep into the forest, but Bambi is worried about his future mate, Faline. After an incident with Man and his dogs, Bambi is shot in the leg after jumping off a cliff. The Great Prince comes to Bambi and orders him to get up. A wildfire from Man's camp has broken out in the forest, and so the Great Prince helps Bambi swim to a safe area, where the other forest animals, including Faline, are waiting. The next spring, the Great Prince is standing next to Bambi on top of the hill watching Faline and their newborn twin fawns, Geno and Gurri. The Great Prince is happy that he lived long enough to become a grandfather, and he and Bambi look at each other, and he decides to retire and walks away, leaving Bambi to become the new Great Prince of the Forest.
== Gallery ==
== Trivia ==
* In the film, whenever the Great Prince speaks, we never see him actually speak. Either another character is the focus of the shot where he is speaking (usually Bambi) or his back is turned away from the camera.
* The Great Prince of the Forest is the only character whose voice actor in the midquel lived during the release of the first film.
* The Great Prince's age had been stated by his mate to be the oldest white-tailed deers living. He has been living longer than other deer over half of the years, possibly reaching over 7 years.
* The Great Prince of the Forest is the first character that Sir Patrick Stewart voiced after previously turning down the roles of several characters. All of which include King Triton, Cogsworth, Jafar, Zazu, Governor Ratcliffe, and Zeus.
* In the original book from 1923, he was named "The Old Prince".
* In nature, deer shed their antlers during winter. Strangely, the Great Prince didn't.
* The episodes "The Emerald Key", "Holiday in Enchancia", "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle", and "Beauty is the Beast" of the show, Sofia the First, feature a deer among the animals in the woods that greatly resembles the Great Prince.
** The deer also appeared in Nancy's camping fantasy in the Fancy Nancy episode "Camp Fancy".