Characters / Bambi

aka: Bambi Ronno

The cast of both movies and their respective tie-ins, as well as the novels they're based on.

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Titular Character

Bambi

^{Click here to see him as a button buck}

^{Click here to see him as a yearling}

^{Click here to see him as an adult}

Voiced in English by: Bobby Stewart (first film; baby), Donnie Dunagan (first film; young), Hardie Albright (first film; adolescent), John Sutherland (first film; adult), Alexander Gould (Bambi II), Robie Lester (Thumper's Great Race), Noah Luke (House of Mouse).

Voiced in European Spanish by: Pilar Aguado (House of Mouse)

Voiced in European French by: Célim Mouhoubi (first film; young), Bernard Gabay (first film; adult), Philippe Catoire (Bambi II)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yu Hayashi (first film/home video; baby & young), Akio Tanaka (first film/theatrical version; adult), Reita Shibai (Bambi II)

The central protagonist of both films and the first novel, Bambi is a deer destined to grow up to become the next Prince of the Forest.

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• Adaptational Badass: Much spin off media from the Disney film, including the midquel and some comics and books, amp up Bambi's altruism, and show his physical prowess when he was still a young fawn.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed in the Osamu Tezuka manga adaptation. While he's more or less the same character as he is in the movies throughout it, as an adult he briefly gains an arrogant and haughty attitude after defeating Ronno and evading Man. He gets over it after this change in attitude results in him unwittingly starting a forest fire, prompting him to immediately owe up to the consequences of it.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the novel, it's implied that he and Faline are only attracted to each other out of instinct, given he leaves her once mating season ends due to his fascination with learning more about the Great Prince. The movies make it a mutual romance, and going from the Dell Comic adaptation of Bambi's Children, they still love each other as adults.
• Adaptation Species Change: He's a roe deer in the original books, but was changed to a white-tailed deer in the Disney adaptation due to the setting being moved to America.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Bambi's anatomy is mostly accurate to how a whitetailed deer looks even when taking cartoon exaggeration into account,^note The animators actually studied real deer, which is very noticeable when compared with the ones in Snow White. but the midquel shows that he has upper front teeth to clench with, which is something real life white tailed deer do not have—they have teeth on the upper jaw around (but not at) that area, hence why they chew with their cuds side to side. Presumably, this liberty was taken to make it easier to get expressions out of him.
  • While Bambi does subtly age throughout his first year (most obvious when you look at one of the original model sheets◊), his aging is notably slower than that of a real life wild deer, which grow very fast and can reach a size close to that of their mothers in only six months, while Bambi stays the size of a two month old fawn all the way from winter into a few months in his second spring, and apparently doesn't reach the full size of a yearling until he's at least two years old.^note The Dell Comic adaptation claims that the Spring the film cuts to after the death of his mother is the following Spring and not a later one, but the newspaper comic adaptation claims that its Bambi's third spring if not later, seperated by a large Time Skip—the midquel goes with the latter Bambi also keeps his spots during his first Winter and doesn't lose them until a few months into his second Spring—real deer fawns lose their spots by fall to blend into the environment for survival.
  • In the midquel, his antlers start sprouting while he's still the size of a small fawn, even though antler growth usually starts when a deer is much older and bigger—however, his tweaked aging in the films muddles this. Also, Bambi's antlers when he's a yearling and adult are closer to the look of Mule Deer antlers than a white tails.
  • While real life deer do in fact bleat to communicate, Bambi's bleating in the midquel sounds closer to that of a sheep or goats rhythmical, vibrating bleat than the honking bleat of a real life fawn. While a fawns bleat can occasionally sound similar to them, they don't do that kind of bleat nearly as frequently.
  • Bambi gets "twitterpated" in the spring, but the mating season of white-tailed deer is in the autumn.
  • One of the most notorious misconceptions spread by both films (and, surprisingly, even Felix Salten's novel, which has an older doe named Nettla care for Bambi after he loses his mother) is that Bambi, when several months to a year old, is still so young that he needs a parental figure to keep caring for him, which is not true at all for real life deer. In fact, evidence exists that a button buck orphaned by six months of age would actually have a better chance at surviving in the wild than one that's still with its mother. Fawns are always weaned and capable of caring for themselves before hunting season, and they are capable of surviving on their own without needing to nurse off their mother when as young as two months old (although they'll still stick with them and even nurse off them for several months)—in fact, this is exactly why hunting seasons are scheduled as they are. And even if a doe and its fawn(s) aren't separated by outside means, they spend less than a year together, as a doe separates from her older fawns (bucks go or are forced off to live on their own, does sometimes staying in their mothers territory) to give birth to new fawns the following year.
• Babies Ever After: As an adult, he and Faline have twin fawns.
• Baby's First Words: Bambi's first word was "bird".
• Badass Adorable: As an adult in the original film, and in the climax of the midquel (while he's a fawn). Not bad for a little fawn.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He has a long fuse for sure, but push his buttons enough and he will show his ugly side—such as taunting him about his father or trying to make a move on Faline.
• Big Good: Bambi has taken over his father's role as the Great Prince of the Forest by the time his children have their own adventures.
• Break the Cutie: Three times:
  • Happens in the first film when his mother dies and his father tells him what happened.
  • Happens again in the midquel, once Bambi's hope of his mother being alive get dashed, as well as getting berated by his father for falling for the hunter's trick. A second time occurs when, after spending much time bonding with his father, he discovers he is to be adopted by another doe, leading him to furiously call out his father for sending him away.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. In the midquel, he is initially unimpressed by Ronno, but proves to be the only one to buy his Blatant Lies about fighting Man hook, line, and sinker. This quickly stops when Ronno starts bullying him when he concludes Bambi is calling him a liar for calling his story unbelievable, ignoring that Faline had said the same thing in a legitimately sarcastic manner.
• Bully Hunter: Does this in both films (despite his fear) against Ronno's possessiveness towards Faline.
• Butt-Monkey: He receives a lot of Amusing Injuries in the second film.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In the midquel, Bambi calls his father out for giving him away to another doe and just when their relationship was getting stronger and goes as far as to saying that he wish his father died and not his mother.
• Character Development: Retroactive case. While not a Flat Character per se, Bambi's personality in the original movie is kept rather vague, relying more on the naturalistic pace of the movie and his own biological growth. The midquel however plays out far more as a character study for Bambi, giving him far more individual flaws and agency, and also reveals how many steps into his growth before the Time Skip were played out by his own decisions, particularly when galvanised by his relationship with his father.
• Character Tic:
  • In both films, more-so in the second, he frequently crosses his front legs together as a fawn.
  • In the midquel, he has a tendency to lower his ears when he's scared, angry, or sad.
• Characterization Marches On: In both interpretations, amusingly enough:
  • The sequel novel Bambi's Children (along with the Dell comic adaptation) depicts Bambi with a more warm and direct relationship with his children, despite the end of the first novel implying he would repeat the Great Prince's more distant and aloof methods.
  • The midquel for the Disney film depicts Bambi as much more talkative and precocious as a fawn. Also, as a result of his mother's death and his aloof father adopting him, he is shown to be more self deprecating and proactive in proving himself. He is also demonstrated to have affections towards Faline even prior to the Time Skip.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Some time during the two-year Time Skip, Bambi and Faline realize that they are more than just old playmates.
• Children Are Innocent: Bambi as a fawn, especially in the original film.
• Clingy Child: Bambi hides behind his mother's hind legs whenever he feels shy.
• Composite Character: The Disney midquel's take on Bambi seems to borrow lightly from his son Geno's more humanised character in Bambi's Children, particularly his The So-Called Coward arc against a rival.
• Cowardly Lion: Which is expanded on in the midquel. He is deadly scared of Man, and not without reason, but when someone else is in danger because of Man, Bambi won't run away or stand scared.
• Create Your Own Villain: Bambi unwittingly does this for his rivalry with Ronno as much as it feeds into him learning to be more brave and selfless. Granted, Ronno was kind of a bad apple from the start, but Bambi unwittingly upstaging him at everything definitely didn't help matters.
• Curtains Match the Window: Big brown eyes matched with brown fur.
• Death Glare: When those iconic doe eyes start to furrow, you know some ass-kicking is about to ensue from this cute young deer.
• Deer in the Headlights:
  • Quite literally in the midquel. As a result of his traumatic experiences with Man, Bambi is left paralyzed with fear whenever he spots hunters or dogs closing in on him. He overcomes it in the climax.
  • Amusingly enough, his one speaking role in House of Mouse is comparing this trope to a stage frightened Shelby the Turtle, before getting stunned himself by Benny the Cab's headlights.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the second novel, he bucks and scares off a young hunter trying to shoot his family, making him the one animal in the series to ever directly defeat Man.
• Disappeared Dad: Implied. Bambi is last seen as an adult, looking over Faline giving birth to their children, in the same manner his father did with his mother, meaning that Bambi might become a distant father to his kids as well. The sequel book Bambi's Children and its Disney comic adaptation implies he will similarly still gain a bond with them, however.
• Dork Knight: Gradually becomes more capable and heroic under the Great Prince's upbringing. His shy, clumsy side still remains however, even as an adult. He is most blatantly such around Faline.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Bambi as a fawn has a somewhat feminine looking appearance, due in part to his big rounded head and eyes and eyelashes. His demure personality and girly sounding name has also caused a fair amount of confusion over his gender with audiences. Not helping matters is that Faline (at least as a fawn) has nearly the same body and facial build as him (key difference being her fur color, rounder head and curly ears). It should be noted however that this is Truth in Television for fawns, as even wildlife experts have great difficulty in distinguishing the gender of a fawn at a glance. This is later averted when he grows up as, while still cute looking, he then unmistakably looks like a buck. In the midquel, Ronno notes the oddity of his name and later disparagingly refers to him as "Princess" to take him down a notch.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Bambi's first appearance in a Disney feature was in fact not the first Bambi film, but the Walt Disney Studios tour piece The Reluctant Dragon. The film made fake "clips" of both him and Casey Jr. for the film to represent the two projects in production.
• Embarrassing First Name: Bambi is a decidedly feminine name to give to a buck, and this is implied to extend in-universe, at least in the midquel, Ronno even notes this by asking "Isn't that a girls name?" and disparagingly refers to him as "Princess" later on. To further this, Bambi is derived from "bambino", the Italian word for "child".
• Fatal Flaw: In the midquel, Bambi's main flaw and enemy is his own insecurity, which drives him to try and make his father proud and usually results in him getting into trouble and being humiliated in some manner.
• First-Person Peripheral Narrator: In the 1966 vinyl record Thumper's Great Race, Bambi is the narrator where he tells the viewers about the time Thumper, Flower, and the other forest animals participated in a race. In the story, Bambi serves as the judge of the competition and a supporting character.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. He's kind and quiet, but somewhat shy and insecure, particularly as a fawn, and he becomes more withdrawn after his mother's death.
• Gender-Blender Name: His name is rather feminine sounding and would be more fitting for a doe than a buck.
• Generation Xerox: Takes over being the protector of the forest like his father, as well as possibly becoming an absent father to his own children. Again, like Bambi's own father was to him. In the last shot of the first film, adult Bambi look almost identical to his father save for his shorter antlers. This carries over into the Dell Comic adaptation of Bambi's Children, where he gets a mean set of giant antlers to match his dads, but his fur and eye colors are different. However, the comic of Bambi's Children shows him having a more warm and direct relationship with his kids than his aloof father (though the midquel would retroactively mirror this).
• Guile Hero: In the midquel, when trying to evade some hinting dogs. He is too young to fight them off directly like he does an adult in the original film, so lures them into the forest's harmful elements (eg. Deadly Dodging two while in the tall grass, or dislodging a small avalanche while climbing a cliff).
• Heroic Build: Animal example. He has very pronounced musculature (something thats inherent to real life deer, who are basically made of pure muscle) as a yearling and adult, befitting his status as a Prince of the Forest.
• Heroic BSoD: In the midquel, whenever he's faced with Man and his hunting dogs, Bambi freezes in fear until he's either pushed out of the way or snaps out of it, thanks to the traumatic experience of having his mother get shot. It's implied this stops after he squares off against the hunting dogs to save Mena.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In the midquel, he's convinced that the Prince doesn't love him, and that it's his own fault for being a coward. He gradually leaves this behind as the Prince starts defrosting and showing a more loving attitude to him.
• Heroes' Frontier Step:
  • In the original film, him rescuing Faline from Ronno and a pack of hunting dogs was to establish his evolution from a sweet but cowardly and oblivious kid to a selfless and bold young adult and future Prince of the Forest.
  • The midquel, however, sets it even earlier in childhood when, despite being broken over being sent to live away from his father, he chooses to rescue his adoptive mother by distracting a hunter's dogs onto him.
  • The book "Bambi: Friends of the Forest" had an even earlier one (set when Bambi is still very young and his mom is still alive) where Bambi uses himself to lure an evil fox away from eating Thumper (the Great Prince soon intervened and drove off the fox), showing that even as an infant, he was a selfless person who always puts his friends safety before his own.
• Hero Protagonist: The story focuses on Bambi's life. From his birth to early childhood to taking on Man as an adult. He's also a polite, heroic Nice Guy.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Thumper, who had been wanting to play and interact with him since his birth.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Kingdom Hearts utilizes this as a plot point for the Disney version's role, and it isn't denied in the films, either. He suffers much in life, but still comes to act on selfless terms.
• Innocently Insensitive: At the beginning of the midquel, he talks about his mother to the Great Prince, unaware this brings up a lot of emotional pain for him. After the Great Prince sternly tells him to "leave the past in the past", Bambi recognizes that the Prince doesn't like talking about it and avoids talking about her for the most part.
• Jerkass Ball: In the manga adaptation of the first film, Bambi briefly picks one up when he becomes uncharacteristically arrogant and haughty after defeating Ronno and evading Man. He drops it as soon as his bad attitude unwittingly kicks off an entire forest fire.
• Kissing Cousins: With Faline in the original novel. The movies leave this ambiguous, but both the official newspaper comic adaptation of the first movie and the manga imply the cousin aspect of their relationship is still intact as Faline's mother is still referred to as Aunt Ena.
• Let's Get Dangerous!:
  • Right before engaging in combat with Ronno for trying to separate him from Faline. He repeats this shortly afterward when taking down a whole pack of hunting dogs chasing after her.
  • Repeated in the midquel when Ronno presses Bambi's Berserk Button by taunting him because his father sent him off to live with another doe. Again furthered afterward when Mena gets caught in a snare and Bambi skilfully deals with the pursuing hunting dogs.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • Like his father before him, the adult Bambi is very big and strong for his species^note The white-tailed deer of the films are much larger than the roe deer of the novels, which are small enough that a fox is a legitimate threat even to adults. but also quick enough to react to Ronno's trick in their battle and turn the tables before Ronno can gain an advantage.
  • Even as a fawn, he was no pushover at his best, as he's incredibly fast and, as the midquel attests, can certainly put up a tough fight if needed. (Which is certainly factually correct, as even infant fawns are very physically strong, much more than they appear, and it is no exaggeration that their hooves are as sharp as knives).
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • The end of the first movie implies that, as in the novel, Bambi became regally aloof like his father when it shows him standing besides said father, observing Faline and their newborn children from a distance. Bambi's Children and the Disney midquel reverse this around, humanising both Bambi and his father respectively into more direct and compassionate parents.
  • The Disney midquel reveals the Great Prince to be something of a Stepford Smiler trying to hide his inner pains in a regal facade, with his Sink or Swim Fatherhood risking turning Bambi into the same. The silent gestures as Bambi puts on a noble front for his new carer make clear his father is aware of this, his Character Development galvanised shortly after.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: On the other hoof, the midquel shows just how strongly Bambi and his father's personalities and attitude towards life differ. Bambi, being a child at that point, is naive, clumsy, restless, occasionally reckless, and is far more emotional and fearful than his generally stoic, reserved and wise father. On top of that, the Prince is clearly not much of a people person, if only because his job demands it, while Bambi is very sociable and outgoing. Bambi also lingers greatly on the past, while the Prince strongly prefers to leave it behind him.
• Made of Iron:
  • In the first film, he took a direct (albeit unseen—the Dell comic adaptation claims it was his shoulder that got shot) hit from a hunter's bullet as an adult, but after being briefly incapacitated, was able to shrug it off in order to outrun a forest fire (with the help of his father goading him) and survived it in the long run.
  • In the midquel, he manages to survive a high fall with no long term injuries, even though it seemed like it should have killed him (and for a moment it seemed like it did).
• Momma's Boy: As a child, he was shy and reclusive, preferring to stay close to his ever gentle mother. In the books she attempts to distance him so he can mature, something he resists at first. The Disney interpretation, never being weaned from her in such a manner, is hit harder by her death at first, though, after bonding with his father through this tragedy, he recognises the need to become more independent.
• My Greatest Failure: It goes unmentioned in the first film and just subtly implied in the midquel that he blames himself for his mother’s death. It leads to the climax of the midquel as...
• My Greatest Second Chance: When his stepmother is trapped in an snare and tells him to escape, he visibly flashbacks to his mother’s last words. Instead of escaping he lures the dogs away.
• Nice Guy: Bambi is thoughtful, polite, and heroic, although this is more pronounced in the Disney adaptation (especially the midquel).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation, Bambi is notably portrayed as a more flawed and fallable character than he was in the movies or even the books on two seperate occasions.
  • As a child, he is indirectly responsible for his mother's own death. During winter, he foolishly enters one of Man's cabins with Thumper and, after baking a cake, naively trying to make off with just half the cake while leaving the other half for Man. This provokes the cabins owner into chasing after them with a shotgun, prompting Bambi's mother to sacrifice herself to save their lives.
  • As an adult, Bambi briefly becomes incredibly arrogant and haughty after defeating Ronno and evading Man. During this, he stumbles across a leftover campfire and, after burning his hoof on a hot piece of coal, angrily and recklessly kicks at the fire out of spite, which unwittingly kicks off an entire forest fire, endangering all of its inhabitants in the process. This even results in him having to save his own father's life, as opposed to the movie where it's the other way around.
• Not So Above It All: While normally very kind and polite, Bambi eventually gives an exasperated eye roll after listening to the Porcupine's Rambling Old Man Monologue while trying to get the grumpy old codger to let him cross the log and just jumps over him.
• Official Couple: With Faline.
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: You know things have gone off the deep end when someone as genial and kindhearted as Bambi is reduced to uncharacteristic blind rage, such as when Ronno goads him into a fight by insulting him at his lowest emotional point in the midquel, or when Ronno tries to make a move on Faline in the original movie.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Much darker in color than Faline.
• Papa Wolf: In the second novel, he directly opposes Man to protect his children.
• Pinball Protagonist: He is this in the first half of both movies, which is justified by his young age. Halfway through both, he does learn to take the initiative to help others and fend for himself.
• Plot Armor: In the midquel, due to the outcome being a Foregone Conclusion, Bambi is guaranteed to have survived the perilous situations he goes through in the film, up to the very high fall that seemingly kills him in the end.
• Prestige Peril: Downplayed; his status as the Young Prince not only doesn't gain him any respect from the local bully Ronno, but puts him at odds with his cold and aloof father who favors tradition and puts the needs of the forest first.
• Protagonist Title: His name is the title of the book and Disney film, so of course he's the main character.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: A Trope Codifier alongside Betty Boop, considering theirs were the bases for Osamu Tezuka's, and by extension anime as a genre's, large eye style.
• The Quiet One: In the original film, Bambi usually emotes more from facial expression. In the midquel, while still more reserved than Thumper, he is much more talkative.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • In the midquel, when he discovers his father was planning to send him to live with a stepmother after all he had done to bond with him^note The Prince had intended to call off the arrangement after bonding with Bambi, but Bambi wasn't aware of it beforehand and Friend Owl showed up with Mena at the worst possible time before the Prince could explain everything. , he furiously calls out his dad on it and wishes he were dead instead of his mother before running off.
  • Afterward, he's calmed but he's still at his lowest point when he's emotionally crushed by his father's decision to still have him move away with a stepmother. And not long after Bambi has accepted his fate, Ronno shows up and rubs the situation in his face purely out of spite. Upon hearing Ronno smugly say his dad was so ashamed of him that he "give you away.", Bambi silently and uncharacteristally snaps and begins fighting Ronno one on one.
  • In the first film, Bambi completely loses it when the adult Ronno begins making a move on Faline and engages in a brutal fight with him. Its notable because its the only time see Bambi getting genuinely furious (as opposed to just getting flustered at Faline messing with him as a fawn) in it.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The reserved and quiet Blue Oni to Thumper's mouthy and loud Red Oni.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • In the second novel, Bambi is essentially the king of the roe deer. His duties, which include arbitrating disputes among the roe deer and monitoring human activity in the forest, keep him so busy that his children Geno and Gurri don't see him for the first time until they are several weeks old.
  • Though the Disney version doesn't delve into it much besides inheriting his father's duties, the young Prince's Character Development in the midquel is signified by him protecting a doe from Man and his dogs.
• Shrinking Violet: To an extent, Bambi is portrayed as somewhat shy and insecure, especially as a fawn.
• Single Tear: In the first film after learning his mother's fate.
• The So-Called Coward: Bambi is not fearless, but his willingness to stand up and do something when it matters in spite of being a scrawny little fawn makes his bravery outstanding enough to earn his fathers respect. When pit against Ronno in the midquel, Mena gets caught in a trap and begs the two to save themselves. Ronno runs away screaming for his mother (despite bragging about taking on man earlier), while Bambi, not wanting Mena to meet the same fate as his late mother, uses himself as a distraction to lure the approaching hunting dogs away from Mena.
• Stealth Pun: In the midquel, he's shown to have an upper pair of big, rabbit like teeth. In other words, he's buck-toothed.
• Stepford Smiler: In the midquel, he's still grieving over his mother's death and is clearly traumatized by it, but he puts up a brave face and a facade of happiness until he's alone, at which point he usually becomes visibly forlorn. He fortunately grows out of this as he comes to terms with her death.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Not while he's a fawn and yearling, but as an adult at the end of the first film, he's almost identical to his dad save for his shorter antlers. And in the Dell Comic adaptation of Bambi's Children, adult Bambi looks exactly like his father save for his different fur and eye colors. This carries over to his son Geno in the comic and storybook adaptation of Bambi's Children, who looks exactly like Bambi did as a fawn.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the novel and first film, Bambi shows his new-found badassery after the two-year Time Skip by defeating Ronno in battle and managing to evade the hunter and his dogs despite being wounded. The midquel shows the leveling-up process in a fair amount of detail.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the manga adaptation, adult Bambi briefly gets a big head after defeating Ronno and evading Man, to the extent that he acts rude and haughty to even his closest friends. This immediately bites him in the flank big time when his bad attitude culminates in him indirectly kicking off an entire forest fire. Naturally, he ditches it right afterward, especially as he selflessly risks his own life just to save his unconscious father from being gulfed by the flames.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: In the midquel, he starts off as an insecure Stepford Smiler still trying to accept his mother's death and make his father proud. As he bonds with the Great Prince, he comes to terms with his grief and becomes genuinely cheerful and happy.
• Underdogs Never Lose: In the Disney films, Ronno is older, bigger built, more aggressive, and has larger antlers (or in the case of the midquel, has any at all), yet he can never quite manage to outdo Bambi.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Bambi and Faline are cousins in the book but Childhood Friends in the film. The manga adaptation does keep the cousin relationship intact, however.
• Vocal Evolution: In the midquel, he loses the southern twang he had in the first film, gaining a more generic American accent due to getting a new actor.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted. Bambi will always protect Faline from danger, either from Ronno or Man.
• Warrior Prince: Grows into this when he takes on Ronno and Man to protect Faline. And like his father, Bambi becomes the next Great Prince of the Forest.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: In the midquel, his desire for his dad's good opinion is a large pivot. Played around with, since his father blatantly cares for Bambi, but favors a distant, unaffectionate relationship due to tradition.
• What You Are in the Dark: Probably the one defining scene that sums up the difference between Bambi and his rival Ronno in personalities in mere moments is the part where Ronno accidentally gets Mena caught in a trap set by Man. Despite Mena begging Bambi to run and save himself, he instead chooses to selflessly distract the dogs onto him and save her life. Ronno, on the other hand, despite boasting about taking on Man head on earlier and denigrating Bambi as a coward, immediately takes off in terror, screaming for his mother.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Bambi's rather feminine sounding name becomes the source of a joke in the midquel when his rival Ronno learns it and rhetorically asks "Isn't that a girls name?"
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Bambi is very naive and optimistic, though the latter is played with in the midquel due to his insecurities. The midquel even implies via a late night conversation between Bambi and his father that he doesn't even realize what really happened to his mother and assumed she's simply missing and resting elsewhere (though an earlier scene also implies that he does know and simply doesn't comprehend what death really is).
• Wise Beyond Their Years: He's shown to be remarkably emotionally mature for his age in the midquel; he's occasionally shown to be able to pick up on some of the Great Prince's emotions, and is shown to have a rudimentary understanding of death, able to comprehend that his mother isn't coming back and that she's "resting".
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In the midquel, Bambi initially hopes his mother is still alive. This lasts until he gets lured into a trap by Man using a deer call that mimic her voice, brutally shattering his hopes, nearly getting him killed by hunting dogs, and earning him a harsh dressing down from the Prince.

Bambi's Friends

Thumper

^{Click here to see him as an adult}

Voiced in English by: Peter Behn (first film; young), Tim Davis (first film; adolescent), Sam Edwards (first film; adult), June Foray (Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party Album), Robie Lestor (Thumper's Great Race), Brendon Baerg (Bambi II)

Voiced in European French by: Dimitri Rougeul (first film; young), Emmanuel Karsen (first film; adult), Gwenaël Sommier (Bambi II)

Voiced in Japanese by: Shohei Yamauchi (Bambi II)

Bambi's best friend, a peppy little rabbit.

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• Artistic License – Biology:
  • He has padded feet, which real life rabbits do not have ^note  Rabbits do have a "footpad" (seen here) but they're not like the padded feet that dogs and cats have. Also, his nose is drawn as looking like a cat's nose as opposed to the "V"-shaped noses actual rabbits have.
  • "A Day With Papa" says that Thumper does not have claws, even though even real life infant rabbits do have claws.
• Babies Ever After: Has a number of bunny daughters with Miss Bunny.
• Berserk Button: After Ronno mockingly calls him a "widdle bunny", Thumper is enraged and shoves Bambi into him, knocking Ronno into the mud.
• Big Brother Instinct: Thumper is older than Bambi, so he takes to helping him out as he grows into a Prince, even helping him talk as an infant. Less prominent with his own younger sisters, who chase and bug him to the point of annoyance.
• Bratty Half-Pint: A downplayed nice version, but he can be annoying or impatient at times.
• Breakout Character: He is by and far the most popular character from the film next to Bambi himself. He is the star of his own series of books; "Disney Bunnies", and he even got his own merchandise line. He was also intended to have his own spin-off feature film and TV series in the Disney Afternoon block, though these ideas were dropped. He also starred solo in a few of the vintage Dell Disney comic books.
• Brutal Honesty: Thumper has a tendency to bluntly point out the truth when the polite thing to do is to just keep his mouth shut.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: An adorable, friendly rabbit.
• Canon Foreigner: Although Thumper superficially resembles the novels' Friend Hare (called simply "the hare" in the second book), his personality and role are very different in keeping with the film's Lighter and Softer feel.
• Character Tics:
  • Thumps his foot to get someone's attention or when excited.
  • Twitches his nose when he speaks. Bambi even tries to mimic it early in the film.
• Cheerful Child: As a child in both the original film and midquel, he is an upbeat, peppy, and mostly happy little bunny.
• Cry into Chest: He's seen crying into Flower's arms after seeing The Great Prince reuniting with Bambi after his apparent death.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: A very minor one, but the story "A Day With Papa" states that, unlike real baby rabbits, Thumper (at least as an infant) does not have claws, just so he can't simply climb back down a tree he got stuck on and has to rely on his father to help him back down.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Like some Elementary and Middle School girls, Thumper is hyper, excitable, goofy, and talkative. His voice and prominent buckteeth help with the "goofy girl" appearance.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric, though he's definitely not as mean-spirited as other examples. He's very extra-vented and hyper, and is always very blunt even when he should really have some tact.
• Greek Chorus: In the second comic book adaptation of the first movie (Dell Four Color #186), Thumper himself serves as the narrator of the story.
  "The curtain goes up! You're about to hear the story of Bambi the little deer. Deep in the forest, one early spring morn beneath a thicket, little Bambi was born. It's a wonderful story as you will soon see, and I know you'll like Thumper, 'cause that, friends is me! (I made that last part up myself!)"
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: This was already heavily implied in the first film, but it's in full throttle in the midquel. Thumper does everything to help Bambi connect with his father and greatly prefers his company over his sisters.
• Innocently Insensitive: Given his Mouthy Kid tendencies, he tends to blurt out some insensitive things.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zig-zagged. He can be a bit of a Bratty Half-Pint at times but he means well and is, for the most part, a nice and decent guy.
• Keet: By far the most energetic in the trio of him, Bambi, and Flower.
• Meaningful Name: Thumps his foot to get someone's attention or when excited.
• Mouthy Kid: Far more talkative and blunt-speaking than Bambi. This is more punctuated in the midquel, where he is perfectly willing to lip back at his sisters or Ronno.
• Official Couple: With Miss Bunny.
• Plucky Comic Relief: His main role in the original film is to provide levity after its dark moments.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The mouthy and loud Red Oni to Bambi's reserved and quiet Blue Oni.
• Resentful Outnumbered Sibling: As the only son in the family, he finds his sisters annoying and would rather hang with with Bambi and Flower than them.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: A cute little rabbit.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Disappears during all of Bambi's confrontations with Man and Ronno in the first film. Downplayed in the second film where he does briefly appear to help Bambi during the climax.
• Trying Not to Cry: After The Great Prince reunites with Bambi near the end of the midquel. Thumper is trying his hardest to resist crying as he's watching the two bonding. He eventually gives in and quickly weeps into Flower's arms.
• Vocal Evolution: In both movies before he grows up.
  • In the first movie, his voice has subtly matured by the time winter falls.
  • Due to having a new actor in the midquel, Thumper's voice is somewhat different and lacks the subtle southern twang he had in the first film. Which is rather odd considering he retains the southern dialect as an adult.

Flower

^{Click here to see him as an adult}

Voiced in English by: Stan Alexander (first film; young), Tim Davis (first film; adolescent), Sterling Holloway (first film; adult), Dal Mc Kennon (Thumper's Great Race), Nicky Jones (Bambi II)

Voiced in European French by: Jehan Pagès (first film; young), Emmanuel Curtil (first film, adult), Martin Faliu (Bambi II)

Voiced in Japanese by: Yui Nakajou (Bambi II)

Voiced in Hungarian by: Csongor Szalay (young)

A minor character in the films, he is close friends with Bambi and Thumper.

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• Absurd Phobia: The second film reveals that Flower is afraid of turtles. Bambi and Thumper are understandably bewildered as to why he's afraid of turtles of all things; later, when Ronno is bitten by a snapping turtle, Flower tries to claim this proves his point.
• Adapted Out: In Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, Flower is completely replaced with an entirely new character, a bucktoothed beaver nicknamed Buckteeth.
• Advertised Extra: Usually given billing on par with Bambi and Thumper, but gets a lot less focus than them in the films.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Early in the midquel, he hopes the groundhog will see his shadow so he can have more time to hibernate. In real life, skunks do not hibernate, although they are generally inactive during wintertime.
  • Also in the midquel, his smelly musk is presented as a foul smelling green mist typical of cartoon skunks, as opposed to the stinky liquid spray it would be in real life.
• Ascended Extra: Despite the prominent focus he gets in advertising, Flower only had a rather small amount of screentime overall as a child (two brief scenes) and not much more as an adult (the part with him getting twitterpatted, and his brief reappearance in the finale). The midquel gives him significantly more screentime to work with.
• Babies Ever After: Has a son with Miss Skunk, whom he names after Bambi.
• Brick Joke: Flower's "Turtles are so scary" line midway through the midquel gets backed up at the end when Ronno winds up with a turtle clinging to his nose.
• Bootstrapped Theme: A small riff from the first film is arranged into Flower's Leitmotif in the midquel.
• Camp Straight: Despite whatever misconception you might have had, Flower is male, one who was even the first of the trio to have a girlfriend. When Friend Owl is discussing the "horrors" of springtime, he points to each male, saying "You! And you!" in turn. When he gets to Flower, he pauses for a moment before saying, "Yes... it could even happen to YOU!"
• Canon Foreigner: An original character for the Disney adaptation, created to help with the Lighter and Softer feel of the film similar to Thumper. Unlike Thumper or Friend Owl, he doesn't even have any loose counterpart in the novel, which takes place in Europe where there are no skunks.
• Character Development: Downplayed, but in the midquel he does learn to be more brave with the help of Bambi and Thumper.
• The Cutie: Most of the main cast are already cute, but Flower is downright adorable and lovable even by their standards. He's even more shy and innocent than Bambi.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Before he grows up. He has a very high, cute voice, and acts very demure and a bit shy, and would rather sit and smell the flowers than go on an adventure. After he grows up, his voice gets deeper, the first hint that he is actually a male, but he still looks effeminate. Mild size and colour differences are the only way to tell him apart from his love interest.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. He's bashful and kind, and is somewhat lazy and really enjoys hibernating in the winter.
• Funny Animal: His design is noticeably more anthropomorphic than most of the other animals, with human-like fingers and toes. This seems to be consistent with how the other skunks in the franchise are drawn.
• Gender Flip: In some storybook adaptations of the movie, such as the Disney's Wonderful World of Reading series, Flower is referred to as a female.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: His blue eyes make him look even more sweet and innocent.
• Invisible Parents: We never see his parent(s) in the original film and its strongly implied that he lives alone, but the midquel has a parent skunk (implied to be his mother) make a very brief appearance early on, implying that Flower does have parents, but we just never get to see them.
• Ironic Name: A skunk named "Flower".
• Line-of-Sight Name: Sort of; see Only Known by Their Nickname below.
• Lovable Coward: His meekness is more punctuated in the midquel. He has a phobia of turtles, and is the most visibly terrified of Ronno, even fainting when he charges his way.
• Nice Guy: He's kind and friendly, if a bit shy. He's the only character in the main cast to show absolutely no malice towards any other character.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The infant Bambi, who has just learned the word "flower" but is still unclear on its meaning, calls the young skunk that, and the name sticks.
  Thumber: (laughing) That's not a flower! He's a little—
  Flower: Oh, that's all right. He can call me a flower if he wants to. *shy chuckle* I don't mind.
• The Pollyanna: Flower is very optimistic, easily excited, and by far the most cheerful of his already genial group of friends.
• Predators Are Mean: Averted. Flower is a skunk^note which are carnivores in real life, and is by far the nicest character in the series next to Bambi's mom.
• Pretty Boy: Anthropomorphic example; even as he grows older, he maintains his effeminate features.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Big time. For a cartoon skunk, Flower is adorable.
• Satellite Character: Of all the lead characters next to Bambi's Mother and (arguably) Faline, Flower is by far the least layered in terms of personality, with his bashful kindness being his most distinctive traits, and he is seldom seen interacting with anyone besides his friends, and seldom makes any direct impact on the films stories. Even the midquel only slightly expands on his character more, playing up his naive innocence more. His role is so inconsequential to the story overall that the manga adaptation straight-up replaced him with an entirely different character.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Disappears during all of Bambi's confrontations with Man and Ronno in the first film. Downplayed in the second film where he does briefly appear to help Bambi during the climax.
• Shrinking Violet: Very quiet and shy.
• Smelly Skunk: Averted in the first film, played straight in the midquel as part of a gag. It later becomes a Chekhov's Gag when Flower uses it to scare off one of the dogs that was chasing Bambi.
• Through a Face Full of Fur: Flower turns red when being kissed for the first time, the blush traveling from his nose all the way to the tip of his tail.
• Vocal Evolution: Like with his friends, he loses the slight southern twang in the midquel.
• Weaponized Stench: In the climax of Bambi II, Flower sprays a pack of hunting dogs chasing Bambi with his skunk stench.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He has a fear of turtles in the midquel.

Bambi's Family

Bambi's Mother

Voiced by: Paula Winslowe (first film), Carolyn Hennesy (Bambi II), Maïk Darah (first film, Bambi II) (European French dub)

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Killed in the most famous moment of the original film, her death is the driving force of the midquel.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. In the books, she was still a Nice Girl but applied some Tough Love to Bambi, mainly when she starts weaning him away from her. This was dropped in the Disney adaptation.
• Artistic License – Biology: For the purpose of humanizing her character, the film shows her keeping Bambi with her all the way from spring to late winter, far longer than any real life doe would raise a fawn before forcing them to become independent. This starkly contrasts with the novel, which shows her actively weaning Bambi and leaving him to fend for himself when he's only a few months old (accurate to how real life does raise buck fawns).
• Bootstrapped Theme: A choral instrumental of "Love Is A Song That Never Ends" plays when she appears in Bambi's dream the midquel, notably being the most significant (and final) use of the theme in that film.
• The Cameo:
  • In the midquel, she makes a brief but plot critical, posthumous reappearance in a dream Bambi is having. However, Its left ambiguous as to whether it really is her or if its just a figment of Bambi's dreams.
  • Along with a speaking cameo in the Donald Duck short "No Hunting", recycled footage of her grazing with Bambi right before she dies appears in The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Rescuers, and Beauty and the Beast. Ironically enough, as this blog points out, for having been one of their most infamous Character Deaths, Bambi's mother may be Disney's most frequent recurring character (across the films, at least).
• Childhood Friend Romance: In the midquel, the Great Prince recounts to Bambi of how she and him first met as fawns.
• Childhood Friends: Was friends with Mena since they were fawns.
• Death by Newbery Medal: She's famously shot dead by a hunter midway through the first film.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Possibly the Ur-Example. Which was a result of her trying to get Bambi away from Man and to safety.
• Disney Death: One of, if not the most infamous aversion of this trope in Disney history.
• Dream Sequence: She briefly appears to Bambi via this in the midquel.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Her Taking the Bullet to save her son's life.
• Flat Character: She lacks a clear personality beyond being a generic good mother, and her only purpose in the story is to die to further Bambi's character development. They didn't even bother coming up with a name for her.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic. She's calm and patient, and always shown to be a compassionate and kind mother.
• Good Parents: In the both the book and the movie, she's shown to be a kind and caring mother to Bambi before she dies (even if she uses Tough Love a bit more in the novel).
• Heroic Sacrifice: She dies in order to get her son away from Man.
• Mama Bear: As stated under Heroic Sacrifice, she went as far to be killed by Man to give her son a chance to run to safety.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The dream sequence in the midquel where Bambi sees her again leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not it really is her coming back from the afterlife to see him one last time, or if its just a despair induced dream instead, though the implications seems to lean more towards the former.
• Missing Mom: To Bambi after she is shot and killed by Man, leaving her son in the care of her mate, the Great Prince.
• Mood Whiplash: Bambi's mother's death scene is so memorable because the film had been much lighter and softer up until that point. Directly afterwards, there's a cut right into spring with joyful birds singing an upbeat song about the mating season.
• Nice Girl: In both the book and the movie, she is loving, kind, and patient.
• No Name Given: Her real name isn't given, everyone just refers to her as "Bambi's mother".
• Parental Neglect: In the novel, she gradually grows more distant to Bambi, eventually abandoning him for a time once mating season arrives. She does come back, however, only to vanish during the hunter's rounds in the following wintertime, where it's strongly implied, but never explicitly stated, that she was killed.
• Plot-Triggering Death: The midquel starts right after the Great Prince informs Bambi of his mother's death and her passing is one of the biggest subjects during the movie.
• Properly Paranoid: In both the novel and movie, she exercises extreme caution when going out into the meadow to make sure man isn't present to harm Bambi. In the movie, she becomes rightfully terrified when Bambi cheers out and impulsively tries to run into it without fear. And to say nothing of the parts where man does show up to threaten his life.
• Posthumous Character: In the midquel, where her death is the mainspring of its plot. She makes a brief but plot critical cameo in a dream sequence, but its unclear if it really is her or if its just a figment of the dream.
• Sacrificial Lion: She was a major character in the first part of the original novel and film, and her death is essentially the end of Act 1.
• Satellite Character: Her relationship with Bambi is the entire crux of her character, and we never see her directly interacting with anyone besides her son.
• Snow Means Death: A heavy snowfall begins as Bambi goes back out calling for her.
• Sound-Only Death: Originally, she was shown collapsing into the snow after jumping over a log, but it was scaled back to just having a gunshot sound right after a scene change.
• Taking the Bullet: Kept herself directly behind Bambi as they ran off to ensure his safety, taking the poachers bullet to save her son's life.
• Unnamed Parent: She's only known as "Bambi's mother" in the book and film.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: It's never mentioned that she's twins with Faline's mother in the film.

The Great Prince of the Forest

Voiced by: Fred Shields (first film), Patrick Stewart (Bambi II); François Marthouret (first film) Philippe Catoire (Bambi II) (European French dub)

The wise guardian of the forest, the oldest surviving deer in the forest, and the father of Bambi.

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• Action Dad: Downplayed. He warns the other forest animals when there is danger most of the time, but when it comes to his son, he's not afraid of getting violent.
• Adaptational Badass: The Great Prince is called that only once in the novel, where he's usually called "The Old Prince" or later, "The old stag"^note not in proper case.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While his cold and aloof personality in the first film is consistent with how he was portrayed in the novel, the midquel has him go through a character arc where he gradually mellows into a more warm and affectionate parent towards Bambi.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the novel, if you go by the assumption that he actually is Bambi's father, he never once speaks of Bambi's mother and, going by Bambi and Faline's short lived romance during mating season, its safe to say that he would have never had a real relationship with her beyond mating season. The first movie implies that he still cares for her, given that he rushes up to protect both her and Bambi when a hunter is shooting at them in the meadow. The midquel takes it even further by making it clear that he genuinely loved her, to the extent that even discussing her is visibly painful for him to do.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed in the manga adaptation, as Bambi is the one who has to save his life from the forest fire when he falls unconscious, unlike the film adaptation where its the Great Prince who saves him.
• Age Lift: He is much younger in the film than in the book.
• Anger Born of Worry: In the midquel, Bambi's well-being is an enormous trigger; thus, he uncharacteristically stammers and snaps at him when he nearly gets himself killed by a pack of hunting dogs:
  "What if I hadn't gotten to you in time?! You could have been... When I tell you to run, you run! NEVER freeze like that! Ever!"
• The Artifact: In the novel, the prince title wasn't an indication of royalty as much as it was a catch-all term for full grown roe deer stags. Tellingly, he is called the Great Prince and Old Prince exactly once each in the book. The movies, while never directly debunking this ^note Bambi and the Great Prince are the only adult stags given direct referral in the films so we have only them to base on, seem to liken this aspect of him to a more literal, if primitive, form of royalty (note that in the movie, his son's birth is so significant that numerous animals flocked to see him with the Prince watching from afar, while the novel treats Bambi's birth as a mundane thing and no other animals (save a magpie) come to see it, not even the Prince himself).
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • While he's a white tailed deer in the Disney movies, his oversized antlers and thickened neck, complete with ruff, make his appearance closer to that of an elk.
  • He is shown with fully-grown antlers in spring, summer and winter, and in spring again the midquel, even though deer shed their antlers and grow new ones every year.
  • The midquel shows him having the same den (a small grotto canopied by a large, fallen tree) over the course of a few months, even though deer never have a consistent home or sleep in the exact same place twice in real life to evade predators.
  • Also, its implied in the midquel that Bambi's Mother was the Great Prince's only mate and that he had a genuine loving relationship with her, whereas real life bucks sire multiple does per season and never interact with them outside of mating season, being attracted to them out of instinct rather than by personality or affection. Also note that this is a change from the novel (concerning Bambi and Faline mating), which more accurately depicted how a buck and doe's relationship works.
• Ascended Extra: He has between 3 to 4 minutes of screentime in the original movie and minimal dialogue. In the midquel, he is the Deuteragonist.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Saves Bambi from a pack of hunting dogs in the midquel.
  • To a lesser degree, he appears before Bambi to motivate him to escape the forest fire in the first film.
  • In "Bambi: Friends of the Forest", he saves Bambi from the wrath of a hungry fox just when it was about to catch him.
• Big Good: Seen as the protector of the forest.
• Broken Ace: He has an air of dignity and is the Big Good. He becomes the "broken" part following his mate's death, which he spends the midquel struggling to come to terms with.
• The Chains of Commanding: The Great Prince makes it very clear from the get-go how big of a responsibility being a prince is to Bambi, and its clear the Great Prince takes his job very seriously at the expense of anything else. This plays a big part of the midquel's conflict and eventually even causes a riff between him and Bambi.
• Character Development: Bambi II has him start off as an aloof, authority figure to Bambi. Over the course of the film, the Prince grows closer to his son, and as a result, more warm and open.
• Childhood Friend Romance: In the midquel, he recounts to Bambi of how he and his mother first met as fawns.
• The Comically Serious: A few jabs at the Great Prince's humorless demeanor are made in the midquel, especially in his attempts to raise Bambi:
  The Great Prince: A prince does not "Woo-hoo".
• Composite Character: The Disney interpretation of the Great Prince (particularly his characterization in the midquel) has shades of both his original novel characterisation (a stern, aloof teacher of sorts to Bambi who, underneath his tough exterior genuinely cares about him) and that of Bambi's more direct and fatherly characterisation in Bambi's Children.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In the midquel, he insists that raising Bambi like his mother is not his place, and completely against tradition. As such he attempts to remain aloof towards his son and sets upon finding him a surrogate mother. Despite Bambi being extremely crushed by this decision, he believes it is for the best for his son's upbringing, though starts to regret it later on.
• Curtains Match the Windows: He has brown fur and brown eyes.
• Defrosting Ice King: In the midquel, he becomes more open and fatherly to Bambi as they bond.
• Deuteragonist: He became the second main focus in Bambi II.
• Disappeared Dad: Zigzagged. It's true that male deer leave their children to be raised by their mates, plus it is his job to protect the forest. But, he took on an active fatherly role for Bambi after the death of his mate.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Like all the films' parents, he has no known name, but he does have his title.
• Experienced Protagonist: He's already a master explorer and the guardian of the forest who is respected by all by the time the story starts.
• Fatal Flaw: His Pride and favoring of tradition, though he gradually grows out of this due to his son's influence.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. He constantly focuses on keeping up a dignified, regal facade and can be very harsh and distant, but he does care deeply for his son and the denizens of the forest.
• Good Is Not Nice: He's all for keeping the animals safe from Man, but he's also a Disappeared Dad and can be rather harsh and distant. Justified in that traditionally the Prince looks after the forest as a whole while the does are the ones who usually care for the fawns, a case of Truth in Television, so he's not used to hands-on parenting at first.
• Heartbroken Badass: In the midquel, the loss of Bambi's mother hits him extremely hard. Discussing her is visibly painful for him, and he at times appears to view Bambi as the only thing he has left of her. And he's absolutely devastated when he thinks Bambi died near the end of it.
• Hero of Another Story: A couple remarks he makes in the midquel (that he didn't make an impressive jump like Bambi does at one point until he got his antlers, that he was a lot like Bambi when he was younger), along with his status as the protector of the forest and his advanced age (Bambi's Mother explicitly says he's older than any other deer in the forest) imply that he's had his fair share of offscreen adventures over the years.
• Interspecies Friendship: He (a white-tailed deer) has one with Friend Owl. It's even implied that Friend Owl, besides being his advisor and confidant, is his only friend.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Elements of this are present in both films, but it's more obvious in the midquel. He's intimidating and aloof, but does care for his son and takes his job as a protector for the other animals seriously. Plus, he softens up over the course of the film.
• Jerkass Realization: It is evident by the time another doe comes to take Bambi that the Great Prince is starting to regret the arrangement. The body language between him and Bambi as he leaves with Mena also makes apparent to him that some of his teachings have risked converting his son into a broken Stepford Smiler.
• Lightning Bruiser: Not shown in the first film, but the midquel upgrades him to this; when Bambi is endangered by a hunter, he shows up to his rescue in seconds, and he effortlessly fights an entire pack of hunting dogs on his own, literally sending them running off in fear.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The Great Prince turns out to be Bambi's father midway through the first film. The midquel (which takes place immediately after the death of Bambi's mother) also states early on that he is his father.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "A prince does not (do X)." or "A prince (does X)." in the midquel.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Unlike the movies, his relation to Bambi in the novel is uncertain. In the films, Bambi was explicitly the son of the Great Prince, but in the book there is nothing proving that the two are related at all, although they do come to have a father/son relationship. The closest to confirmation given on this is an implication that the pair of fawns Bambi meets at the end of the novel are his own, which mirrors a similar scene early in the book where the Prince scolds Bambi (when he's a fawn) for crying out for his mother.
• Manly Tears: The sign of his full defrosting when he believes Bambi is dead in the midquel.
• The Marvelous Deer: Bambi's father is the Great Prince of the forest who guards the woodland creatures from the dangers of hunters.
• Mundane Made Awesome: The Great Prince does everything in a ridiculously majestic manner but somehow seems to do it all with his eyes closed.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Implied in the midquel. When Bambi seemingly dies from a high fall, its clear just from his reaction to it that he blames himself for it happening, since going through with his plan to send Bambi away with a stepmother indirectly set off that series of events.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Friend Owl's untimely arrival with Mena didn't help his case, the entire third act of the midquel is kicked off by the Prince withholding from Bambi that he was planning to send him off to live with another doe. In fairness, the Prince had bonded with Bambi by that point and intended to call off the arrangement, but after Friend Owl drops the news at the worst possible time, Bambi assumes the worst and refuses to hear him out, making the Prince think he has to go through with his original plan anyway. This, combined with Ronno's bullying of Bambi shortly after, unwittingly culminates in a series of events that nearly gets both Bambi and his would-be stepmother killed.
• Not So Stoic: Even before he starts to defrost in the midquel, the Prince has several brief moments where he drops his regal mask.
• The Obi-Wan: Raises Bambi into a prince after his mother's death. Some of his tutoring is shown in the midquel (and put to use by Bambi during the climax).
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: When the Prince isn't acting like his usual regal and stoic self, you know things have gone south, such as him desperately rushing to save Bambi from a pack of hunting dogs and then furiously bawling him out afterward for falling for a hunters trick and not listening to his calls to run away while he stood frozen in fear. And then theres his tranquil emotional breakdown when he thinks Bambi died as an indirect result of his own actions.
• Papa Wolf: Despite his aloof parenting, he genuinely loves Bambi. A few of Man's hunting dogs found that out the hard way.
• Parental Neglect: In keeping with the semi-realistic deer behavior of the first film, he doesn't seem to have much to do with his son until his mother's death. This comes back to haunt him in the midquel, where he is left to care for Bambi alone.
• Parents as People: In the midquel. Despite bucks naturally not being responsible for caring for their fawns, the Great Prince does show that when push comes to shove, he is indeed mentally equipped to be a good parent and genuinely wants what's best for his son, but his pride, his favoring of tradition, his initially stern and distant upbringing and his belief in the responsibility of putting the needs of the forest first put him at odds with raising his son, at least until the ending of the midquel when he finally realizes just how worthless that attitude really is.
• Poor Communication Kills: In the midquel, the third act is kicked off by the fact that the Prince, having bonded with Bambi over a period of a few months, neglected to tell Bambi of his initial plan to send him off to live with an adopted mother until it was too late, and Bambi's grief over the matter makes him decide that he has to go through with it anyway. This indirectly sets off a chain of events that nearly gets his son killed.
• The Quiet One: He really doesn't talk that much, having about five lines in the original film. Similar to Bambi, he has far more lines in the midquel, despite keeping his reserved personality for the large part.
• Related in the Adaptation: In the book it is never mentioned if he actually is Bambi's father, though they do develop a father/son bond when Bambi grows up.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Namely, raising and protecting his son and heir, as well as warning other deer whenever Man is nearby and protecting them from traps the latter sets.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Implied in the midquel. Going from the fact that its painful for him to even discuss Bambi's Mother, its clear he's never stopped loving her.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: This is implied in the Prince's characterization, particularly in the midquel. Beneath his aloof, humorless and stern exterior lays a lonely loner on a lonely road, alone. Its clear that he lives a life of isolation due to his responsibilities, and he tries his best to bottle up or hide any emotion he has. Its clear that Friend Owl is the only friend he has, and even there its more along the lines of a "king and his subject" relationship. Its also clear that the death of Bambi's mother affected him just as much as it did Bambi, to where its visibly painful for him to even discuss her. Fortunately, Bambi becoming a big part of his life ends up bringing out the best in him and mellows him out into a more pleasant person.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the novel, the Great Prince is last depicted leaving Bambi to die, presumably of old age. A similar transition of him departing as Bambi takes his place appears in the film, but the Great Prince's death is not directly implied. ^note Although Bambi's mother once told her son that the Great Prince was the oldest deer in the forest, much less time passes in the film than in the novel.
• The Stoic: In the original film. He's initially this in the midquel, too, but softens.
• Subverted Catchphrase: When Bambi seemingly dies in the midquel, the Prince is so choked with grief that he can't bring himself to finish saying "A prince does not..."
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: His stern and serious personality can make him seem aloof and uncaring, but he has a soft side for his family.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He starts as a cold, stern and aloof authority figure that is basically rearing Bambi out of obligation (while its clear he does care about his welfare, he believes he has no business directly raising Bambi and is only doing so until Friend Owl can find a suitable stepmother for him), but when Bambi makes an effort to prove himself, he gradually earns his father's affection and he begins mellowing out and shedding his icy personality—only to relapse when he finally goes through with his plan to send Bambi off with a stepmother, but it's clear he's not happy about having to do it. The biggest catalyst to this is when Bambi almost dies as an indirect result of his attitudes, where the Prince finally and truly mellows into a caring parent for him.
• Unnamed Parent: As with many other characters. He is only known by epithets: The Great Prince in the films, and the Old Prince or simply "the old stag" in the novel.
• Vocal Evolution: Due to the necessary switch of actors between films, Patrick Stewart's portrayal of the Prince, while a close match for Fred Shields, is noticably deeper in the midquel than in the original movie and has a full on British accent whereas Shields was gruffer and had more of a Midatlantic accent.

Faline

^{Click here to see her as an adult}

Voiced by: Cammie King (first film; young), Ann Gillis (first film; adult), Andrea Bowen (Bambi II); Morgan Flahaut (first film; young), Aurélia Dausse (first film; adult), Claire Bouanich (Bambi II) (European French dub)

Bambi's love interest.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: She wags her tail and wiggles her rear like a dog during her first encounter with Bambi.
• Babies Ever After: As an adult, she and Bambi have twin fawns.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While she herself is pretty powerless against Ronno, she gets visibly angry with his bullying of Bambi in the midquel, and snaps at him to back off when he tries to make her leave.
• Character Development: A retroactive case in the midquel. In the original movie, she was a hair breadth away from being a Flat Character, with her defining traits being her boundless energy and teasing of Bambi as a child. The midquel presents a bridge between her young and older self, showing her as already becoming much more mature and level headed, occasionally even sarcastic, while showing hints of being a flirt, when Bambi meets up with her again around early spring.
• Childhood Friend Romance: She took a liking to Bambi practically from the first moment they met. In the original, he didn't reciprocate — or even encounter her again — until they were adults. The midquel makes it a point to flesh out their relationship.
• The Cutie: Next to Flower, she's probably the most adorable of the lead characters. The midquel slightly takes the edge off of it by giving her a more mature and snarky personality, but she's still a very lovable character all around.
• Damsel in Distress: Bambi has to rescue her twice as an adult, first from the unwanted attentions of Ronno and then from a pack of hunting dogs. A downplayed case as a fawn, where Bambi stood up for her as she was being bullied by Ronno.
• Deadpan Snarker: She gains a bit of a sarcastic streak in the midquel, particularly when she's around Ronno, who's just asking to have some snark dolled out at his expense.
• Dude Magnet: Both Bambi and Ronno have an interest in her.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. She's bubbly, energetic, cheerful and hyperactive, though she eventually matures into a demure and polite young doe, without losing her spirited nature.
• Genki Girl: As a kid, Faline was extremely hyper. Case in point, her reaction to Bambi saying a simple "Hello" to her for the first time is to Squee in euphoria. Downplayed in the midquel where she is shown to be developing a slightly more mature and level-headed personality as a transition to adolescence.
• Girl Next Door: Gives off this vibe, particularly in the midquel where her genkiness is substantially toned down from what it was in the first film.
• The Hyena: She was quite the giggly girl as a fawn. She gradually sheds this trope as she grows older.
• Hidden Depths: While a bit of a Damsel in Distress, Faline has demonstrated a few moments of quick thinking and resourcefulness of her own prompting. Such instances include climbing a cliff to escape Man's dogs and getting to safety from the forest fire across a lake.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Zigzagged. Her eyes are canonically blue to represent her friendly nature, but they are brown in several scenes in the original film.
• Kissing Cousins: She was Bambi's cousin in the original novel. The movie leaves it up in the air whether they're biologically related or not, but both the newspaper comic and manga adaptations do keep the cousin relationship intact.
• Little Miss Snarker: A moderate playful example as a fawn, teasing Bambi when they first met and having a few unimpressed one-liners towards Ronno.
• Neutral Female: When Bambi and Ronno fight over her, she just stands against a rock wall and watches. Justified because female deer are perfectly fine with being battled over during the mating season.
• Nice Girl: She's sweet, loving, caring, and likable.
• Official Couple: With Bambi.
• Pale Females, Dark Males: Much lighter in color than Bambi. It's even more pronounced when you compare her to Ronno.
• Protectorate: Despite his timid streak, Bambi will always stick up for Faline.
• Satellite Love Interest: Especially in the original, she doesn't really have much personality (she appears to be a Genki Girl as a fawn but we don't know anything about her and loses even this trait as an adult), and sparsely interacts with anyone besides Bambi. The midquel fleshes her personality out a little more and gives her more screen time with the other characters, although she remains fixated around Bambi and is still often kept Out of Focus.
• She Is All Grown Up: She invokes this reaction in Bambi after they've both hit puberty.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Faline naturally prefers Bambi over Ronno.
• Stepford Smiler: Has traces of this in the novel, where she cheerfully and bluntly defines danger to Bambi and Gobo as "what you run away from" before going back to playing, unable to cope with the emotion of fear. The novel doesn't go deep enough to show whether or not she ever developed the repression problems that usually come with this trope.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Albeit a more subtle example than most. To make her obviously distinguishable as a girl, she has a much lighter shade of brown than Bambi and has Innocent Blue Eyes, and a rounder head and ears to match.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: The book has Faline as Bambi's first cousin, which is dropped from the Disney film by not referring to her mother with a title. However, the newspaper comic and manga adaptations of the story do refer to her mother as Aunt Ena, implying this may not actually be the case (unless Aunt Ena is Bambi's honorary aunt).
• Vocal Dissonance: Despite being younger than Bambi, to where she still has her spots by the end of the midquel, she sounds older than him in it to match her more mature personality.
• Vocal Evolution: Of the main cast, the obligatory change in voice actors for the midquel is the most obvious for her, with Andrea Bowen's teenager-like performance sounding absolutely nothing like Cammie King's high-pitched and sing-songy voice for the infant Faline in the original film (though serendipitously, Bowen's performance is fairly close sounding to Ann Gillis, the adult voice actor for Faline).
• Weakness Turns Her On: Notably, Bambi never pursues her, romatically or otherwise; even as far back as their very first encounter (long before Bambi evolved into her Dork Knight), she's always the one pursuing him (or in the case of Ronno targeting her as adults, the one imploring him to intervene).
• Wise Beyond Their Years: In the midquel, she is more grounded and insightful, despite the ending also suggesting she is the youngest of the main cast.

Geno

Bambi's son and oldest child.

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• Demoted to Extra: Due to Disney never making an Animated Adaptation of Bambi's Children, Geno only has a minor role as an infant at the end of the first film. Disney did produce a Comic-Book Adaptation which roughly follows his role in the novel.
• The So-Called Coward: After his cousin Boso starts antagonising him and challenging him to a fight, he initially refuses. After Boso goads him over, Geno reluctantly complies and defeats him in a secluded area (where he had hoped Boso would not get humiliated).

Gurri

Bambi's daughter and youngest child.

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• Damsel in Distress: Gurri is attacked by a fox at one point before a gamekeeper shoots it and takes the injured Gurri away. This is believed to be this trope in action as well, but the gamekeeper only kept her until she was healthy again.
• Demoted to Extra: Due to Disney never making an Animated Adaptation of Bambi's Children, Gurri only has a minor role as an infant at the end of the first film. Disney did produce a Comic-Book Adaptation which roughly follows her role in the novel.

Other Residents of the Forest

Friend Owl

Voiced by: Will Wright (first film), Junius Matthews (Thumper's Great Race), Keith Ferguson (DVD menu for Bambi: Special Edition and Bambi II); Gérard Hernandez (first film) Jean-Claude Donda (Bambi II) (European French dub); Kazuo Kumakura (Japanese dub of Bambi and Bambi II)

A mentor of sorts to the heroes.

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• Adapted Out: In Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, he's reduced to a mere one-panel cameo appearance and his role in the story is otherwise replaced by a new bullfrog character.
• Adaptation Name Change: In the 1966 vinyl record Thumper's Great Race and 1970 book adaptation Thumper's Race, he's known as "The Wise Old Owl".
• Ascended Extra: Appears a bit more in the sequel.
• Berserk Button: He hates when people sing "Let's Sing a Gay Little Spring Song".
  Friend Owl: Every spring, it's the same old thing. (In a mocking falsetto) "Tweet tweet, tweet tweet! Tweet tweet, tweet tweet! Love's sweet song! (Stops falsetto) Hmph! Pain in the pin feathers, I call it.
• The Cameo: He makes an appearance in both video game adaptations of The Jungle Book. In the Genesis version, he is an enemy, while in the SNES version, he will give Mowgli extra health.
• Composite Character: Friend Owl draws traits from the second novel's characterizations of the screech owl and the captive horned owl, and has superficial similarities to the two owls present in the first novel.
• Cool Old Guy: If he's not in a grouchy mood, he's quite mellow and amiable.
• Demoted to Extra: In Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, he only gets a brief cameo in one panel.
• A Dog Named "Dog": He's an owl named "Owl". "Friend" might not actually be part of his proper named due to The Great Prince once referring to him as simply "Owl" in the midquel.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. He's kindhearted and well-meaning, but he's also grumpy and knows a lot less than he thinks he does.
• Grumpy Old Man: Don't wake him up; at least, not during the mating season.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Friend Owl is something of a pompous crank, but seems to care about the youngsters of the forest.
• Jump Scare: Gets up close and personal with the camera twice in the first film.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He shows signs of this with his whole speech about "twitterpation" and how relationships should be avoided at all costs.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Not very good at mentoring the heroes, and a lot of his advice, particularly when it comes to love, is absolutely terrible.
• No Name Given: Simply called "Friend Owl".
• Number Two: He unofficially acts as a subject of sorts to the Great Prince in the midquel, helping him find a doe to raise Bambi, while also shrewdly nudging him to bond with his son.
• The Obi-Wannabe: He attempts to act like a mentor, but he's not so good at it.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Played with. While something of a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, he seems genuinely knowledgeable in some areas. In the midquel, he is near instantly observant that Bambi would be in better care with his father.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice is noticeably higher sounding in the midquel.

Thumper's family

^{Click here to see Thumper's father}

Voiced by: Margaret Lee (mother); Ariel Winter, McKenna Cowgill, Emma Rose Lima (sisters); Édith Barijoane (mother); Pauline Larrieu (mother) (Bambi II); Naomi Libraty, Camille Timmerman, Gwendoline Sommier, Clara Quilichini (sisters) (European French dub)

Thumper's mother and five sisters (four in the midquel).

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• All There in the Script: According to the Disney's Bunnies storybooks, four of Thumper's sisters are called Trixie, Daisy, Ria, and Tessie.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: All of Thumper's sisters in the midquel, who follow and cling to him perpetually. He is constantly trying to ditch them.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Thumper's Sisters end up as supporting characters in the midquel complete with their own scenes, while they are mostly remembered for trying to help Bambi say "bird" in the first film.
  • The whole family is in focus in the Disney's Bunnies storybooks. Papa Bunny even breaks from his role as The Ghost in "A Day With Papa Bunny".
• Big Brother Worship: All the sisters towards Thumper. They always want to play with him.
• Bratty Half-Pint: The sisters can act annoying to Thumper.
• The Dividual: Thumper's sisters all look and act identically to each other, to the point where both the midquel and Disney's Bunnies series drop the fifth sister with absolutely no change to the dynamic. They aren't even given individual names outside of the latter.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: His mother is Phlegmatic; his sisters are Sanguine.
• Gender Swap: In the 1966 vinyl record Thumper's Great Race and book adaptation Thumper's Race. One of Thumper's five/four sister's was changed to a male named "Floppy".
• Genki Girl: The sisters are very playful and energetic.
• The Ghost: Thumper's father does not appear at all in either film, but is mentioned a few times, always by Thumper's mother when she reprimands him by making him repeat words of advice his father gave him. The Disney Bunnies storybook "A Day With Papa" averts this by having him appear in person.
• Good Parents: Thumper's mother is stern, but clearly a well meaning and caring parent. Thumper's father is implied to be this in the films, and its shown clearly in the Disney Bunnies storybook "A Day With Papa", wheres he's not only a very nice guy, but a very effective parent, not talking down to Thumper or even reprimending him when he disobeys him but instead telling him to never be afraid to ask him for help. And he clearly values his son's imagination and curious attitude.
• Kiddie Kid: Thumper's sisters are older than Bambi and Faline. However, while the latter two act more like adolescents by the Interquel, Thumper's sisters act pretty exactly the same as they did when Bambi was born in the first film.
• Mythology Gag: The midquel's Annoying Younger Sibling dynamic between Thumper and his sisters is ripped from a Disney storybook "Thumper's Little Sisters". Curiously there are also less sisters there than in the original film as well.
• Nice Guy: Thumper's father is shown to be this in the Disney Bunnies book "A Day With Papa". He has a very nice attitude and never gets angry at his son.
• No Name Given: None of his family members are given names in the films. Four of Thumper's sisters are occasionally named in Disney storybooks, though his parents remain Mama and Papa Bunny.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In the Disney Bunnies books, Thumper's father looks exactly like his son, just significantly larger.
• Sequel Non-Entity: The fifth, unnamed sister is inexplicably gone from the midquel (and the Disney storybooks).

Miss Bunny

Voiced by: Thelma Hubbard

Thumper's future mate.

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• Age Lift: Interestingly, a lot of Disney merchandise ages her down to pair her with Thumper as a child, despite only meeting him as an adult in the film.
• All There in the Script: She is referred to as "Miss Bunny" in merchandise, though is unnamed in the film itself.
• Babies Ever After: Has a number of bunny daughters with Thumper.
• Breakout Character: Despite only appearing in one scene of the first film, she is popular in Disney merchandising, especially in Japan.
• Love at First Sight: Thumper is assured he will never be "twitterpated"....then he sets eyes on her.
• No Name Given: If "Bunny" is indeed her last name, then her first name is not revealed.
• Official Couple: With Thumper.
• Species Surname: She's a rabbit named Miss Bunny.

The Porcupine

Voiced by: Brian Pimental; Gérard Surugue (European French dub)

A territorial porcupine who Bambi and his friends cross paths with during the midquel.

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• Berserk Button: Sure, he'll chew you out and treat you to a long rant if you trespass on his log, but disrespect him and you'll get to enjoy his quills.
• Canon Foreigner: He's a new character created for the midquel, although his persona loosely takes inspiration from accounts in the original Bambi novels where an ornery hedgehog recurrently pricks the fawns for bothering it. The Little Golden Book "Bambi: Friends of the Forest", which predates the midquel and is set during Bambi's infancy, had an almost identical looking porcupine appear in it, but his friendly demeanor makes it clear he's not the same character as this porcupine.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Ends up used as one during the climax. Bambi wakes him up and then catapults him at one of the hunting dogs chasing him.
• Creator Cameo: He's voiced by midquel director Brian Pimental.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: A downplayed one. After getting his revenge sting at the end of the film, he is shown rather contently waving Bambi goodbye.
• Grumpy Old Man: The resident one for Bambi's forest, even moreso than Friend Owl.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  Porcupine: That's the problem with these kids today: no respect. No respect at all! [The Great Prince comes by and stares at him] What're you looking at, you big moose?
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A grumpy old bastard who violently defends his log and has no qualms about sticking children with his quills. That said, if he's not antagonized or having his territory intruded on, he's not that bad, and he's shown to be perfectly happy listening to Thumper's story and contentedly waves at Bambi after sticking him with his quills one last time (to get him to kiss Faline).
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After stinging Bambi midway in the film, he appears much later during the climax where Bambi launches him onto the dogs, doubling as payback for earlier. See Chekhov's Gunman above.
• No Hero to His Valet: He doesn't seem to recognize the Great Prince despite him being the one who keeps the entire forest safe, and also doesn't seem to take Bambi's truthful claims of being the Young Prince seriously, though it's probably motivated by more by him being a Grumpy Old Man than anything else.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue: He's prone to ranting about respect, and the lack of it from the kids these days.
• Shipper on Deck: Though a little more violent than most, the Porcupine uses his quills to get Bambi to kiss Faline.
• Troll: He clearly takes a lot of pleasure in refusing to allow Bambi to get across his bridge, and starts scurrying across it to taunt him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Played for Laughs in this case, but he has no qualms or shame over shooting his quills at Bambi.

The Groundhog

Voiced by: Brian Pimental, Éric Métayer (European French dub)

A skittish groundhog that predicts the end of winter every year.

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• Canon Foreigner: A minor new character created for the midquel.
• Creator Cameo: Like the Porcupine above, the director of the midquel provides his voice.
• Nervous Wreck: The stress that comes with having to potentially tell all of the forest that winter's not over year after year has not been kind to him.

Mena

Voiced by: Cree Summer; Marjorie Frantz (European French dub)

A childhood friend of Bambi's mother who was intended to be Bambi's stepmother, but an encounter with a hunter's trap and his dogs, as well as Bambi bonding with his father, changes this. Only had a couple of minutes of screentime.

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• Caught in a Snare: Ronno rams Bambi into her, causing her to lose her balance and trigger a hunting trap.
• Childhood Friends: With Bambi's mother, as said above.
• Damsel in Distress: Got her back leg stuck in a trap thanks to Ronno and had to be saved by both Bambi and his father.
• Expy: Of Nettla from the original novel, who took Bambi in after his mother died. Unlike Mena, however, Nettla was a Grumpy Old Doe.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: She urges both Bambi and Ronno to run after getting caught. Both do, but Bambi takes the time to catch the attention of the hunting dogs before fleeing.
• Meaningful Echo: When the above happens, she says the exact words Bambi's mother said to him before she died.
• Mythology Gag: Her name is one letter off of Aunt Ena, a minor character from the book who was Faline's mother.
• Nice Girl: In the short time she adopts Bambi, she displays a kind, motherly personality. Her first instinct after getting caught in a trap is to urge Bambi to run and save himself.
• Parental Substitute: After the death of Bambi's mother, the Great Prince selects Mena to raise Bambi in hope of avoiding Sink or Swim Fatherhood.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears near the end of the midquel, but her role sows the seeds for Bambi's Heroes' Frontier Step and growth into a future prince.

Faline's Mother (Aunt Ena)

Voiced by: Mary Lansing

A minor character in both the original novels and the Disney movies, although she has more presence in the books.

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• Demoted to Extra: Already having a modest role in the books, she only appears in the scene where Bambi first meets Faline and when she rescues her from the wrath of a hunter. She gets hit with this even harder in the midquel, where she only gets a very brief cameo early in the film.
• No Name Given: She's called Aunt Ena in the novel, but she isn't named in the movies. However, the official newspaper comic adaptation of the movie does refer to her as Aunt Ena, as does the manga adaptation.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: She's stated to be Bambi's aunt in the book, but this aspect of her is dropped from the Disney movie. However, the newspaper comic and manga adaptation still refers to her as Aunt Ena, implying this may not be the case. (Then again she could just be an honorary aunt.)

Antagonists

Ronno

Ronno

^{Click here to see him as a yearling}

Voiced by: Anthony Ghannam (Bambi II); Pierre Casanova (European French dub)

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

Bambi's rival. He started out as an arrogant, self-centered, and insufferable bully when they initially meet as fawns, and later grows up into a hulking and hostile buck who fights Bambi over the right to have Faline for himself.

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• Abled in the Adaptation: In the novel, Ronno has a lame leg due to surviving a gunshot. In the movies, he lacks any disabilities in order to be more of a rival to Bambi.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Ronno has some degree of feelings (or at least lust) for Faline, who is annoyed by him at best and otherwise outright dislikes him.
• The Ace: Subverted. He thinks of himself as such and the film makes him seem like he'd have this potential. But when push comes to shove, he's a cowardly bully who'd rather flee from a dire situation to save his own skin than take the initiative to help.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He has brown eyes in the original, but in the midquel he has green eyes, probably to help further distinguish him from Bambi and to subtly establish his personality.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Ronno in the movies has little in common with his character in the novel. His novel counterpart was Bambi's friend (at first) and was already grown up by the time Bambi was born, and while he got aggressive towards Bambi during mating season, he wasn't a sociopathic bully like the midquel depicted, much less the vicious and near mindless blank slate of a brute that the original movie depicted him as either. The midquel in particular alters his personality so drastically that a new viewer would be forgiven for thinking that he was simply a new character created for it.
• Adaptation Species Change: Like with Bambi, he was a roe deer in the book, but was changed into a white-tailed deer for the movies since roe deer don't live in the states.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the novel, he was actually Bambi's friend until the latter matured and became a rival for does. In both movies, he's a rival and enemy of Bambi out of the starting gate.
• Aesop Amnesia: Pissing off the Young Prince at his lowest point was not a smart move on his part, to say the least. During the events on the midquel, he drove Bambi to uncharacteristic rage by insulting his lineage, which got him beaten up immediately and started off a chain reaction of events that nearly got Bambi and his stepmother killed while exposing Ronno for the coward he is when he runs off from the threat of Man. Instead of learning his lesson from this, Ronno doubles down on his resolve and swears revenge on Bambi, which culminates in them fighting again once Ronno is fully grown up...which ends with him getting his flank handed to him yet again by an also fully grown up Bambi, and completely galvanises Faline's love for the latter. Didn't Think This Through does not describe how much he screwed the pooch by making the Young Prince his worst enemy.
• Age Lift: In the novel, he is implied to be several years older than Bambi. In the midquel film, he is only slighter older than Bambi.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Despite being a bully himself, Ronno is basically an outcast from the other animals, though its for reasons be brought on himself for his lousy personality rather than being arbitrarily ostracized.
• All There in the Script: Even though his name is never given in the first film proper, he is still named in character design material for the first film, and he is likewise named dropped in the Dell Comic and manga adaptations.
• Alpha Bastard: Apart from the fact that he's not a highschooler, he acts like this trope because of his arrogance and tendency to look down on others, especially in regards to Bambi.
• Always Second Best: A partial reason for his growing hatred of Bambi in the midquel, growing rather competitive around him in terms of athleticism and skill.
• Always Someone Better: He's an even match for Bambi in combat as a fawn, but as they grow up, Bambi eventually turns the odds in his favor. But in terms of popularity among the animals, its absolutely inverted; Bambi is far more popular and successful in his goals than Ronno ever was or will ever hope to be.
• Ambiguous Situation: As a result of the midquel having Ronno swearing revenge, his and Bambi's meeting as yearlings, with neither Bambi recognizing Ronno or Ronno reacting to Bambi's name, raises the question if they even recognized each other as old rivals, if Ronno had completely forgotten about Bambi or if he had completely moved past his rivalry and was more focused on the fact that it was the mating season.
• Ambiguously Evil: In the original film at least. The only reason he and Bambi come into conflict is because the latter followed Faline into the former's territory, which is how battles between white-tailed bucks happen during the mating season. The midquel, as well as Tezuka's manga adaptation, throws out any ambiguity by showing that even as a fawn, he was basically a sociopath in the making.
• Ambition Is Evil: Almost everything Ronno does in the midquel is motivated by his desire to come out on top of his petty jealousy-fueled rivalry with Bambi, and given it never works out in his favor, its meant to show that his ruthless and selfish attitude is absolutely no way to get through life.
• Amusing Injuries: He's a frequent recipient of these due to his Karmic Butt-Monkey status in the midquel.
• Anti-Climax: Despite being the closest thing the midquel has to an on-screen antagonist (not counting Man's dogs, who are personality-less extensions of Man's will), his fight with Bambi was anything but spectacular. The latter actually manages to get the upper hand over him for most of it, and the fight technically ends in a draw after Ronno flees the scene due to the sudden arrival of Man (though Bambi is clearly the moral victor of it).
• Anti-Role Model: As a fawn, his whole role in the midquel basically exists to spell out how having an arrogant, entitled and haughty macho attitude is absolutely no way to get through life in contrast to Bambi's altruism and sincere efforts to earn his victories, and he is a boorish, sociopathic, and all-around-awful person.
• Anti-Villain: Initially, if you interpret him as being a villain in the first film and not take the midquel and other tie-ins into account. He's presented as a very agressive buck that Bambi unwittingly set off by wandering into his territory, prompting Ronno and Bambi to fight over Faline. This might seem evil to a normal person, but this is actually typical behaviour for real life deer (and is also accurate to how the other bucks treated Bambi in the novel as he got older). The Dell Comic adaptation (where, unlike the movie, he's given bits of dialogue) slightly humanizes these traits by explicitly presenting him as a villain who is out to claim Faline as his own, regardless of whether she wants to be his mate or not. Tezuka's manga adaptation also establishes that even as a fawn, he was a jerk and a bully towards Bambi in the guise of a friend. The midquel follows this and retcons Ronno's behaviour in the first film by having him be an arrogant bully who treated Faline this way since he was a fawn, and also having his motive for fighting linked with his bitter childhood rivalry with Bambi.
• Arch-Enemy: For Bambi. The two clash with each other due to Bambi's strong moral compass and Ronno's complete and utter lack of such. Plus Bambi's usually on the receiving end of Ronno's bullying.
• Arc Villain: The midquel retroactively makes Ronno one for Bambi. While not the main villain of the movies, he's the closest thing they have to an on-screen antagonist.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He has mildly impressive athletic prowess for a fawn, and an unjustifably high opinion of himself as a result of it.
• Ascended Extra: He was just a brief rival for Bambi in one scene of the original film and had miminal characterization and no dialogue. In the midquel, he's a fully fledged antagonist who appears in several scenes. Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation also gives his fawn form a more prominent role, though nowhere to the extent of the midquel.
• Asshole Victim: Aside from some mildly dorkish qualities in his introduction (which in itself is a transparently insincere act done to try and get others to pay attention to him), there is absolutely nothing about him that’s close to sympathetic. He’s a slimy, amoral bully who cares for no one but himself. Him running away in fear of Man, his many pitiful pratfalls and love of his mother do not make him sympathetic whatsoever, and the former just exhibits how selfless Bambi really is in comparison by risking his life to save his would-be stepmom. As such, whenever bad things happen to Ronno, the audience can't help but derive amusement if not downright catharsis from his suffering, as he's a complete dickhead who deserves to be punished for his actions.
• Attempted Rape: Implied in the first film, when he forces Faline away from Bambi. Luckily for her, Bambi's quick to put a stop to it.
• Attention Whore: Ronno is very self-centered, so he desperately craves attention. His first scene in the midquel has him rudely try to draw as much attention to himself as possible by scaring the Groundhog for laughs and showing off to the others in an attempt to make friends with them. Later on, when Ronno is showing off to a clearly unimpressed Faline, she is drawn away by the yelling of an injured Bambi, and Ronno is clearly aggravated over this.
  Ronno: "Hey! I wasn't finished talking about me!"
• Ax-Crazy: As an adult. Ronno was willing to kill Bambi and (possibly) rape Faline.
• Badass Adorable: As a fawn, he is somewhat adorable in appearance and can put up a fight when he wants to (key word being when he wants to).
• Balance Between Good and Evil: The midquel fleshes out Ronno and Bambi's rivalry akin to this. Ronno's introduction and Start of Darkness coincides with (and usually pivots) much of Bambi's Heroes' Frontier Step and Character Development.
• Barbaric Bully: Not so much as a fawn, but he definetely becomes this once he becomes a yearling.
• Best Served Cold:
  • In the midquel, he waits until Bambi is at his lowest emotional point before insulting his heritage to goad him into a fight, arrogantly believing he has the advantage. It quickly backfires on him big time.
  • As a adult, when he's much physically stronger than when he and his rival were fawns, he wastes no time trying to force himself on Faline and drive Bambi away, and then fighting him when he refuses to back down. Once again, it completely backfires on him as Bambi still proves himself his superior in combat.
• Beware the Silly Ones: In the midquel, Ronno is a pitiful Karmic Butt-Monkey who suffers many a pratfall, but even as a fawn he shows signs of the savage brute that he grows into in the original movie.
• Being Evil Sucks: Ronno's bullying attitude is his own undoing and ensures that he never forms any real friendships or gets any respect from others. If anything, it just keeps feeding back into itself to ensure he stays the same awful person he is up until adulthood.
• Beta Test Baddie: His whole motivation for bullying Bambi and others stems from his Inferiority Superiority Complex towards him.
• Big Bad: While Man is unquestionably the real menace to the animals, Ronno serves as the tangible main antagonist of the midquel and, ironically, gets far more focus in it than the threat of Man.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Man in the midquel, though Ronno curiously gets more plot focus than the former in it.
• Big Bad Slippage: Ronno doesn't necessarily start off as an evil person, just a mild pest. It isn't until the climax of the midquel that he truly descends into being a villain.
• Big Bad Wannabe: That being said, Ronno isn't really much of a threat to Bambi at first, at most a petty bully and nuisance who is more talk than show. It isn't until their rivalry becomes personal by the midquel’s climax that he really earns this, and even there he's immediately upstaged in terms of being a threat by the sudden presence of Man.
• Bit Character: In the original movie, he has about two minutes of screentime and no lines, and just serves as a personified obstacle for Bambi to overcome. The midquel gives him a notably more prominent role and a more fleshed out personality.
• Bit Part Bad Guy: In ths original movie, he's just another obstacle for Bambi to deal with for a couple of minutes.
• Blatant Lies: While it is possible he did learn about how Man makes their deer calls by spying on them, his story about bravely taking on Man head-on is undeniably false, especially when he runs away in terror at the very idea of confronting Man later in the midquel. Faline doesn't buy his story for a second (though Bambi is naive enough to buy it).
• Boisterous Bruiser: Ronno is a fighter, and has the loudmouth and arrogance to go with it.
• Born Unlucky: Nothing ever goes right for Ronno, whether it's because of swift karma for his actions or just pure bad luck on his part.
• Bratty Half-Pint: As a fawn, Ronno was a braggart, a bully, a liar, a coward, manipulative, and has the worst qualities of a child, seeming to mainly be brought about by his pride at having his antlers starting to come in and his spots have gone. He got worse as an adult.
• Break the Haughty: In the midquel, the closest thing he gets to karma for (accidentally) nearly getting Bambi and Mena killed is being put through yet another humiliating pratfall when a turtle bites and clings to his nose, sending him off crying for his mom—right after boasting to Bambi that they'll meet again some day.
• The Bully: When you get right down to it, at his core, Ronno is a fairly physically apt bully who enjoys putting on airs and throwing his weight around, but when the chips are down, he's revealed to be nothing more than a Smug Snake and a Dirty Coward who enjoys imposing on others weaker than him (and blows up if they so much as dare to fight back) and would rather save his own hide than even consider helping others. He constantly insults Bambi and his friends and looks down on them, and shows no respect for anyone. Part of the reason he even became such a heated rival towards Bambi was out of spite and feeling entitled to be superior to him. When he grows up, he degenerates into an outright Barbaric Bully.
• Bully Brutality: In the climax of the midquel, he tries to beat Bambi up during a fight, and once he grows up and they get into a scuffle over Faline, he tries to kill him.
• Callousness Towards Emergency: As soon as he realizes Man's hounds are heading his way and Mena tells both him and Bambi to run, Ronno simply flees for his life, while Bambi, after some hesitation, instead chooses to sacrifice himself to save her life.
• Can't Take Criticism: Ronno gets flustered when Bambi (non-ironically) expresses in awe that Ronno's story of taking on Man is "Unbelievable.", misinterpreting it as Bambi calling him a liar.
• Character Development: Retroactive case. Ronno's personality in the original movie is rather vague, and he just serves as another obstacle to Bambi. The midquel however plays out far more as a character study for him just like it does for his rival, giving him far more individual flaws and agency, and also reveals the devolution into the hulking brute he grew into in the original movie was played out by his own decisions, particularly when galvanised by his sour relationship with his rival Bambi.
• The Charmer: Subverted. Ronno likes to think of himself as a Prince Charming, but that's just his narcissism in action; Faline isn't remotely impressed by anything he does and at most tolerates his presence, assuming she's not already feeling repelled by his creepy attitude.
• Chekhov's Gunman: At first it doesnt seem like his rivalry has much bearing on the actual story of the midquel, but it culminates in him picking a fight with Bambi on purpose, the aftermath of which unwittingly sets off the climax of the movie.
• The Chew Toy: Any time Ronno suffers, it's because he deserves it.
• Classic Villain: In the second film, he is basically an Evil Counterpart to Bambi and has the staple traits of one. He is also guilty of five of the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Pride: He has an undeservedly high opinion of himself and is extremely arrogant in his attitude towards everyone.
  • Greed: Given he has a huge ego, he is greedy for any kind of attention he can get.
  • Envy: He is spitefully envious of Bambi due to the latter unwittingly upstaging him over and over.
  • Lust: As an adult, he openly lusts after Faline, though the midquel implies this lust goes all the way back to their childhood.
  • Wrath: He is short-tempered, impatient and prone to violence if he feels slighted.
• Climax Boss: He serves as this to Bambi in both the original movie and its adaptations, as well as the midquel.
• Cock Fight: He gets into a nasty one with Bambi over Faline in the original movie.
• Combat Pragmatist: Ronno is more than willing to fight dirty in order to win against a foe.
• Composite Character: Ronno in the midquel takes traits from both the movies interpretation of him and traits of a character from Bambi's Children, Boso, who is the cousin of Geno and is spitefully jealous of Geno because he's the son of Bambi, who is now the Great Prince of the Forest. It also takes cues from Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, which notably depicted Ronno as a fawn being at odds with Bambi decades before the midquel did it.
• Condescending Compassion: After Bambi performs a stunt to try and impress his father and has it backfire on him, Ronno comes across him with porcupine quills in his rump and uses the chance to offer mocking condolences for the incident where Bambi nearly got mauled by a pack of hunting dogs after freezing up, saying that if they didn't have cowards like him, they wouldn't know who the brave ones were. He does similar later on when Bambi's sent off to live with a stepmom.
• Conflict Killer: The focus of the midquels story is on the relationship between Bambi and his father, with Ronno's rivalry with Bambi seemingly having little relevance to the story at first. Cue Ronno showing up and making a bad situation even worse when Bambi is sent off to live with a stepmother after having a falling out with his father over it; the climax is entirely sprung by him picking a fight with Bambi, which ends with Bambi and his fathers relationship being repaired and Ronno being utterly humiliated.
• Create Your Own Hero: Ronno's bullying of Bambi in the midquel is unwittingly a catalyst in helping him learn to become more brave and assertive in the face of danger, which culminates in Bambi selflessly sacrificing himself to save Mena's life from Man while Ronno in turn flees screaming for his mother.
• Creepy Child: Ronno's behaviour as a fawn as his rivalry with Bambi gets worse is disturbingly cruel and cold, akin to being a sociopath in the making.
• Dark Is Evil: In both movies, he has a much darker shade of fur than any of the other deer as a visual red flag that he's trouble.
• Deadpan Snarker: Is prone to throwing out some pretty cruel and venomous one-liners, especially towards Bambi.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of The Bully type of character, showing just how following this kind of mindset can swiftly bring real consequences onto whoever embraces it. Ronno's arrogant and all around anti-social personality pretty much precludes him from forming any real friendships with the others, and this feeds into his ambitions to force people to like him over his rival, which only make him come off as a pathetic and desperate creep who keeps digging himself deeper with each situation until everyone hates him by the end, and for good reason. In short, Ronno is His Own Worst Enemy.
• Demoted to Extra: And then re-ascended back to a role somewhat different than what he originally had. He had a larger role in the novel beyond simply being a rival to Bambi, being already grown and Bambi having already known him even before his mother died. The first film reduces him down to one scene, with no name, no dialogue and no real characterization. The midquel then expands his character back, but only really rebuilds his character on his rival status, portraying his rivalry with Bambi growing and building from childhood rather than having him become a rival only after Bambi grows up. Even with that, he never appears in any Bambi tie-in that doesnt directly adapt the events of the movies, and has never been featured in any of the series merchandise. He doesn't even so much as get a mention in Bambi's Children, either.
• Determinator: Deconstructed. He has similar ambitions to Bambi in that they both want to prove themselves, but whereas Bambi risks himself out of selflessness and to earn the respect and affection of his father, Ronno goes about it in a completely ruthless way and for entirely self-serving reasons.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: He literally comes out of nowhere in the original film, and is gone practically as fast as he appears.
• Didn't Think This Through: He often gets into many a pratfall because he's so focused on showing off to or showing up others to satisfy his ego that he doesn't stop and think about how what he's doing might reflect back on him and he ends making many reckless and stupid decisions as a result.
• Dirty Coward: He brags about being able to take on Man early in the film and is more than willing to chase and fight Bambi when he's a fawn because its clear he has some advantage over him in terms of being older and starting to bud antlers—but as soon as Mena gets snared in a trap that summons a pack of hunting dogs, he flees in terror while calling out for his mom.
• Disc-One Final Boss:
  • In the original movie, he's taken out by Bambi somewhat early in the third act, though his threat turns out to be nothing compared to the return of Man and the subsequent forest fire.
  • In the midquel, his fight with Bambi is actually the setup for the films climax, where Bambi has to deal with the far greater threat of Man and his hounds instead.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His bullying towards Bambi is almost entirely fueled out of petty envy of Bambi (unwittingly) upstaging him constantly along with the frustration of the various embarrassing pratfalls he keeps bringing on himself, to the point of insulting him to his face to kick him down a notch.
• The Ditz: He's obnoxiously thickheaded and childish.
• Driven by Envy: His petty envy of Bambi is a strong motivator of him constantly trying to one-up the young prince.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Everyone in the forest finds Ronno to be an annoying pest at best despite his considerable athleticism and bravado in contrast to Bambi's scrawiness and timid nature. Due to his fragile ego and sense of arrogant entitlement, he doesn't take it well and grows to hate Bambi more and more throughout the film because of it. It comes to a head when he uses the fact that The Great Prince sent Bambi away to live with a stepmom as ammo to take him down a peg and goad him into a fight so he can prove himself superior in a fight.
• Dumbass Has a Point: For all his Miles Gloriosus boasting in the midquel, his description of Man's deer call was incredibly accurate, as Bambi would later find out when he fell for the trick when he thought that it was his mother calling him.
• Dumb Muscle: Downplayed. Ronno isnt particularly stupid, but he is very impulsive, reckless and short sighted thanks to his big ego, which causes no end of trouble for him.
• Dumb Jock: To go in hand with his Jerk Jock persona, he's not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, although this stems more from his recklessness and impulsive personality and lack of proper social skills than straight up stupidity.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Similar to Bambi, Ronno in his yearling form first appeared as two "blink and you'll miss him" cameos in House of Mouse prior to the midquel.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the original movie, his eye color was brown, whereas the midquel retcons it into being green to better suit his personality.
• Ear Notch: He's had one since childhood.
• Emerging from the Shadows: When he begins to taunt Bambi in the climax of the midquel, he's first shown coming out of the shadows of the nearby brush to foreshadow the sinister nature of whats about to follow.
• Entitled Bastard: This is Ronno's major flaw, along with his pride. He feels he should be stronger than Bambi and has the right to Faline as a mate for himself without her consent, while constantly denegrating Bambi as a coward and wimp despite him upping Ronno at everything he does and showing absolutely no respect towards him despite being the next prince of the forest. His entire rivalry with Bambi is built on entitlement.
• Entitled to Have You: Has this opinion of Faline.
• Establishing Character Moment: In Bambi II, its established right off the bat that he's a smug Attention Whore and bratty troublemaker. The very first thing he does is cruelly scaring the Groundhog back into his hole after he doesn't see his shadow and laughing about it, and then bragging about blatantly false feats to Bambi and co, as well as acting aggressive when Bambi seemingly questions his stories. On top of that, he's shown to be openly disrespectful to his own mother, in case you didn't already get the hint that were not supposed to like him.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Zig Zagged. Ronno is even disrespectful to his own mother, but often goes crying to her whenever he is faced with danger.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Arguably Ronno's biggest flaw is his complete failure to understand why others like Bambi so much over him—even if he wasn't the next Prince of the Forest, Bambi is humble and selfless and earns all of his victories and respect from his friends by what he does, while Ronno arrogantly expects things to go his way because he's older and stronger despite having no real deeds to show for it, and fails to understand that he's constantly shooting himself in the foot with his selfishness and egotism.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As much of a jerk as he is, despite getting the upper hand, he stops his rage-fuelled fight with Bambi when he realizes he accidentally trapped Mena in a hunting snare. Even more so since he is rightfully terrified of Man and actually confronting it or its hounds despite his past boasting.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bambi. The titular character is sweet, brave, humble, and respects Faline in spite of a shy crush; Ronno is callous, cowardly, arrogant, and tried to force himself onto Faline when they were adults. Even dynamically, basically everything that Ronno does as he becomes darker and more obsessive coerces Bambi into becoming more bold and altruistic.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor:
  • Ronno's idea of a joke is scaring the Groundhog after he becomes elated at seeing his shadow isnt there. Naturally, he's the only one laughing at it.
  • Shortly after he cracks a joke about the forest being on fire, something that is very serious business to the woodland critters in this franchise.
• Evil Laugh: Ronno occasionally lets out a smug chuckle, accented with a snort.
• Evil Is Bigger: Downplayed; as a fawn he's identical in size to Bambi, but as a yearling, he's slightly larger and more stocky than Bambi, though its difficult to notice this unless you look at the films model sheets.
• Evil Is Petty: Ronno takes things way too personally and overreacts to any slight, whether it was intentional or not. And when Bambi is sent off to live with Mena, Ronno uses the opportunity to rub the whole situation in his rivals face, implying that he was such an embarrassment to the Great Prince that he "(gave him) away", which Ronno has nothing to gain from beyond kicking Bambi down a peg.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Downplayed. As a fawn, he's actually kindof adorable looking. As a yearling, still as bitter and veangeful as ever? He looks like the deer equivilent of a biker thug that you do not want to get on the bad side of.
• Evil Plan: Repeat: everything he does is for the sake of showing up Bambi.
• Evil Virtues: If nothing else, he is not at all lazy and is extremely determined, and at least loves his Mom, even if he doesnt necessarily respect her.
• Evil vs. Evil: Man is out to get him and the other wildlife animals.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Parodied; in his Post-Climax Confrontation with Bambi, he's sent packing by a mere snapping turtle biting his nose.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: As a fawn, he actually has a appearance thats at worst unremarkable and at best kindof adorable. This is completely offset by his real personality.
• Failure Is the Only Option: No matter what he does, Ronno is always doomed to play second fiddle to Bambi. In the midquel, its an outright Foregone Conclusion that Bambi was going to overcome his bullying of him.
• False Friend: In Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, Bambi befriends Ronno as a fawn, unaware that he's a local troublemaker, and Ronno immediately tricks him into directly risking his life by interacting with Man, purely for kicks on his part. Afterward, the Bullfrog who mentors Bambi becomes belligerant at the very mention of Ronno's name and warns him to stay away from him.
• Fatal Flaw: Ronno has at least three of them.
  • Pride is the most prominent of them. He's a narcissist who constantly throws his weight around and believes he's better than everyone else, even if he has little to show for it and it constantly causes problems for him.
  • Wrath is his other most prominent trait. He is very quick to anger and is not above resorting to violence to impose himself on others, and due to his anger, he often winds up making many reckless and stupid mistakes that only further lower others opinions of him.
  • Fueling both of the above and vice versa is Envy. He's a shameless and insecure Attention Whore and Glory Hound who is spitefully jealous of Bambi and aspires and pretends to be what Bambi is for all of the wrong reasons and without truly earning it.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: His attitude towards Bambi; the fact that he, an older and physically stronger deer, is constantly Always Second Best to a younger and scrawny fawn drives him crazy, which eventually leads him to purposefully insult and goad Bambi into fights so he can take him down a notch.
• Feet of Clay: He'll brag up a storm about being able to take on Man head-on, but the moment threat of Man rears its ugly head, Ronno takes off screaming for his mother.
• Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: When Ronno confronts Bambi during the start of the climax, the latter is already at an emotional low due to his father handing him over to a doe. Ronno, who has gotten competitive towards Bambi throughout the film, starts heckling Bambi, though the latter, while clearly ticked, walks away. Then Ronno mocks the fact his father was supposedly ashamed enough of him to give him away. Bambi then silently and uncharaceristically snaps and angrily fights Ronno.
• Flat Character: In the original film, he's little more than a personified obstacle for Bambi to overcome, and isn't given a clear personality beyond being a particularly aggressive and amorous buck. Even the two comic book, newspaper comic and manga adaptations, despite giving him bits of dialogue, do little to flesh him out more beyond establishing him as a rather generic jerk who wants Faline for himself. The midquel significantly fleshes him out into a more three-dimensional character.
• Flaw Exploitation: Ronno is well aware of how insecure Bambi is in regards to earning his fathers approval, and uses it to try and tear him down emotionally and mentally.
• Foil:
  • To his rival, Bambi. The Central Theme of the midquel is coming to terms with one's fears, accepting them and overcoming them, and not trying to be something you're not to become better. Bambi realizes, faces and overcomes them and finds himself while earning the respect of his father and friends as a result, while Ronno refuses to owe up to his own flaws, gives in to his fears and goes out of his way to try to be something he isn't (which gets him nowhere and only highlights his flaws further) due to his spiteful envy of his rival, and this culminates in everyone hating him in the end. It is not at all disingenuous to say that Ronno is what Bambi could have easily become if he didn't have the guidance of his parents and friends to keep him on the straight and narrow.
  • He's also one to Thumper. While Thumper can certainly be an immature brat and occasionally acts selfish and cocky, he has his heart in the right place and wants to help Bambi more than anything else, and at the end of the day, he loves and respects his family when push comes to shove. Ronno, in contrast, is all the brat with none of the heart, being a purely self centered person and has no respect for anyone else.
• Foreshadowing: Ronno's cowardly nature gets hinted at even before the climax. When he's messing with Bambi in their first meeting, he briefly gets much more timid when his mother calls out for him. Later on, after hechases Bambi and Thumper, he gets noticably scared and shrinks away into the bushes as soon as he sees the Great Prince standing right behind his son.
• For the Evulz: While most of what Ronno does is motivated by his jealous ambition to prove himself Bambi's superior, him rubbing it in Bambi's face that his father "gave him away" (to a stepmother) was a spiteful and petty act done solely to hit Bambi where it hurt the hardest for his own amusement.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric. Ronno is young, very strong willed, overconfident to the point of being arrogant, Hot-Blooded, short-tempered, rude, rebellious, and is driven entirely by his ego and selfish goals, which he relentlessly pursues. He's also a callous, cruel and unemphatic bully and a Sore Loser who has a vengeful deep seated hatred of Bambi for petty personal reasons, and there's little low he won't stoop to in order to get the advantage over him.
• Friendless Background: Its implied he's never had any friends before meeting Bambi and co., and when his attitude when trying to make friends is shown, its not hard to piece together why. Its implied this might have been part of the reason he turned out the way he did, as he didn't grow up with strong friendships like Bambi did that helped him stay on the straight and narrow.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He starts off as this in the midquel, since he's trying to make friends and Bambi and Faline are at least tolerant of him at first, but their opinion of him quickly sours due to Ronno's bullying personality and doesnt improve.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. Abiding by the midquel's chronology, his increasing jealousy and hatred of Bambi embittered him from merely a childish, cowardly braggart to a sinister, terrifying beast. However, once he battles Bambi when they both reach adulthood, he doesn't last much longer than a minute.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: Ronno, with his haughty ego combined with his short temper, has a really bad habit of doing some really reckless and stupid things when he gets angry, and it always comes back to bite him in the flank.
• Gendered Insult: Besides rudely mocking Bambi's feminine name ("Bambi? Isn't that a girls name?"), he later disparagingly calls him "Princess" during his "Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Glory Hound: His whole motivation is getting recognized by others, and it feeds heavily into his rivalry with Bambi.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Ronno has a much darker shade of auburn fur to set him apart from the other characters, and as a fawn he has green eyes to subtly reinforce his jealously of Bambi.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: Zigzagged in the midquel. At first he's a mild and ineffectual nuisance to the other animals at worst, but the climax shows early signs of the sinister beast he grows into from the original movie.
• Green and Mean: Downplayed. Ronno's fur color isnt green (rather a dark reddish brown), but his eye color is purposefully retconned in the midquel from also being brown to being green in the midquel for visual storytelling purposes. And to say he is mean is an understatement.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Quite literally, in fact; he has green eyes and is driven by the fact that he's always playing second fiddle to Bambi. He fulfills the "monster" part moreso as an adult. It's hinted that his jealousy is partly because of Bambi's status as the son of The Great Prince.

• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to fluster him, even as a fawn. As a grown stag, all it takes for Bambi to set him off was unwittingly wandering into his territory.
• Hated by All: By the end of the midquel, no one has even an ounce of respect for him at all. He's on bad terms with the rest of the cast, particularly Bambi.
• Hate Sink: Where do we even start? In the midquel, Ronno is made into a thoroughly obnoxious and unpleasant bully towards everyone and is not one to be trusted, and hes not well liked by the other animals in turn—Bambi gradually grows to hate his guts, even the kindhearted Faline at most grudgingly tolerates him and otherwise makes no attempt to hide her dislike of him, and Thumper and Flower's opinion of him isn't any better—its safe to say that he's made out to be the most vile on-screen character in the series as a result. Since Man is reduced to a Plot-Irrelevant Villain (with their hunting dogs merely being an extension of their will with no defined personalities), Ronno's role in the film exists to give the audience a physical foe to root against during Bambi's struggles. He's not too bad at the start of the film—while he already shows early warning signs of his bullying attitude and acts like an annoying braggart, you can at least slightly sympathize with him at that point since its shown he has no other friends (though his attempts at acting nice are a clearly an insincere act done just to get others to like him), but as time goes on, he progressively gets more and more repulsive as his rivalry with Bambi grows out of control due to a perfect storm of petty jealousy and arrogant entitlement. He not only shows absolutely no sympathy for Bambi as he's coming to terms with the loss of his mother and struggles to earn the respect of his father, he cruelly preys on his insecurities from the situation, later using the fact that the Great Prince sends Bambi off to live with a stepmom as ammo to crush any sense of pride he had left and goad him into a fight. In other words, the fawn is basically a sociopath in the making. To say the least, you will feel catharsis when Bambi finally snaps and fights him.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Everything and anything bad that happens to Ronno is brought entirely on himself due to his arrogance, outlook on life, Hair-Trigger Temper, and not learning his lesson regardless of whatever consequences befall him. Even if Bambi hadn't entered his life, its safe to say he'd be a lost cause as a person.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His final attempt to humiliate Bambi as a fawn not only backfires in his face directly because of his own actions, but ends up repairing the relationship between Bambi and his father and earning the young prince the respect of others in the forest even more, while outright guaranteeing that everyone else, who already treated Ronno with ill regard at best, will never give him any of the respect or attention he so desperately craves.
• Horn Attack: In the midquel, he's already started growing out his antlers before Bambi, which gives him an upper hand over him in combat at first.
• Hot-Blooded: Ronno is quite easy to fluster and is full of pride and fighting spirit.
• Humiliation Conga: Basically all of Ronno's scenes in Bambi II are a veritable conga line of him making a fool of himself or getting humiliated over and over again. Its as if the filmmakers were asking themselves "How many ways can we make this jackass suffer indignation?"
  • When he's bragging about his antler stubs to the others, it ends with him getting buried in snow after he jabs at a tree, and he gets embarrased by his mother soon after.
  • Next we see him, he's making a fool of himself by trying and failing to impress Faline as he recklessly charges into a tree and keeps conking himself on the head. This quickly leads to Bambi and Thumper accidentally provoking him into a chase, which results in Bambi making an incredible leap that impresses the Great Prince, which Ronno tries and fails to recreate, landing in a muddy pond instead.
  • During the montage of Bambi and his father bonding, Bambi effortlessly outruns Ronno without even trying, much to Ronno's shock.
  • This culminates in Ronno goading Bambi into a fight, which results in Ronno soundly getting his butt handed to him by Bambi (though with great difficulty on the latters part). The subsequent attack by mans dogs sends him running off screaming for his mother while Bambi saves the day. Last we see of him, Ronno is boasting to Bambi how they'll meet again one day, but he winds up in one more pratfall where he trips and a turtle ends up biting and clinging to his nose, sending him off screaming in pain for his mother.
  • Retroactively, this all culminates in a grown up Ronno getting soundly defeated in a fight by Bambi in the original film, ending with him taking a great fall and sent limping off in humiliation.
• Hypocrite: Early in Bambi II, he brags about confronting Man head on in a sneak attack and disses Bambi as being a coward after he nearly gets killed by mans hounds. Cue the climax, and the first sign of Man attack has him running off screaming for his mother, while Bambi directly intervenes to save his stepmothers life instead of running to safety.
• Ignored Enemy: Despite his efforts, Bambi doesnt even acknowledge Ronno at all in private, let alone as a rival, only when Ronno personally prods him into a fight. When they last meet in the midquel, Bambi doesnt even try wasting time saying a word to him, instead letting him dig his own grave thanks to a nearby snapping turtle. Its not until they meet again as adults that Bambi truly takes him seriously as a threat.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Subverted — Ronno is a clear case of No-Respect Guy and a foolish Karmic Butt-Monkey, all of which are classic symptoms of the ISV. While his pitiful nature has endeared him to some fans, it's made very clear that his arrogance and selfishness is the primary instigator of his bullying, and his actions as a result of this almost gets both Bambi and Mena killed as a result of his irrational determination to prove himself superior to Bambi.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Ronno suffers from his badly. He simply cannot accept that Bambi is his better in virtually every way.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Downplayed. Ronno isn't particularly stupid, more shortsighted and reckless, but he is definetely insufferable.
• Interim Villain: Ronno serves as this for the films midquel, as Man is Demoted to Extra and otherwise has little direct involvement in the plot.
• Irony: In the midquel, he makes certainly false boasts of taking on Man single-handed. Rather poetically, that's exactly what Bambi did in the second novel.
• It's All About Me: Ronno is an extremely self-centered and all around selfish person with a big ego to match.
• It's Personal: His rivalry with Bambi stems entirely from petty envy he has towards the young prince constantly upstaging him with seemingly little effort.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Deconstructed. Ronno does want to have friends, but only on his terms.
• Jerkass to One: A variant 2 type. Ronno is an all-around asshole to everyone in the midquel, but he's especially cruel to Bambi, constantly insulting him, scaring him, and even physically abusing him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He's as mean as Bambi is nice. However in the climax of the midquel, when Bambi is sent off to live off with Mena, Ronno shows up to see off Bambi, seemingly going to offer his condolences for moving...only to use the opportunity to smugly hit him where it hurts the hardest by implying to him that his father thinks so little of him that he'd "give [him] away."
• Jerk Jock: The deer equivalent, as he usually prefers intimidating others physically when they don't do as he wants.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: As yearlings, Bambi finally gives him what he deserves when he fights him to defend Faline, ending with Ronno being soundly defeated and forced to limp off in humiliation.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Especially in the midquel, when Ronno suffers many a humiliation and Amusing Injuries for his awful attitude and nobody treat him with an ounce of dignity. He also gets his butt thoroughly handed to him by Bambi in the first film for trying to make a move on Faline.
• Kick the Dog: Already dissing him as a coward after hearing Bambi nearly got mauled by a pack of hunting dogs after freezing in fear, by far the cruelest thing he does to Bambi in the midquel is rub it in his face that his father was sending him off to live with Mena, smugly wording it that his dad thought so little of him that he wanted to "give you away.", done purely to spite Bambi and goad him into a fight.
• Kids Are Cruel:
  • In the manga adaptation, Ronno is depicted as being a bad influence on Bambi and deliberately tricks him into wandering into Man's territory just for kicks.
  • In the midquel, Ronno has a personality that screams "sociopath in the making" and is an insensitive, arrogant jerk who becomes angry, even violent, over the pettiest of slights.
• Kiddie Kid: He may be older than Bambi and his friends, but he's actually less mature than any of them, and when he's not putting on a tough show, he's a pathetic Momma's Boy.
• Knight of Cerebus: While he poses nowhere near the level of threat that Man does, when he shows up in the original movie and in the climax of the midquel, things get much more serious in tone from then on.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • When an adult isnt around to help Bambi, he's more than willing to pick on him, but as soon as the Great Prince shows up behind them, he fearfully realizes he's in over his head and retreats into the nearby shrubbery until they leave.
  • As soon as the mere presence of Man rears its ugly head, Ronno immediately drops the fight with Bambi and takes off for dear life.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • You'd think he'd be nicer to Bambi considering he just lost his mother to Man and is still coming to terms with it. No; Ronno uses the opportunity to humiliate Bambi when he discovers Bambi froze in fear when he got tricked by one of Man's deer calls and nearly got killed by a pack of hunting dogs.
  • He deliberately annoys people around him, yet gets downright incensed when someone else deliberately slights him.
  • When the Great Prince sends Bambi away to live with a stepmother, Ronno immediately jumps on the opportunity to use it to humiliate Bambi even more by implying his father was so ashamed of him that he "(gave him) away." And after he nearly gets Bambi and Mena killed by accident, not only does he not owe up to his actions afterward, he immediately boasts about how he'll get even with Bambi for besting him in a fight eventually.
• Large Ham: Subtlety is not his strong suit as a fawn, especially when he gets angry. This is inverted when hes grown up, as he doesn't say a single word (and only has sparse dialogue in a couple of the comic adaptations) and lets his actions do the talking.
• Last Villain Stand: Ronno's childhood rivalry with Bambi culminates in him getting utterly humiliated and sent packing, promising to return eventually. This retroactively escalates into their meeting as yearlings, where Ronno engages in an absolutely brutal fight with his rival, though Bambi eventually emerges as the victor.
• Laughably Evil: As much of an unrepentant asshole as he may he, he's also so downright pathetic and petty that his bad luck or many pratfalls that he brings on himself provide a lot of the midquels comic relief.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: In the climax of the midquel, Ronno briefly drops his usual hamminess in favor of a more calm, composed, and surprisingly creepy demeanor in the moments before he fights Bambi.
• Lightning Bruiser: As an adult in the first film, he is basically equal in speed and strength to Bambi. While he's Always Second Best in the midquel, he still puts up a vicious fight in their scuffle.
• Malicious Misnaming: In his "Reason You Suck" Speech to Bambi, he starts it right off by disparagingly referring to him as "Princess".
• Meet My Good Friends Lefty and Righty: Calls his antlers "Stab" and "Jab". Or collectively, "the boys".
• Might Makes Right: The main source of Ronno's sense of entitlement, as he's older and (at first) physically stronger than Bambi.
• Miles Gloriosus: In his child form at least. Despite his boasting and being older than Bambi or Faline, he's actually more immature than either of them, and he is usually the first to run from even the slightest threat.
  Ronno: MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYY!!!!
• Minor Injury Overreaction: While standing up to Ronno as he harasses Faline, Bambi gets pushed into Ronno by Thumper in an attempt to make Bambi seem braver. Ronno at most gets knocked onto his bad and has a bit of mud splotched on his face. Uninjured but with his pride wounded, Ronno is set off enough to immediately chase after both of them with the intent of beating them up.
• Misplaced Retribution: After their second meeting in the midquel, Ronno is almost universally defined by his hatred for Bambi. Although Bambi did stand up to him and unwittingly humiliated Ronno afterward, he didnt intentionally provoke him into chasing him — Thumper did by shoving Bambi right into him, not to mention he, not Bambi, was the one taunting him after they successfully escape him. But since Ronno is so singlemindedly obsessed with getting even with Bambi (which is implied to be out of jealousy that he's the son of the Great Prince), he doesn't acknowledge Thumper's role in their rivalry (though he doesn't have any issue with chasing both him and Bambi), mainly due to the fact that Thumper is at most a harmless nuisance to him (with Ronno at most mocking him as being a cutesy little rabbit), and otherwise has no personal beef with him.
• Momma's Boy: Though based on all his boasting and posturing, he doesn't want to admit it. It's implied that his mother spoils him by putting up with his awful attitude. Thumper outright insults him as being one.
• Moral Myopia: He hates Bambi for constantly upstaging him and wants nothing more than to prove himself his better if not just get even with him, but Ronno himself is an arrogant sociopath who views himself as better than everyone else, and virtually all of the humiliation he goes through was brought entirely on himself and had nothing to do with Bambi's own actions.
• Motive Decay: His initial motive is to try and make friends (on his own terms) and force Faline to like him, but his priorities shift to wanting revenge on Bambi above all else due to the latter constantly upstaging Ronno without even trying.
• Named in the Sequel: In the first film, Ronno has no name, no dialogue, vague characterization, and is essentially a Random Encounter. It wasn't until the mid-quel that he's named on-screen.
• Narcissist: To go hand in hand with his huge ego, Ronno is extraordinarily selfish and is a very self-absorbed Attention Whore. A large chunk of his screentime is just him trying (and failing) to flaunt how superior he is to everyone else around him.
• Never My Fault: He takes out his anger on Bambi for his shortcomings rather than take responsibility for his actions. After Mena nearly gets mauled by a pack of dogs thanks to his fight with Bambi, not only does he not owe up to his mistake, but instead makes it clear he still he has a bone to pick with Bambi.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Throughout the midquel, he was unintentionally the catalyst for a lot of Bambi's Character Development, as well as strengthening the bond between him and his father, and ultimately reuniting them during the climax.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: As a yearling, in stark contrast to how he acted as a fawn, Ronno wastes absolutely no time bragging, boasting or insulting his rival when they meet again; in fact, he doesn't so much as say a word to Bambi—his perpetual scowl and aggressive posture says it all. He immediately gets down to business trying to claim Faline for himself and brutally fighting off Bambi when he gets in his way.
• Non-Standard Character Design: To further distinguish him from Bambi and Faline in the midquel, he notably does not have spots, already has antler stubs growing out and has a noticeably different facial design. This also extends to his adult appearance, as his antlers and perpetual scowl instantly make him distinguishable from the other deer.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Ronno's prowess as a fawn only comes off as remarkable in comparison to the younger fawns and animals he likes to pick on (and even thats not saying much, as Bambi manages to outrun, outjump and outfight him). When he's put up against a real threat like Man and his hounds, he immediately crumbles like a deck of cards.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the midquel, his fawn counterpart is mostly just an ineffectual bully and very buffoonish. After he gets aggravated by Bambi one too many times however, he confronts and cruelly goads him into a fight, taking on a far more vicious and sinister air that foreshadows his later years.
• No-Respect Guy: A villainous example rather than a herioc one. No matter what Ronno does or how hard he tries to impress anyone, everybody regards him as an annoying joke. Considering Ronno's ego, he doesn't take it very well. Rather ironically, Bambi, the focus of a lot of his antagonism, was the nearest to being genuinely amazed by him at first (see Sarcasm-Blind below).
• No Social Skills: Ronno doesn't seem to know how to not be extremely rude, threatening, or how to stop hurling insults at people or bragging for attention each time the chance presents itself. On top of that, hes Sarcasm-Blind (despite having a snarky personality himself), and is rather poor at taking criticism, misinterpreting an innocent remark by Bambi (about his story of attacking Man) as calling him a liar.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In the original film, he has zero speaking lines and nothing is given to establish his character, leaving only his ominous, intimidating presence and imposing threat between Bambi and Faline. Even with the midquel giving his character context, it's rather chilling wondering how he turned from a loud mouthed pipsqueak into that....
• Obviously Evil: His Auburn fur color is visibly darker than the others fawns and he has green eyes as a red flag, is undeservedly arrogant and rude to everyone he interacts with at best and an outright sociopath in the making at worst, and relentlessly bullies the Young Prince, who is clearly going through great hardship in his personal life, purely out of petty jealousy.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Kinda. After Bambi has a mishap with an ornery porcupine, Ronno uses the chance to talk down to Bambi, snidely saying "Don't feel bad. If we didn't have cowards, we couldn't tell who the brave ones are." This becomes ironic considering what he see both Bambi and Ronno do later on.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • As soon as he sees the Great Prince standing right behind Bambi, he slowly shrinks in fear into the nearby shrubbery.
  • His reaction to the idea of actually facing Man is straight up terror.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Subverted. He brags about having taken on Man head-on, but this is clearly a humbug he made up to impress Faline, given he runs off screaming at the very idea of actually confronting Man later on. It is possible that he at least got a look at how they make deer calls (he had to learn about it somehow) but embellished the part about attacking them to make himself look better.
• Opportunistic Bastard: As soon as he discovers Bambi is being sent off to live with a stepmother by his father, he immediately springs at the chance to use it to insult and humiliate Bambi right to his face and goad him into a fight.
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: You know things have gotten bad when Ronno isn't acting like his usual cocky, go-getting self. When the threat of Man rears its ugly head in the climax of Bambi II, Ronno makes absolutely no attempt to live up to his earlier boasts of taking Man head on—in fact, he's downright terrified and runs off screaming for his mother to help him.
• Paper Tiger: For all his bullying, athletic chops and bragging of impressive feats like taking on Man head-on, Bambi is ultimately his superior—he manages to outrun him on two different occasions, outjump him, and he hands Ronno his flank to him in both of their fights with each other. Besides that, he's a complete coward (and a Momma's Boy on top of that) when it comes to actually facing the threat of Man when it rears its ugly head. This changes when he grows up, as he briefly becomes a legitimate threat to Bambi in combat.
• Perpetual Frowner: As a yearling, his head is designed in such a way that it looks like he's always scowling. The antlers are designed to help frame this scowl as well.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Even as a fawn, he's quite physically strong and fast and can at least match Bambi near blow for blow in a fight.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: While Ronno is the closest thing the films have to an on-screen antagonist, his role in both the original movie and most of the midquel is just to be another obstacle for Bambi to overcome. In the original film, he was just a completely random fight for Bambi to overcome and help finally cement his and Faline's love for one another, and in the midquel, the real conflict is driven by Bambi trying to earn the love and respect of his father, as Man's role is nowhere as prominent a threat. While he does torment Bambi at points and accidentally prods him into performing a leap that impresses the Great Prince, Ronno doesnt directly move the plot forward until the climax, where his actions indirectly spur the climax into action and unwittingly becomes the catalyst in Bambi and his father finally bonding.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Played With. Ronno has more of a role himself than just being behind jokes, but he ends up being one of the primary sources of comic relief in the midquel because of his status as a truly pathetic walking punching bag to the world around him.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Besides being a bully, he mocks Bambi for having a "girls name" and later disparaingly calls him "Princess", likely for his effeminate and demure nature. He also displays mildly misogynistic behavior towards Faline as a fawn (which escalates into implied Attempted Rape when they're yearlings).
• Post-Climax Confrontation: In the midquels epilogue, which is implied to take place several days after the events of the films climax, Ronno shows up to make it clear to Bambi that We Will Meet Again. Fortunately, Bambi doesn't have to lift a hoof to deal with it—Ronno's sudden mishap with a turtle does the job for him instead.
• Pride: Among Ronno's defining traits is his arrogant, haughty attitude.
• Pride Before a Fall: This happens constantly to Ronno throughout Bambi II, as if to hammer home that his haughty attitude is absolutely no way to get through life.
• Prince Charming Wannabe: Goes hand-in-hand with his constant placings in second and obnoxious attitude.
• Prince Charmless: In reality, Ronno is closer to this, despite thinking of himself as a Prince Charming. At any rate, Faline is unimpressed by him at best if not downright repulsed by him.
• Privileged Rival: Both played straight and inverted. On the one hand, he's older, stronger, and much more belligerent and go-getting than Bambi, which places him higher in the mating competition hierarchy. On the other hand, Bambi is the son of The Great Prince and makes an accidental habit of upstaging Ronno multiple times, something that fuels Ronno's jealous hatred of him.
• Psychological Projection: He loves to denigrate Bambi as being a coward while championing himself as a brave and noble fawn. Its all talk and his ego imposing his own flaws on his rival; when the chips are down, Ronno is a complete coward who only cares about saving his own hide, while Bambi is the one who acts selflessly and brave in the face of danger—apparently Ronno never realized that bravery isn't necessarily the same thing as fearlessness.
• Put on a Bus: Curiously, Ronno does not appear at all in Bambi's Children, whether it be the book or Disney's comic book adaptation of it. He isn't even mentioned in passing. Instead, Bambi's son Geno gets a superficially similar new rival when he grows up, Boso, though unlike Ronno, Geno and Boso eventually form a friendship after Geno saves him once he gets shot in the shoulder by a hunter.

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Bambi is at his lowest emotional point after being sent off to live with a stepmom by his father, Ronno swiftly uses the opportunity to hit him where it hurts the hardest for his own amusement.
  Ronno: "Hello, Princess. You're not leaving without saying goodbye? And I thought we were pals. I feel for you. Gosh, I really do. It's gotta be hard to have a father that's so ashamed of you that he'd give you away".
• The Resenter: He was very resentful towards Bambi for always being stronger than him as a fawn, to the point where it fuels his rivalry towards him.
• Revenge: Ronno doesn't really have goals as much as he has grudges. His entire modus-operendi is just spiting Bambi if he so much as inconveniences him, all because he thinks he's a weakling and is entitled to more attention and respect than him.
• Revenge Before Reason: He has nothing to gain from bullying Bambi beyond petulant ego gratification and amusement; if anything, if he actually did get away with it, it would have undoubtedly landed him in hot water with the Great Prince (who no deer in the forest, not even Ronno, wants to get on the bad side of) or his own mother, and further sour the other children's opinion of him even more.
• Retcon: Ronno's heated childhood rivalry with Bambi is this. Not only was it something that was never present in the novel, there was nothing indicating in the original movie that Bambi or Ronno even knew each other before or had a prior history (though the comic adaptations imply that they at least know who he is). The midquels expansion of Bambi's backstory thus added more to the characters relationships retroactively.
• The Rival: In the midquel, Ronno is at odds with Bambi on a variety of matters.
• Rival Turned Evil: He starts off as a mere bully to Bambi, but as the midquel goes on and he grows up, he becomes an outright Evil Counterpart and Arch-Enemy of Bambi.
• Rounded Character: While Bambi is by no means a Flat Character, Ronno ironically has a much more fleshed out personality than him in the midquel despite having far less screentime in comparison (ironic considering he had virtually no personality at all in the first film) due to his much more proactive and aggressive characterization (while Bambi is certainly trying to achieve his own goals, he's a relatively passive protagonist in comparison) and giving him clear and believable motivations for his bullying, as well as his laundry list of notable character flaws compared to his much more heroic rival. It could easily be argued that Ronno is the most fleshed out of all the characters in the midquel, if not the entire series, next to the Great Prince of the Forest.
• Sadist: Ronno really gets a kick out of bullying others weaker than him, especially in regards to how he treats Bambi.
• Same Character, But Different: Ronno as a fawn is so heavily expanded upon as a character in the midquel compared to his vague personality in the first film and its tie-in materials (and so drastically different from how he's portrayed in the novel) that a new viewer would be forgiven for thinking he was a Canon Foreigner made up for it instead of the younger form of Bambi's future rival.
• Satellite Character: He basically exists just so Bambi can have a physical adversary to deal with (Man is on its own playing field compared to the animals, but never directly appears in the movies), and he's seldom seen interacting with anyone besides Bambi or Faline—at most, he just acts dismissive towards Thumper and Flower.
• Sarcasm-Blind: After hearing Ronno bragging, Faline compliments his story as being "almost unbelievable" in a subtle sarcastic tone. Bambi, not catching on repeats that with sincere interest. Ronno is then convinced Bambi was mocking him.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Ronno becomes this as he becomes a hulking and rage-filled buck as a yearling, though the bully aspect of him was established retroactively via the manga adaptation of Bambi and then the midquel decades later.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Ronno lets out a shrill and terrified "Mommy!" when the threat of Man shows up in the climax.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As soon as the threat of Man rears its ugly head near him, he immediately heads for the hills.
• Second Place Is for Losers: He cannot stand being Always Second Best to Bambi, which ends up fueling his hateful and petty rivalry towards him.
• Self-Disposing Villain: In the Post-Climax Confrontation of the midquel, Bambi doesn't even bother directly dealing with Ronno as he boasts to him; he simply stands by and lets him walk right into the path of a snapping turtle, who bites his nose and sends him running off wailing while Bambi and friends share a laugh at his expense.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Zigzagged, although Ronno acts more macho than Bambi, he is actually even more emotional, especially when it comes to showing anger. While Bambi can certainly get heated at times, he has a long fuse and you have to really hit a raw nerve to get him angry, whereas Ronno is basically a ticking time bomb who will lose it at even the slightest provocation.
• Sequel Non-Entity: He isn't so much as mentioned in the comic adaptation of Bambi's Children, with Geno's cousin Boso serving as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute in his absence.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Ronno is guilty of five of them. He is extremely arrogant, greedy for any kind of attention, is spitefully envious of Bambi, lusts after Faline (though this is more prominent as an adult), and is short tempered, impatient and prone to violence. The only boxes he doesn't check off is gluttony and sloth—he is certainly not a lazy person, if anything being too ambitious and for the wrong reasons).
• Shadow Archetype: Ronno basically exists to be the polar opposite of Bambi, and gives an idea of what a pugnacious jerk he could have easily become if he didnt have a strong moral compass and sense of responsibility instilled into him by his family and friends to guide him and not let his ego or privilege go to his head.
• Single-Target Sexuality: The only doe he's interested in is Faline. It's completely one-sided on his part, as she cannot stand Ronno.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The trailers and ads for the midquel put the focus entirely on Bambi and his father's relationship, and don't so much as even allude to Ronno's expanded role in the film.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Ronno falls straight into the Least Sympathetic end of it, if not the Permanently Unsympathetic part of it.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Ronno belongs in the Low Threat end of the scale. He's usually a foolish bully and nuisance at worst.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Ronno falls squarely into the Local Area Threat. He's only a threat compared to the other small group of animals he bullies, and not even that much of one as is.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He has a very overinflated opinion on himself and his skills, which are mildly impressive compared to the other fawns at best. And getting his ego deflated constantly not only fails to humble him each time, but only adds more fuel to the fire instead.
• Small Role, Big Impact: In both movies, he doesn't get all that much screentime, but he unwittingly helps reinforce Bambi and Faline's love for each other as adults, and he has a significant role and a much more fleshed out personality in the midquel despite still having a relatively small amount of time on-screen in it (roughly 7 to 8 minutes total).
• Smug Smiler: Ronno often sports an arrogant smile as a fawn due to his cocky personality, but as a yearling he switches to being a Perpetual Frowner instead.
• Smug Snake: As a byproduct of his arrogant attitude, Ronno is a real smartass who constantly speaks in a condescending sarcastic tone of voice to others (Bambi in particular) and loves to rudely insult them to take them down a notch, and is clearly full of himself, pretentiously thinking he's better than everyone else. In reality, he's a foolish, immature and selfish brat who deserves no respect from anyone, and at best he's a mildly strong bully who has a very bad tendency to overestimate himself and underestimate his opponent and situation, which often leads to many a Break the Haughty moment for him.
• The Sociopath: As a fawn, Ronno is gradually shown to have nearly all of the defining traits of one. He is quick to anger and prone to violence if things dont go his way, he is devoid of any empathy or conscience to speak of (to the extent that he's even disrespectful to his own mother), tries to stack the deck in his favor, always tries to put the spotlight on himself without earning it, completely puts his own desires before anyone elses, and on top of all that, he is extremely arrogant, having a completely undeserved sense of entitlement and self-importance and shows absolutely no respect towards anyone else, not even the son of the Great Prince. It's subverted as he does love his mother deep down.
• Sore Loser: He does not take losing to Bambi well, which only fans the flames for his bullying towards him.
• Spoiled Brat: Its implied that Ronno's mother spoils him by putting up with his lousy attitude, hence why he's such a petulant Momma's Boy.
• Start of Darkness: The midquel serves as one for Ronno, showing just how a fawn could gradually devolve into the hulking monster he became in the original movie.
• Stronger Than They Look: As with Bambi, he's surprisingly strong even as a fawn, being capable of making very long leaps (though he just slightly falls short of Bambi's leap over a chasm) and can put up a good one-on-one fight when he wants to.
• Stupid Evil: Probably his primary flaw is that he prioritizes indulging his own ego over doing things that would actually benefit him or others, which causes trouble for not only Bambi and friends but himself as well.
• Suddenly Voiced: Unlike the original movie, where he doesn't have a single line of dialogue, Ronno is fully voiced in the midquel. The newspaper comic adaptation, the first Dell Comic adaptation and the manga give him some small bits of dialogue too. As if to highlight the irony, Ronno does all the talking in their climatic fight in the midquel, while the furious Bambi doesn't so much as utter a single word.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Ronno unwittingly pulls this on himself when his attempt to continue fighting against Bambi accidentally gets Mena knocked into a trap set by Man, which immediately alerts a pack of his hunting dogs to their presence.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Ronno may be able to intimidate others with his apt ability, but his bullying and haughty, anti-social attitude guarantees that he will never earn their friendship or respect in the way Bambi does, since Ronno basically expects everything to go entirely his way out of entitlement.
• Thin-Skinned Bully: Ronno loves imposing over others weaker than him, but immediately gets annoyed or rouses with anger whenever anyone so much as criticises him or stands up to him.
• Took a Level in Badass: Timeline wise, he grows from a cowardly, dimwitted bully to a rather sinister, hulking deer.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Ronno starts off a mere childish bully towards Bambi when they first meet. The midquel shows him embitter into a more personal rival, obsessed with besting and diminutizing Bambi. Taking this as Character Development into the original film adds to his sinister form as an adult, who even seems to provide an animal example of (implied) Attempted Rape when he tries forcing Faline apart from Bambi.
• Tranquil Fury: At the end of the midquel and in the first film. When Ronno does hit his Rage Breaking Point, he becomes very calm, scowls and tries to kill Bambi on the spot. It's, surprisingly unsettling.
• Trash Talk: Ronno loves belittling and insulting Bambi to make himself seem better or to just get a rise out of him.
• Truth in Television: Ronno's behaviour, both as a fawn and adult, is actually much closer to the real life behaviour of deer than any other deer in the series besides the Great Prince. Real wild deer can get very pugnacious and hormonal and operate in a strict "survival of the fittest" and Might Makes Right heirarchy—real life would be nowhere as kind to his rival, and he'd probably be a dominant alpha male as an adult. Fortunately for Bambi and unfortunately for Ronno, the movies arent real life.
• Underestimating Badassery: Ronno has a bad habit of getting in over his head in a fight, failing to take Bambi seriously due to his more demure nature. This ends with him getting his flank handed to him in both of the times they fought together.
• The Unfettered: There is little low that Ronno won't stoop too to get what he wants, which extends to him trying to kill Bambi as an adult so he can have Faline all to himself.
• Unskilled, but Strong: For a fawn, he's quite physically apt, but he's clearly not very bright and his arrogance constantly makes him do really reckless and stupid things.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His actions in the climax of the midquel nearly get Bambi and Mena killed by hunting dogs. Ironically, this also ends up galvanizing the relationship between Bambi and his father.
• Very Punchable Man: Ronno retroactively becomes this via the midquel due to becoming a full on Hate Sink and Karmic Butt-Monkey, but Bambi doesn't really get to let loose on him until they're yearlings.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Played with. At first, Ronno is a much more proactive and assertive character than his rival Bambi, who has a very passive personality in comparison and initially has no control of the events going on around him as a child, and never intentionally instigates a conflict like Ronno does. If anything, part of the reason Bambi even learns to become more assertive and take the initiative is because Ronno's bullying unwittingly prods him into doing it.
• Villainous Breakdown: For instance, last we see him as a fawn, after boasting to Bambi about how they'll meet again, Ronno slips up and gets his nose bit by a nearby turtle, and he's reduced to a panicking mess as he runs off in pain for his mom while begging someone to get it off.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: As a yearling, after being throughly defeated by Bambi, he's last seen limping off to parts unknown. The midquel trades this off by having Ronno comically running off after yet another painful and humiliating pratfall instead.
• Villain Has a Point: A bullying antagonist and Hate Sink he may be, but Ronno turned out to be absolutely correct on how Man had a device to make themselves sound like a deer.
• Villainous Crush: In both movies, he wants Faline for himself and tries to drive her away from Bambi. Its completely one-sided on his part, as Faline clearly finds him unpleasant to be around.
• Villainous Underdog: A particularly interesting case. He's supposed to be an unlikable bully, but he's also such a hopelessly pitiful character due to the sheer misfortune he keeps bringing on himself in spite of his very ambitious nature (as opposed to Bambi, who has a much more passive personality in comparison), that he boomerangs back into being a an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain in the eyes of some viewers. It helps that his catalyst is that, while a palpable threat for the meek Bambi, he can never best him outright.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Despite being nowhere near the threat level of Man, and being in a lighthearted family film, and having some humorous qualities as a result of being a pitiful Karmic Butt-Monkey, Ronno still manages to stand out for being a cruel, unpleasant, and sociopathic creep with whose worst moments are not Played for Laughs.
• The Voiceless: In the original film, he has absolutely no spoken dialogue (the Dell Comic adaptations of the movie and the manga do give him several lines and name him on-panel).
• We Will Meet Again: The last time Ronno meets Bambi in the midquel, he boasts to Bambi about how he'll be back again one day, just before he winds up in another pratfall that get his nose bitten by a turtle and sends him off screaming for his mom.
• What You Are in the Dark: Probably the one defining scene that sums up how selfless and noble Bambi is and how selfish and self-serving Ronno is in mere moments is the part where Ronno accidentally gets Mena caught in a trap set by Man. Despite Mena actually begging Bambi to run and save himself, he chooses to selflessly distract the dogs onto him and save her life. Ronno, on the other hand, despite boasting about taking on Man head on earlier and denigrating Bambi as a coward, immediately takes off in terror, screaming for his mother.
• You Are What You Hate: Ronno disses Bambi as being a coward in an early attempt to kick him down a notch, even though Ronno himself is revealed to be one later on.
• You Don't Look Like You: Ronno only has a passing resemblance to his adult self as a fawn, having completely different fur and eye colors. He also has a much wider range of expression, whereas his adult self has a perpetual scowl fixed on his face. This is undoubtedly a big factor in why some viewers don't immediately recognize him as the stag Bambi fought in the first movie in a younger form.

The Hunter(s) / "Man"

Their campsite

The unseen antagonist of the film, an unknown deer-hunter (or several) responsible for the death of Bambi's mother.

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• A Day in the Limelight: The novel Bambi's Children can be considered such, since it is the only interpretation that humanises them individually over playing them a mostly ambiguous force of nature to the forest animals. Disney's Comic-Book Adaptation even breaks the film's lore to maintain this, showing humans in person and giving them characterisation.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Heavily downplayed. In the movie, it's left completely ambiguous what their feelings of the animals are, but per word of the original animators below, they're completely unaware of how cruel their actions are—at any rate, Man's actions in the film are by no means portrayed in a sympathetic light. In the novel, the hunter who kills Bambi's mother (and a lot of other animals, too) is Cruella to Animals and makes his intentions perfectly clear by sadistically laughing the whole time as he remorselessly slaughters them one by one.
• Anti-Villain: According to animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston in their book The Disney Villain, Man is this, simply because he had no comprehension of the pain and terror he was inflicting on what he simply thought were mindless animals.
  "The biggest threat, of course, is from the predator, man, and his gun. As victims, the deer have no way of combating this foe and must suffer the consequences. Man, for his part, has no thought or understanding of the pain he has inflicted on the wild animals by pursing his own personal desires. There is no villainy in his heart when he kills Bambi's mother, yet to the audience, this is an event that stays with them for the rest of their lives."
• Big Damn Heroes: In the second novel Bambi's Children and Disney's comic adaptation, a gamekeeper more than once saves Bambi's family from hostile forces.
• Big Bad: They are central antagonists to Bambi and the other animals. They even kill Bambi's mother at one point.
• Creepy Crows: In the second film, Man's appearances are forewarned by a flock of crows crying out a distorted "MAN!" in what seems to be a mix of a human voice and a bird call.
• The Dreaded: All the forest animals are terrified of him. All other hazards of forest life pale in comparison to His ability to kill from a distance and seemingly at will. In the novel, animals who encounter His scent for the first time barely have enough presence of mind to run away.
• Eldritch Abomination: From the animals' perspective, at least. The original novel goes to great lengths to hammer home just how alien and terrifying the mere presence of a human, much less their unusual appearance and actions, are to a normal animal, to the extent that some believe they have a fire burning inside of them and that a hunters gun is a "third hand" that can kill without touching. Even early on in the book and the first film, the fear of encountering one of them is so great that Bambi's mother exercises extreme caution when she steps out into the meadow to make absolutely sure that there is no threat to her or Bambi present. This is averted in the sequel novel and its comic adaptation, which humanizes them considerably.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": In the novel, the hunters are known by the animals simply as "He" or "Him", plural "Hes", always in proper case, while the films refer to them solely as "Man".
• Evil Laugh: In the novel, the unseen hunter in the wintertime lets out a very chilling series of "Ho ho! Ha ha!"s as he ruthlessly shoots down the animals in his line of sight.
• Evil Poacher: He (or at least the one who kills Bambi's mom and the other animals) is unambiguously evil in the novel. The films do not present Man's actions in a positive light either, but muddle it as to whether man is being intentionally manevolent or not (though Frank and Ollie stated it was the latter). Bambi's Children downplays this further by presenting man in a more positive light, showing they can be either good or bad to the animals.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: In an early draft for the film, there was a scene planned in which Bambi's dad showed Bambi the charred corpse of a man^note implying that the hunters did not survive the forest fire caused by their own unattended campfire, so Bambi would learn that not even Man could escape death's clutches. Walt Disney found the scene too graphic and cut it.
• The Ghosts:
  • The Disney interpretation. At one point in the first film's production process, a hunter's shadow was to appear the first time Bambi and family were fleeing, but even that brief appearance was cut. The closest thing he gets to an on-screen appearance is the glint of a distant rifle scope in the interquel. The Dell comic adaptation does show a few men in the far distance when Bambi and the Great Prince are watching their camp, but they're so far away that their facial features are completely indecipherable, and we get a one panel glimpse of the rifle used to shoot Bambi in the shoulder. Note that this is not the case in the novel, where Bambi sees man on a few occasions, and some copies of the novel come with illustrations of them.
  • However, Disney's Comic-Book Adaptation of Bambi's Children pulled The Reveal to match the novel, showing humans in person to develop on the story's more sympathetic light on them.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In the midquel for the most part. While Bambi does almost fall prey to a hunter early on, most of the conflict is between him and his father, while the climax involves Man's hunting dogs rather than Man themselves.
• Humans Are Cthulhu: More so in the first novel than in the second or the films. The first novel has a darker tone that extends to the portrayal of the hunters as well. In the films, he is more of an occasional hazard; but in the novel he always comes with a foreboding atmosphere and is viewed as all powerful, ultimately inescapable and so terrifying that deer can barely bring themselves to run away. The second novel downplays the trope greatly, with the animals understanding that humans somehow use an object (the "thunder-stick") to kill, although the operation of firearms remains beyond their ken. It also delves into sympathetic humans such as the gamekeeper that nurses Bambi's daughter Gurri, with the animals understanding man can kill or help them.
  • In the movie, Man is a powerful and deadly Unseen Evil. He stalks the forest and all that it's shown is a shadow and His sounds.
• Humans Kill Wantonly: Though not intentional in the film (he was not shown as an attempt to strike a balance between not vilifying hunters while also averting No Antagonist, which kids would not understand), it, like the first novel, nevertheless tends to send this message. The second novel tones it down by introducing, among other things, the concept of "open" and "closed" seasons.
• Knight of Cerebus: Any scene with Man in it darkens the mood and sets a tense atmosphere, with a few characters dying by Man's hands, with Bambi's mother being the most noticeable.
• Leitmotif: The first film gives them a chilling ostinato of three chromatically ascending notes: B♭-B-C. The story goes that John Williams was inspired by this theme for his famous Jaws leitmotif. Strangely, the midquel abandons this.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In the novel, the Great Prince brings Bambi to His dead body for the purpose of teaching him one last lesson. Bambi learns man is not all powerful, he has needs like animals do and dies like animals do, and there is something greater than Him. The Great Prince then calls Bambi "my son" for the last and only the second time, before going off to die, presumably of old age.
• Nothing Is Scarier: He is never seen (except for the glint of a rifle in the interquel) nor heard (except for gunshots and an artificial deer call) in either of the films, and is all the scarier for it.
• Obliviously Evil: In spite of his ranking in the twentieth rank in the AFI's 100 Years. . .100 Heroes and Villains list, He's still implied to be nothing more than a normal hunter. Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston also confirmed that (in the movie) his actions are born out of obliviousness towards the animals' true nature instead of cruelty for its own sake. However, since the story is told from the perspective of the animals, he becomes some kind of inapprehensible threat.
• Plot-Irrelevant Villain: While the plot of the midquel was directly kicked off by Man's actions in the first film, they only get one scene in focus early on. The conflict is mostly Bambi trying to bond with his father, with Ronno being the closest thing to an antagonist for the bulk of the film until the climax, where Man's precense is implied due to the pack of hunting dogs going after Bambi, but they don't directly take part in it.
• Unseen Evil: Disney's decision to not show Man to avoid vilifying hunters appears to have backfired on Disney as it just made him scarier in people's minds, so much so that he ranked 20 in AFI's 100 Years. . .100 Heroes and Villains list, also being the only character on that entire list who is never shown. Subverted in the second novel and its comic book adaptation, which shows at length that the humans around the forest aren't all bad people.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: They significantly darken the tone of this otherwise lighthearted film whenever they are present.
• Villain Decay:
  • Following on from the end of the first novel, Bambi's Children goes out of it's way to humanise mankind, thus abolishing a lot of their all powerful nightmarish image to the animals. A hunter does appear, but an ineffectual one that Bambi manages to shoo away by bucking. The Disney comic book of the novel even extends on this by subverting their usual role as The Ghost.
  • Averted in the interquel with Man himself, as he remains an unseen, terrifying figure in spite of being Demoted to Extra. However, a mild case of this does hit Man's hunting dogs; they're still pretty menacing and scary, but a few of them get taken out in a comedic, slapstick fashion by the child protagonists, with some making comical expressions as it happens.
• The Voice: In the midquel you hear him using deer calls. The deer hear it as "I'm here", "It's me", or "Hello." In the novel, Bambi hears it as Faline's voice saying, "Come!"

Novel-Exclusive Characters

Gobo

Faline's brother.

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• Adapted Out: He was completely dropped from the Disney movies and tie-in materials.
• Disney Death: In the novel, he's seemingly killed and dragged off by a hunter during Bambi's first winter. Some time later, he returns as a grown stag, having been nursed back to health by a hunters family and released back into the wild. Unfortunately, losing his fear of humans made him an easy target for another hunter, who quickly and brutally kills Gobo when he tries to befriend him.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: The book describes the mortal wound he got from a hunters bullet ("bloody entrails oozing from his torn flank") and Gobo screaming in agony as the human, whom he was so certain would be friendly, finishes him off.
• Official Couple: With Marena following his return to the forest.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: After Gobo is nursed back into health by a hunters family, he's released back into the wild with the other deer. This quickly has devastating consequences, as Gobo loses his fear of Man and ends up becoming an easy victim of a hunter making rounds as a result.
• Posthumous Character: Long dead by the events of Bambi's Children, Gobo is mentioned by Bambi and Faline after their daughter, Gurri, is taken by a gamekeeper who saved her from a fox, fearing if she stays with the man for so long she’ll turn out like Gobo in losing her wild habits.
• Too Dumb to Live: By animal standards,as he tries to befriend another hunter and we see how well that went. It's also noted that he would wander out into the open in the middle of the day without thinking and assumed he could find the same hunter who took care of him as a fawn with the intention of living with him whenever survival became too hard, such as during the winter.

Old Nettla

An old doe who takes care of Bambi after his mother dies.

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• Grumpy Old Man: She means well, but she's cantankerous in personality.
• Posthumous Character: After the novels year long time skip, it's implied that she died of old age during it.

Marena

A doe notable for having a much more idealistic view of the animals' relationship to Man than most.

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• Adapted Out: Like Gobo, she was not included in either film.
• Break the Cutie: She witnesses Gobo's gruesome death firsthand.
• Les Collaborateurs: Believes deer and Man can coexist peacefully. It's part of why she is attracted to Gobo after he comes back.
• Official Couple: With Gobo following his return to the forest.

Karus

One of main antagonists of Bambi: A Life in the Woods. He picks a fight with Bambi to get Faline as his mate but he loses.

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• Adapted Out: His role was largely given to Ronno in the movies
• We Used to Be Friends: When they were fawns, he used to get along really well with Bambi and that the latter "passionately" loved him. When Bambi got his antlers, this changed

Manga-Exclusive Characters

Grandpa

A wise old frog who mentors Bambi time to time.

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• Canon Foreigner: While a frog did appear in the original movie, it had no personality to speak of. This character was improvised for the manga by Tezuka and has a clear personality and somewhat important role in the story.
• Expy: He is a stand-in for Friend Owl, who only gets a glorified cameo in the manga adaptation.

Buckteeth

A character created for Osamu Tezuka's manga adaptation of Bambi, he is a friendly neighbor of Bambi and co.

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• Alliterative Name: A beaver named Buckteeth.
• Cartoon Creature: He's supposed to be a beaver but he's drawn more like an otter.
• Canon Foreigner: While beavers did appear in the movies, they were never given any characterization. Buckteeth is a notable exception to the rule, as he was created solely for the manga's take on the movie.
• Expy: Buckteeth is clearly meant to be a stand-in for Flower, who was Adapted Out of the manga due to skunks not being native to Japan.
• Meaningful Name: He has a broad pair of buck teeth. Bambi gives him his line of sight nickname due to them.

Disney Tie-in Characters

Chestnut

A minor character who appears solely in the comic story "Horsing Around". He's a friendly little foal who lives with his mother at a ranch near the forest. One day, he got lost from his mother, and Bambi and Thumper helped him find his way back to her.

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• Canon Foreigner: A oneoff character created solely for Disney magazine comic story starring Bambi.
• Cheerful Child: Despite getting lost from his mother, he has a pleasant demeanor and immediately hits it off with Bambi and Thumper.
• Flat Character: Isn't given much personality beyond being friendly and cheerful.
• Nice Guy: He's polite and courteous to his newfound friends, and stays friends with Bambi and Thumper after they return him to his mother.
• Punny Name: Lampshaded by Chestnut in-story, pointing out that he's named after the Horse Chestnut.

The Fox

A minor villain who only appears in the storybook "Bambi: Friends of the Forest".

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• Artistic License – Biology: Real foxes rarely go after white-tailed fawns, as they are scavengers that usually go after small prey like rodents, and it would be rather difficult for a fox to actually catch and kill a fawn unless it was a newborn and a doe wasn't around to defend it in time.^note  the novels did have foxes as active predators, but the deer in them are roe deer (changed to white-tails in the Disney movies) and thus small enough that even a fox can be a threat to them.
• Expy: Multiple fox characters appear in the novels, though this one's role bears resemblance to a similar plot line in Bambi's Children where Geno lured a wolf dog away from the other deer, with Bambi saving him during the chase.
• Flat Character: Isn't given any personality beyond being a vicious predator who tries to eat Thumper and Bambi.
• Near-Villain Victory: The fox came dangerously close to catching Bambi and ending his life when he was still in his infancy, but the Great Prince intervened just in time and drove him off.
• No Name Given: He isn't named and is just called a fox by the forest animals.
• Predators Are Mean: Unlike the docile predators we've seen in the films, the fox is a vicious carnivore who comes dangerously close to killing Thumper and Bambi for food.
• Starter Villain: Since he appears in Bambi's life when he's still an infant, he's possibly the first foe Bambi has faced prior to his encounters with Man and Ronno.
• Villain of the Week: He only makes a brief, onetime appearance to cause Bambi and friends trouble, and is never seen again elsewhere.
• The Voiceless: He's given no dialogue at all.
• Would Hurt a Child: He came very close to eating Thumper and would've succeeded if not for Bambi luring him away, and its perfectly clear he wants to kill and eat the then-infant Bambi too.