WMG / Bambi

Plot

Bambi's Mother faked her death.

She realized that having Bambi become overdependant on her would be detrimental to him growing up to become the next Prince of the forest, so she abandoned Bambi at just the right time, knowing that the Great Prince would find him and care for him. In fact, her abandoning of Bambi may have been a Batman Gambit to get the Great Prince to break out of being The Stoic and care for someone, like he did when she and him cared for each other in the past before they drifted apart.

• Note: that version of the theory is easiest with the interquel as Canon, since the formation of the father-son relationship is the driving force of that film.
• In the book, she actually abandons him a couple of times before she dies and is gone for good.
  • Abandon might be a bit of a strong word, as it's made clear that this true for all young deer after a certain age. It's less like abandonment and more like sending an unwilling child off to school; they might not like it, but it's necessary for them to grow up.

The midquel is set in a timeline similar to, but ultimately distinct from the original film.

This would explain the more humanized personalities of the characters and general nature of the forest being somewhat different from that of the original film, but the events before and after the midquel still play out similar or identical to how they did in the original film, so that the two films could technically still work in tandem as a continuity and not have to worry about sweating the differences between them too much. Alternatively...

The midquel is only Semi-Canon to the original film.

The general events of the midquel technically happened in some form, but how it literally played out would end up being different from how It was depicted in the film, and certain elements of the midquel would be considered either apocryphal or flat out non-canon to the overall timeline.

• Sort of supported. The Interquel is not part of Disney Animated Canon, with all supporting material of it's films excluded from it of debatable relation.

Alternatively, the midquel is the same universe from a character perspective.

• The first film conveys nature much more as we see it, based on instinct, with only a few blemishes of humanity to give it personality like odd moments of the animals talking. The second conveys nature from the animals' mindset, we see their motives and emotions, making the whole piece seem far more character driven by showing us how the world looks through their eyes.

Man is The End from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater or Sniper Wolf from the Original Metal Gear Solid.

If he can wait for days, and if he is the most feared creature in the forest, it's very likely he is The End or Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear.

• ... Wut?
• Very funny. Jossed. Besides, we all know that Snake will not die to fire anyway and he is not that stupid.

The Interquel was intended to be Entry 46 of Disney Animated Canon

Bambi II had much more time, budget and elaboration put into it than a standard Disneytoon Studios sequel, with even some of Disney's mainstream staff brought in to supervise. Europe in fact released it theatrically and publicised it as much as a standard main Disney film. Upon realising the US had decided to give it a more humble Direct to Video release however, they quickly aborted, with The Wild of the same year (a rather loose creation of Disney) ending up Europe's divergent entry in it's place.

Meanwhile, in faraway Africa, The Lion King (1994) is taking place

• The two movies share a lot of thematic similarities, so why not?

Characters

Bambi has a mild form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and / or has Survivor's Guilt and Chronic Hero Syndrome.

• Given that he's been through a life threatening situation that costed him his mothers life due to her wanting to protect him, and he may even hold himself responsible for her death. This would also explain why he mans up in the midquel and saves Mena from a pack of hunting dogs at the risk of his own life, since he never, ever wants someone to die for his own sake again.
  • That's basically what happened to Simba until Timon and Pumbaa got him into Hakuna Matata but was brought back by Nala and Scar revealed the truth which caused Simba to overcome his guilt and "lion up" to take on Scar. In Bambi's case, Bambi was taught responsibility by his father as well as independence and to take action instead of freezing in fear.

Bambi or the other animals don't wish any ill on man.

Bambi is far too compassionate and graceful to wish vengeance on anyone, and the forest sees man as an impersonal force of nature to put up with, and something to be feared and respected as just another part of their lives.

• Unless they decided to harm Faline or his father. Those two are his cherished ones.

Thumper's Father abandoned his family/went missing.

• While he was still with them around the day when Bambi met Faline, his father abandoned them or went missing at one point, which explains why he is never seen on screen, and why his mother keeps mentioning his sayings.
• He could've died. Remember when Man came to the meadow, and you heard a gun being shot? Maybe it was poor Thumpy's dad Man got.
  • Both theories are Jossed by some of the spinoff books starring Thumper, where Papa Bunny finally breaks from his role as The Ghost.

Thumper's Fifth Sister died/went missing during the winter.

• Which would explain why only four of Thumper's sisters are present in the midquel.
• Maybe man got more than Mama Bambi that winter.

Bambi and Faline aren't cousins after all.

• Could be "Aunt Ena" is just a very good friend of Bambi's mother and the title was honorary.
  Bambi: Look over there.
  Bambi's mother: I see. That's my sister, and sure enough she has a baby too, now. No, she has two of them. To think that Ena has two babies.

Flower's mate is male.

• Flower was simply the second most effeminate male skunk in the forest, and happened to run into the first. Their kit is adopted.

The Man who killed Bambi's mother is Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

• If the theory of each Disney movie being connected is true and the movie never specify what time period it's in then it's not entirely out of the question. One small comfort would be that karma would later come back to get Gaston.
  • A major wedge in the theory is that Beauty and the Beast takes place in France, whereas the animals seen in Bambi are all based on North American species. But then, Snow White also takes place in a Medieval European kingdom (possibly in Germany, considering it's based on a Brothers Grimm fairly tale), and yet has raccoons and chipmunks, so maybe in the Disneyverse, Europe is simply inhabited by North American species. But even if you ignore that, Gaston is exactly the kind of person who would travel overseas for a hunting trip.

Ronno harassed Feline just to provoke Bambi in the first film.

• As established in the midquel, Ronno had become extremely competitive towards Bambi, even pushing his Berserk Button just to get a fight out of him near the end of the film. As an adult, he continues the rivalry, but since Bambi's no longer living in his father's shadow, he pushes his other Berserk Button, going after Feline as a mate (against her will), knowing he will once again anger Bambi into sparring with him.
  • In one of the picture books, Ronno had a line to the effect of "Faline is mine!". In a way, Ronno challenges Bambi. Luckily, Bambi won. Otherwise, Faline will have an abusive mate.

Only the first hunter Bambi encounters is a legitimate hunter. The rest are poachers.

• The first hunter in the film attacks the stags when Bambi and his mother visit the meadow for the first time. Stags are generally more legal to hunt than does since they don't have children with them. They were probably looking to kill Bambi's father since he's by far the most valuable deer in the forest. Then the hunter who kills Bambi's mom is a poacher, since they must have seen that Bambi's mother had a fawn and still killed her anyways. The final group of hunters are surely poachers since not only do they shoot at everything indiscriminately, they let a group of dangerous dogs run wild in the forest, and finally, set it all on fire. Though that last part was probably accidental.

The Great Prince of the Forest is not Bambi's Biological Father, but his adoptive father.

• Bambi is a white-tailed deer while the Great Prince looks more like an elk, the shape of his antlers and the darker fur around his neck are more in line with the appearance of an elk. If the Great Prince was his biological father then Bambi would have to be an elk/whitetail hybrid, which wouldn't be possible because the elk and the white-tailed deer belong to different genera, Cervus Canadensis and Odocoileus Virginianus respectively. The reason we don't see Bambi's biological father at all during the film is because he could have been killed by human hunters before Bambi's birth. The moment the Great Prince finds Bambi right after Bambi's mother is killed is him taking the fawn under his wing and raising him as his own despite Bambi being of a different deer species.