“Bambi” offers a horrifying portrait of eco-catastrophe
In the animated film of 1942, careless humans set off an apocalyptic forest fire
What is the most famous scene in “Bambi”? Eighty years on from the film’s premiere in August 1942, there is only one answer: it is the scene in which Bambi’s mother dies. The Walt Disney cartoon—ostensibly about a deer gambolling around an idyllic forest—has traumatised generations of youngsters. What is even more impressive is that the scene doesn’t actually exist. Whatever memory viewers might have, the film doesn’t explicitly show the death of Bambi’s mother.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Burning up”
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