Disney/Pixar In General

They actually touched upon it in the documentary.

Ok, how much do they touch upon it; "We aren't that company anymore! Look how much we (don't) do for our gay community!" and other such rose-tinted lies or is it propagandist bullshit? A friend on twitter responded to my concerns by telling me to just read his wikipedia page and I'd be better off and that's not comforting.

Edited by InkDagger on Aug 7th 2020 at 7:46:37 AM

I suspect anyone other then Disney doing a documentary on Ashman would immediately be shut down with legal threats,Disney is very protective of it's image for a reason

Does anyone else watch the Good to Evil videos? There are several Disney ones. I like the ones on mothers and fathers.

Edited by Smasher on Aug 8th 2020 at 3:49:28 PM

... Triton's on the "good fathers" list?

While he did have a temper tantrum and destroy Ariel's human treasures, I think he regretted it. (been a while since I saw it, not sure.) But he did turn Ariel into a human so she could be with Eric, even though he said he was going to miss her deeply. Perhaps that's enough to put him on the good list, though I personally see him as more in the grey area.

Why is Bambi's Father so low on the list? Sure he was aloof but he was following nature at least.

He's basically the secondary antagonist of the movie, even if he does disappear mostly after Ursula shows up. He learns his lesson at the end, but his role before that point is still playing the role of "destructively forbidding parent" to the hilt.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Aug 8th 2020 at 12:04:22 PM

He spends the whole movie forcing Bambi to forget about his mother and tries to pawn his son off to someone else.

Triton has a good reason to hate humans, and he gave up his kingdom for Ariels's safety. He was even willing to let her go ahead and marry Eric, which is a hard thing for a parent to do. And of course, he learns his lesson in the end.

Edited by Smasher on Aug 8th 2020 at 3:08:59 PM

Also I am salty because Tiana's mom is Eudora NOT Udora.

> Triton has a good reason to hate humans, and he gave up his kingdom for Ariels's safety. He was even willing to let her go ahead and marry Eric, which is a hard thing for a parent to do. And of course, he learns his lesson in the end.

And also he's protective of Ariel because of Ursela who is a literal sea witch

I like Triton but there is no denying that the destruction of the grotto had nothing to do with Ursula.

Do you ever wonder if Ariel might have been less willing to listen to Ursula if Triton either didn't destroy the grotto or if he'd been less overprotective/ more forthcoming with her?

That is probably a big a reason for it. I doubt her sisters had such a tumultuous relationship.

@Smasher Again though, this wasn't down to being a deadbeat dad or anything, but because it was actually how nature works. Stags aren't meant to care for young, plus the Great Prince had to guard the whole forest, and Bambi nearly died while he was on duty.

He was definitely meant to be a flawed parent, very likely in the grey category, but he never felt quite as overbearing or indirectly abusive as some of the other 'bad' fathers in that category.

Edited by Psi001 on Aug 8th 2020 at 9:54:21 AM

Another Great Prince defender here.

That's the second movie.

In the first movie, he was more of The Stoic, and midquel aside, after his wife died, he took it upon his own initiative to raise his son.

Also, all the wisdom and strength that Bambi has as a grown stag is thanks to his father ensuring his growth and survival to adulthood.

The Great Prince is definitely in the "Good Fathers" category for me.

Indeed, and those flaws are what personally raises him above Mufasa for me.

The Great Prince is a much more believable character instead of being a Paragon above the rest of the cast.

Edited by BrightLight on Aug 9th 2020 at 2:16:55 AM

I feel like even the midquel is decent at getting balance, showing that the father has issues but had many scenes he could turn off his "disapproving kill joy" mode and act like a normal parent. One of the most memorable sequences in that film is just him bonding with his son.

There's a regression scene, but it's caused more by bad miscommunications exploding and leaving him convinced he's blown it as a parent. Even then you can tell he's conflicted about it, he's not just a one-note bull headed authority figure who hasn't learned a thing, something that bugs me about a lot of other Disney contentious father plots.

The climax isn't really this big "sticking it to the old man" moment either, it's Bambi taking everything he learned from him and putting it into action.

Edited by Psi001 on Aug 8th 2020 at 3:40:24 PM

The thing is, unlike you, the video took the cheapquel into account. There is where the Great Prince is at his worst.

And even if you don't it's hard to say he's better than James or Pacha.

I've always found The Prince of the Forest to be a particularly fascinating character, especially for the era in which Bambi was made. He's the least "human" of any of the characters; the other animals react to him as if he were a supernatural entity or a god. It's a masterful bit of characterization. Given how all of the other characters are given clear human traits, I can understand the desire to apply human standards to him, but Disney was, I think, a great pains to communicate that he's NOT human. He's a deer (maybe); his brief interactions with Bambi—telling him about his mother's death, and helping him during the forest fire—are by themselves profoundly more fatherly than a buck deer is likely to get. Still, one doesn't get the impression that Bambi himself will be the same kind of father as the Prince, so one is left to wonder if something else wasn't at play.

Fun fact: Whenever Walt Disney would visit the animation department during the production of a film (which he loved to do) the animators would warn each other of his presence by saying "Man is in the forest."

Edited by Robbery on Aug 8th 2020 at 10:52:36 AM

Well, given how the original film has the Book Ends of Bambi watching his children's birth from afar, I came away with the implication that he'll be exactly how his father was, minus the weaknesses that he helped his own father overcome in their relationship.

The channel name is Wicked Binge, since I noticed a lack of citation in the original post.

I would legit have swapped Zhu and Triton with each other, but otherwise they did a pretty good list order, methinks. (I also would have put Goofy higher but I'm biased and he's already in the good tier).

Any particularly good or bad parents you think they missed?

..does Dumbo's mother count as a bad mom because of her anger issues?

What's interesting though is that the novel sequel Bambi's Children and it's Disney comic book adaptation seem to subvert that. Bambi isn't really a close range parent but he's not exactly emotionally distant from his kids.

That temper is never demonstrated towards Dumbo however. Really her rampage felt kind of left field. All her defensive moments towards Dumbo beforehand were very controlled and sapient. Even that bratty kid's comeuppance was just a stern spanking for being a naughty child, something that was acceptable in that era. Then we get a weird cut to her trashing the whole circus like a frenzied animal.

Edited by Psi001 on Aug 9th 2020 at 9:18:11 AM

That's what I said. Bambi isn't fawning over his kids, and he lets them learn the lessons of the forest, as long as it won't kill them, but he's not The Stoic with his kids.

I read the comic adaptation, to be clear.