The Messed Up Origins of Bambi | Disney Explained - Jon Solo

[Music] what's up solo fam my name is John solo and welcome to another episode of messed-up origins a few weeks ago we talked about the shockingly depressing novel that inspired Disney's Fox in the Hound which shed some light on the delicate ecosystem that farmers hunters and wildlife share out in the rural parts of America you guys absolutely loved it and since then I've gotten countless requests to cover another story all about hunting and wildlife Bambi I know what you're thinking the Bambi movie is already pretty messed up so the book is probably going to be straight-up depressing and yeah you're right Bambi a life in the woods was written by Felix Alton and published in Germany in 1923 it's similar to the film and that it shows you how unforgiving the world can be for nature's inhabitants but unlike the film it doesn't pull any punches or try to make you feel better with songs about springtime and flowers like we always do before diving into the book we're gonna do a short recap of the movie for those who haven't seen it in a while and need a refresher on what happens if you're a fan of the series that want to see another episode next week make sure to smash that like button with all your heart so we can reach our goal of 5,000 likes and subscribe and turn notifications on to make sure that video actually shows up in your sub box remember when youtubers didn't have to ask their audiences to jump through so many hoops just to see the content they wanted I miss those days all right under the recap the movie tells the story of Bambi the son of the oldest and wisest deer who's ever lived in the forest called the Great Prince we follow Bambi as he learns about life in the wild how to walk what he's allowed to eat where he can play with his friends thumper and flour and other strategies do you need to know if they're going to survive like most children Bambi is very attached to his mother and gains much of his wisdom through asking her questions and her correcting his mistakes she also introduces him to a friend of hers and her fawn Faline and they seem to like each other it doesn't take long for Bambi to find out just how dangerous living in the forest can be because one day while he's travelling through the meadow with his mother they get shot at by a hunter and flee for safety with the help of the great press best forward a few months that we see Bambi during his first winter where he learns how the forest changes during this time from his buddy thumper the good times ice skating and playing in the snow don't last long though as the hunters make their return to the wild lands and bambi and his mom are foraging for food she's shot and killed from this point forward Bambi's father takes him under his wing and shows him the strategies he's used to survive for so long in the wild when he returns the next spring bambi has gotten much older and is ready to find a mate and who better than philippe after he fights another deer named rano and wins he earns the rights to fill-ins affections and you can figure out what happens next shortly after bambi wakes up to the smell of smoke and it turns out the hunters have returned to the forest and their campfire is out of control he flees with his father only to realize he's left Faline behind and turns around to find and rescue her he shows up just in time to save her from the hunters dogs but he doesn't walk away unscathed he ends up being shot in the shoulder and unable to walk but his father tracks him down before the fire can get to him and escorts him to safety with Faline and the rest of the animal the following spring Faline gives birth to a set of twins and bambi takes over his father's place as the great prince of the forest so the Bambi book is actually a lot like the movie only I would say the events are a little more grounded in reality and no one can deny that reality is harsh especially to animals there's also a more realistic depiction of parental roles when raising fawns in the movie baby's mother is nothing but nurturing and the Great Prince is the benevolent father who watches him grow up from a distance but still shows that he cares in the face of danger you're about to find out just how neglectful parents and the animal kingdom can be especially during mating season but let's start from the beginning like the movie the book follows a newborn fawn named Bambi who's the son of the grey Prince only he doesn't find that out for quite a while instead of the entire forest surrounding his mother talking about how cute he is the only spectator of his birth as a single magpie who won't shut up about how hard it is to raise her own chicks typical suburban mom I guarantee you she's on the forests parent-teacher Association and has this haircut too Bambi's mother takes him to the meadow to meet some of the other forest inhabitants including friend hare this version's thumper only he doesn't play a large role several of the animals including friend hare congratulate Bambi's mother on the fine young prince only Bambi is so young and innocent these words don't really mean anything to him yet during baby's first ever walk in the woods he overhears 2js arguing and threatening each other with a slow and painful death he also sees a ferret killing a mouse and he asks his mother if they're gonna have to kill a mouse at some point she reassures him that they don't ever have to kill or get angry at anything and Bambi seems relieved at the news just before they reached the meadow Bambi's mother pulls him aside and gives him a warning about the dangers of not paying attention to your surroundings and just rushing out into the open she also adds that if she ever tells him to run he should run to the thicket as fast as possible and if he sees her go down he should keep going as we all know this is information he'll have to use during a later trip to the meadow Bambi's introduced to his aunt ena her daughter Faline and her son gobo and the three Fonts get along great so in this story it's actually family friends Fellini and gobo who make up Bambi's in her circle and not thumper and flower some time later we have the books version of that scene in the movie with all the Stags which plays out exactly the same with the stag showing off how majestic they are as they run through the meadow as time goes on Bambi's mother becomes a lot less nurturing than she was when he was younger in fact on several occasions when he tries snuggling up with her to sleep she pushes him away and tells him he's not a baby anymore it turns out there's a reason he's getting the cold shoulder and it's revealed the next morning when both his mother and his aunt have abandoned their children it's mating season and no stags were there booty calls on one occasion Bambi's father discovers him walking through the forest crying for his mother and scolds him for not being able to stay on his own for a while his mother appears at some point to reclaim her son but her sporadic absences continue throughout the summer all of these deer being around for mating season eventually attracts hunters and at one point one of the stags has shot and killed so another similarity with the movies there's an initial hunter attack to foreshadow the second one that Bambi's mom dies in during the winter months that follow the deer in the forest begin to huddle together for warmth and survival and were introduced to a few new interesting characters who join the group of Bambi his mom Faline her mom and her brother one of which is a new-agey younger doe named marina who thinks that someday the hunter will approach them in friendship so like a hippie deer and another is old metla an older doe who's a bit more cynical because she's been around the block a few times and there's also two young princes named rano in and I guarantee I'm pronouncing that wrong they're all huddled together talking about the hunter and his dreaded third hand that produces thunder when they realized he's approaching them and what appears to be from all sides in other words it's a group of hunters there's a stampede and a mass shooting that follow this realization and Bambi sees his mother fall down front hairs may get shot in the leg and die of shock while bleeding out into the snow and a group of pheasants that took to the air and fright get blasted while running away Bambi comes across Filene's brother gobo lying on the ground injured he was apparently a weak fawn and left behind because he couldn't keep up the survivors of the massacre eventually find each other in consist of Bambi Faline old net La Marina rano and Carew's Bambi's mom is never seen again and when the deer go back to look for her in gobo all they can find are the footprints of the hunter and his dogs while this is definitely a sad moment it's not quite as depressing as it is in the movie because at this point in the story Bambi's mom had already started to pull back trying to make him self sufficient also he's with a group of survivors and has another older doe to help raise him another difference is at this point Bambi's father is yet to do anything significant outside of yelling at his son now let's fast forward a few months to mating season Bambi has grown into a handsome young buck and unlike the movie where he and his friends roll their eyes at the idea of finding a mate he's pretty excited to chase some tail to no surprise he sets his eyes on Faline and has to fight off two fellow suitors in rano and Carew's and afterward he and Faline saunter off to presumably make sweet deer love everything a female around is both a gift and a curse for Bambi because at one point he almost gets himself killed when walking straight towards a hunter who was impersonating Filene's call baby's father the great Prince shows up out of nowhere to intervene and tells Bambi he should get his mind off the ladies and more on survival in other words to think with your other head every once in a while Bambi takes this advice seriously and by the end of the mating season has basically lost all interest in Faline which is pretty typical in the deer world instead he wants to chill with pops and soak up all of his survival wisdom so when Faline asks and the dreaded question so where do you think this is going he basically gives her the finger guns and walks away speaking of guns let's take a minute to talk about Hunter character in the movie the hunters are portrayed is kind of stupid and careless I either campfire getting out of control and burning half the forest in the novel the hunters are this all-powerful evil presence one would maybe liken to Satan or a very vengeful God his presence is always looming over the forest and is constantly discussed by the animals interestingly they only refer to the hunter as he or him spelled with capital letters similar to how God is referred to in the Bible baby actually comes face-to-face with him at one point and he's terrified of the tall thin figure with the pale face the deer all agree that for whatever reason when they see the hunter they can't help but freeze despite knowing that they should run a prime example of how evil the hunters can be comes when Bambi's stumbles upon another male deer that's acting kind of socially off and right when he's about to fight him he realizes it's Fallon's brother gobo apparently the hunter that shot gobo felt bad about killing a fawn so he brought him home raised him to adulthood and released him back into the forest it sounds like a really sweet story but tragedy strikes when gobo finds his old master walking through the forest and approaches him to say hi thinking they're cool with each other and gets shot dead another pretty vicious scenario happens when Bambi and his father are hiding from a hunter's dog which is chasing a box I know what you're thinking but Fox and the Hound is not connected to this book though I admit it would be pretty rad if it was the dog eventually catches the Fox and the forest animals all start to shame him for betraying his cousin but the dog echoes gobos words saying that he is all-powerful and unstoppable and those who align themselves with them will be spared then he rips out the fox's throat as time passes Bambi and his father grow closer and closer and while they still don't have the ideal father-son relationship the Great Prince is warming up to his son and starting to share some of his super secret survival tips tips like using old forest trails that humans and other animals rarely go on like living in a deep ditch under a dead tree trunk that's hidden from view baby learns that in order to survive you must stay hidden travel alone and rely only on yourself later on when Bambi is shot in the shoulder the Great Prince encourages them to keep moving similar to the movie only it so the hunter and dogs don't catch up to him also to walk in a really large long circle to throw them off his father also gives him shelter under his dead tree trunk to recover from his bullet wound which was pretty nice once babies made a full recovery the Great Prince tells him he has one last lesson to teach him and leads him to a hunter's corpse lying on the ground covered in blood with a hole in his neck this shows Bambi the hunter is not all-powerful like the rest of the animals in the forest believe and that there's a nother more powerful presence watching over them after the conversation is over the Great Prince says his work is now finished and he must find a place to lie down and die he calls Bambi his son for the first time tells him he loves him dearly and walks into the forest this leaves Bambi to take over his role as the Great Prince and he ventures alone for the rest of the book sometime later Bambi catches sight of an aging Faline and later comes across two twin fawns who are crying for their mother and are implied to be his children Bambi scolds the twins for not being able to be alone for a little while walks into the forest and the circle of life is complete so that is Bambi a life in the woods like I said it's pretty similar to the movie only instead of focusing on fulfillment through friendships and family it basically does the opposite it puts emphasis on the harshness of nature and how necessary it is to only depend on yourself also Bambi taking over as the Great Prince doesn't mean he's the water of the forest like his father was in the movie instead the great princess responsibilities to survive for as long as possible and gain as much wisdom as he can along the way personally I really like the values exemplified in both versions so I'm excited to read your thoughts in the comments don't forget to smash that like button if you liked what I do here around the channel want to keep it going and help us reach our goal of 5,000 likes also subscribe and ring that bell the turn notifications on and consider sharing this video with a fellow disney fan who you know will enjoy it as usual the best way to stay updated on messed up origins news and what kind of content I'm working on next is to follow me on social media I got links to my Facebook Twitter and Instagram in the description below I'll see you guys soon with even more messed up content until then my name is Jon solo and remember Jon shot first [Music]

Channel: Jon Solo

Views: 599,627

Rating: 4.9630523 out of 5

Keywords: Messed Up Origins of Bambi, Disney Explained, Jon Solo Disney Explained, Disney Explained Jon Solo, Jon Solo, Bambi, Bambi 2, Bambi Mom Dies, bambi movie, bambi mother dies, bambi father, Fox and the hound, messed up origins of fox and the hound, hunchback of notre dame, peter pan, pocahontas, original bambi story, the great prince, fox and the hound original story, felix salten, bambi a life in the woods, bambi summary, disney theory, pixar theory, pixar explained, jongasm

Id: 6VbhlF7OvKY

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 27 2018