Disney's Bambi 0II

***Bambi II*** is the 2006 midquel to the first *Bambi* film. Taking place during the adolescence of Bambi, it is set in the time between when Bambi's mother was killed by Man and when Bambi is seen as a young adult buck in the next scene. This movie was first titled *Bambi and the Great Prince*, but was changed to *Bambi and the Great Prince of the forest* and later *Bambi II*.

## Synopsis

After the death of his mother, Bambi goes to live with his stern father, the Great Prince of the Forest, who doesn't want to raise his son. After an embarrassing moment of fear in the face of grave danger, Bambi decides that he needs to be brave to impress his dad. Will he be brave enough to face the danger of the hunting dogs, and will he be able to bond enough with his father that he isn't sent away to live with someone else?

## Plot

**Fawn Bambi wanders through the forest searching for his mother, not realizing that she has been killed by Man and only learning this truth when he is found by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest, who takes his son back home with him. Prioritizing his duties as the Great Prince over being a father, the Great Prince asks Friend Owl to find a doe to raise Bambi, which Friend Owl promises to do by spring.** Sometime later, Bambi, who still lives with the Great Prince for the time being, meets up with his friends Thumper, Flower, and Thumper's sisters, and the seven go together to see the groundhog as he makes his prediction about the future weather. There, they see other friends of theirs such as Faline and Friend Owl. The groundhog, upon not seeing his shadow, declares that spring has begun, much to the joy of all around. **The celebration of the arrival of spring is cut short when young Ronno obnoxiously interrupts and scares away the groundhog. He tries to impress Bambi and his friends by telling a story about an encounter with Man where Man tried to lure Ronno using a deer call but Ronno attacked Man instead. An argument erupts when Faline and Bambi doubt the validity of the story but is cut short by Ronno's mother calling for her son.** As his friends disperse, Bambi is left alone to sleep under a tree and wait for the Great Prince to find him and take him home. He finds himself in a shiny golden meadow filled with butterflies. There, he hears his mother's voice call him and sees her once again as he nuzzles her lovingly and she assures him that she will always be with him. **Even when his dream fades away, Bambi continues to hear her voice saying "I'm here," which confuses him. Believing that he really is hearing his mother's voice and that she is still alive, he goes out onto the meadow, the place from which her voice was coming from. There, flock of crows, screaming about Man, fly past. As Bambi looks towards the source of the disturbance, Man's hunting dogs run towards him, causing Bambi to freeze in terror. Elsewhere, the Great Prince hears the crows and suddenly becomes concerned for his son. He rushes to the meadow and arrives in time to fight the dogs and save Bambi. As the dogs run back to their master, the Great Prince sees the glint of a rifle and yells at the still-frozen Bambi to run. After a nudge from the Great Prince's antlers, Bambi snaps out of his trance, and the two escape to safety. When Bambi tries to explain that he only went out onto the meadow because he heard his mother's voice, the Great Prince angrily tells him that the voice was a trick from Man and chides him for freezing in the face of peril.** The two return home, where Bambi begins to come to terms with the fact that his mother is really dead and is never coming back. The Great Prince leaves to reflect on the situation, finds Friend Owl, and encourages him to continue his search for an adoptive mother for Bambi. **The next morning, the Great Prince tells Bambi not to follow him as he performs his princely duties and to stay in the den. Bambi is crestfallen, as he wants to be with his father. He reveals to Thumper and Flower that he wishes he was brave like his father. Thumper offers to teach Bambi how to be brave, advising him to "be scarier than what's scaring you".** Bambi, Thumper and Flower walk through the forest practicing their bravery until they come to a log guarded by the grump Porcupine, who terrifies them. When he realizes that the Great Prince is standing nearby, Bambi sees this situation as a good opportunity to show off his new-found bravery by confronting Porcupine and crossing the log. Thumper runs off to get the Great Prince's attention while Bambi confronts Porcupine, ignoring his complaints and leaping right over him, much to Porcupine's chagrin. Porcupine stiffens his quills and begins chasing Bambi backwards and forwards across the log. **Thumper brings the Great Prince to see Bambi "being brave", but when he realizes Bambi is being chased and humiliated, he leads the Great Prince away. After a short struggle, Porcupine is propelled into the air by a piece of wood and lands quills-first on Bambi's rear. Bambi yells out in pain, causing the Great Prince to go and investigate the noise, much to Thumper's dismay. Bambi ducks down under the water so as not to be seen, and the Great Prince leaves.** Thumper returns to Bambi and begins plucking out the quills, which causes the fawn to cry out in pain. Ronno and Faline are nearby and hear Bambi's cries, which causes Faline to run to him to check on him, much to the dismay of Ronno, who was showing off in front of her. When he sees Bambi, Ronno teases him for the meadow incident where Bambi froze. He then decides that he and Faline are going to leave and begins pushing Faline away from Bambi against her will. When Bambi demands that Ronno leave Faline alone, Ronno confronts the Young Prince in anger and begins teasing Flower and Thumper. Angered, Thumper pushes Bambi into Ronno, which makes Ronno furious and begins a chase through the forest as Ronno runs after Thumper and Bambi, who are fleeing from his wrath. **During the chase, Bambi comes to a large jump, which, to his surprise, he clears with ease, putting distance between him and Ronno and ending the chase. The Great Prince appears and begins to fuss at Bambi for leaving the den, but stops himself when he notices the large jump that Bambi, remarking that even he couldn't jump that far until he had antlers. Bambi is delighted at the positive attention, but the Great Prince composes himself and the three leave.** The next day, Bambi, who has realized that his jumping skills make his father proud, practices his jumping with Thumper. The Great Prince is pleased to see his son practicing but still confirms to Friend Owl that he does not wish to continue to raise Bambi and wants for an adoptive mother to be found for him. When the Great Prince walks stiffly past him, Bambi is confused at the stiffness as his jumping drew praise the day before. Thumper suggests that Bambi go and talk to the Great Prince. Bambi does go talk to his father and learns from him about observing, which the Great Prince describes as looking, listening and smelling for danger all at the same time. The Great Prince then teaches Bambi how to "feel the forest", and the two bond more than they ever have as they travel through the forest together. **The next morning, Friend Owl approaches the Great Prince and the Bambi, who are now closer than ever before, to introduce them to Mena, the doe who is to be Bambi's adoptive mother. Bambi protests the idea of being sent away from his father, but the Great Prince reluctantly forces him to. After saying goodbye to his friends and the Great Prince, Bambi leaves with Mena, as the two are going to live in a distant part of the forest. As Bambi and Mena are leaving, Ronno approaches Bambi and begins teasing him about his estrangement from his father. Bambi, enraged, charges at Ronno and overtakes him. Mena tries to stop the fight, but Ronno charges into Bambi, causing Bambi to knock Mena into a trap set by Man, which immediately alerts him and his hunting dogs of her location. As the dogs rush towards the three, Ronno flees in terror, Mena remains trapped, and Bambi freezes again. He quickly snaps out of it and begins to flee but doubles back to distract the four dogs away from Mena, causing them to case him instead of her and thereby saving her life.** The Great Prince arrives and frees Mena from the trap before going after Bambi. Bambi manages to lose some of the dogs (one with the help of Flower's scent glands, and another with help from the grumpy porcupine) and begins to climb a steep, rocky cliff. One of the dogs slips and falls, leaving only one dog still chasing after Bambi. He climbs to a high ledge and dislodges some rocks, which do nothing to the dog. As the dog closes in, Bambi kicks it in the chest, causing it to fall to the bottom of the cliff. The Great Prince sees this and is relieved, but the ledge beneath Bambi begins to crumble, sending a helpless Bambi plummeting towards the ground. Bambi is presumed dead, much to the grief of Friend Owl, Mena, Flower, Thumper, and the Great Prince, who cries at the thought of having lost his son. To everyone's surprise and joy, Bambi regains consciousness. **Sometime later, Thumper tells some of his friends an exaggerated tale about how Bambi defeated the hunting dogs. His storytelling is interrupted by none other than Bambi, now with a pair of small antlers and without his spots. While there with his friends, Bambi accidentally kisses Faline and sees Ronno again, who swears revenge on Bambi only to be sent away screaming after being bitten by a turtle. Bambi then leaves his friends to go be with the Great Pricne, who takes him to the forest glade where he first met Bambi's mother. Bambi asks what the Great Prince was like when he was Bambi's age, and the Great Prince says that he was a lot like Bambi.**

## Appearances

* Bambi (voiced by Alexander Gould)
* The Great Prince of the Forest (voiced by Patrick Stewart)
* Thumper (voiced by Brendon Baerg)
* Flower (voiced by Nicky Jones)
* Faline (voiced by Andrea Bowen)
* Ronno (voiced by Anthony Ghannam)
* Mena (voiced by Cree Summer)
* Friend Owl (voiced by Keith Ferguson)
* Thumper's sisters (voiced by Makenna Cowgill, Emma Rose Lima, and Ariel Winter)
* The Groundhog (voiced by Brian Pimental)
* Porcupine (voiced by Brian Pimental)
* Bambi's mother (voiced by Carolyn Hennesy)
* Hunting Dogs (voiced by Frank Welker)
* Mama Bunny (voiced by Kath Soucie)
* Ronno's mother (voiced by Kath Soucie)
* Ena (voiced by June Foray)

## Songs

* "There is Life"
* "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song"
* "First Sign of Spring"
* "Through Your Eyes"

## Behind the Scenes

* The three fawns' age is revealed. Bambi is older than Faline but younger than Ronno. The evidence is at the beginning of the film, neither Faline nor Bambi had antlers and both had spots while Ronno had no spots and budding antlers. In the end, Bambi is the second fawn to lose his spots and got his antlers, while Faline kept her spots until her adulthood.
* Patrick Stewart is the only actor in *Bambi II* who was alive when the original *Bambi* was released. The other actors had not been born yet.