Bambi: The Fawn's Journey

Bambi: The Fawn's Journey is an action, platform game based on Disney's 1942 film of the same name, along with it's 2006 midquel, that was published by Sierra Entertainment in partnership with Buena Vista Games. It was released on November 15th, 2005 for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Microsoft Windows. The Xbox 360 version (which contains better graphics, smoother animations, and achievements) was later released the following year on January 27th, 2006, eleven days before Bambi II came out. In addition, there was a port for the PlayStation Portable planned for release, and was even teased at one point during it's development that not only would Vicarious Visions, a company that is known for developing ports of other games, be responsible for porting it to the PSP, but it would also be a direct port of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube versions, albeit with different controls. However, it was eventually cancelled due to technical issues.

Ironically enough, even though the midquel did replace the old voice actors from the original with new ones, most of it's cast, save for Alexander Gould, Keith Ferguson, Andrea Bowen, Ariel Winter, Cree Summer, and Kath Soucie, were replaced.

Plot
Deep in the forest, Geno and Gurri, the twin fawns, play around with their mother, Faline, who was Bambi's cousin, and the sons of Thumper, Miss Bunny, Flower, and Bluebell. Just then, Bambi, their father, and the new Great Prince of the Forest, shows up to greet them, along with his forest friends, their wives, and Friend Owl. Bambi recognizes their playdate as something familiar, even though he knew that a Prince should never think about the past, only what's happening now. Geno and Gurri wanted to know how he became the Great Prince and how he and his friends fell in love with their wives. Bambi finally decided to tell them a story all about his life up until the birth of the twin fawns.

This is where it reverts to the beginning of the first movie: All the forest animals, even Thumper (who is young at the time), his sisters, and Friend Owl goes to the area where the young prince is born, along with many other animals. Upon reaching the area, the animals come across the mother doe and her newborn fawn, Bambi, lying by her side. Bambi then wakes up and takes a good, long look at all the animals surrounding him. At first, he is frightened by Friend Owl, who gives a friendly hoot but then manages to make a smile. He then attempts to get up, but due to him being very young, he can hardly keep his balance. Thumper comments that he is sort of unstable, to which his mother scolds him. Bambi falls backward back into his resting spot, lies back into his resting area, and gives a big yawn. Soon thereafter, the creatures all leave, except for Thumper, who asks Bambi's mother what his name will be. She replies that she will name him "Bambi." Thumper, liking the name, says goodbye to her and runs off to join his family. Happy with the name, Bambi's mother snuggles up with her sleeping fawn.

A few days later, Bambi and Thumper are walking through the forest, with Thumper teaching Bambi new words, when they came across a butterfly. Thumper decides to follow it, with Bambi following behind him. After some exploring, they find the butterfly that they saw earlier. Bambi runs off to chase it (thinking it to be a bird). But Thumper tells him that it is not a bird, but a butterfly. The butterfly flies off, leaving Bambi into thinking that the huge yellow flower in front of him was the butterfly he saw. Thumper tells him that it is a flower. Bambi tries smelling the flowers of the small field but comes face to face with a young skunk. Bambi calls him a flower, which leaves Thumper rolling over his backside with laughter. The skunk, however, says that he's fine with being called a flower, which makes the baby fawn very happy.

That evening, Thumper leaves Bambi to return home, leaving him back with his mother. Some time after, he awakens to realize that a thunderstorm is underway. Thankfully, it lasted a good while before it departed.

A few weeks later, Bambi, now capable of speaking, goes with his mother to the meadow. Since he's never been to the meadow before, he's so eager to go, but she stops and tells him that the meadow is also a dangerous place. She tells him to stay behind the thicket while she looks around to see if the place is safe. After looking around for a bit, the wide field appears to be safe. Bambi then runs out and tries to catch up with his mother, who runs off at a fast pace, playing with him. Some time later, Bambi almost steps on a frog. It tells him to watch out for strange reflections or else he might fall in love without even knowing. Bambi, however, goes off, wanting to explore the meadow, while defeating a few forest animal dummies along the way to prepare him for any dangers that may await him. Just then, he comes across a small pool of water, looking at his reflection. Suddenly, another reflection appears to his side. He looks up at the unknown source which turns out to be a female fawn named Faline. Feeling frightened of her presence, Bambi runs back up to his mother for protection. But she encourages him to say hello to Faline. Having no choice, he greets her. Faline suddenly breaks out in giggles and starts acting hyperactive. Gradually, the two of them start playing a small game of tag, with Bambi chasing her.

Suddenly, from out of the surrounding forest, a huge herd of bucks appears from out of nowhere. Faline runs away in fear while Bambi remains, filled with excitement while watching the bucks bound across the field. He even tries running alongside them but ends up almost getting trampled. Suddenly, they all stop. Bambi briefly looks around before seeing something that surprised him. It was the Great Prince, his father in his previous role (though back then, Bambi didn't know it). After a brief look at his son, the Great Prince walks off, leaving Bambi behind. Bambi then asks his mother why everyone stood still when the mysterious stag walked by. His mother tells him that he is respected by all. Thus explaining why he is called "The Great Prince of the Forest".

The Great Prince looks around uphill for a bit before sensing "Man". Once he did, he rushes back to the meadow, warning the entire herd and getting everyone to safety. Bambi is briefly separated from his mother, but is escorted to her by the Great Prince as the three of them make it back to the den just as Man fires his gun.

Back in the present, everyone who was listening to Bambi's story, except Faline and Friend Owl, were shocked at what happened. Bambi told them that Man went hunting in the forest. Thumper was surprised by this, stating that he misses being chased around by his sisters, even if after Bambi's mother died, he has one less sister. Flower replies that his mother and him (at a young age) also got back to his old home safely thanks to the previous Great Prince. Bluebelle, his wife, was grateful that it happened or else he or their sons wouldn't exist at all. After a brief talk, Bambi resumes his story.

Meanwhile in the past, Bambi's mother exits the entrance of their den and looks around. Seeing no danger, she tells Bambi that everything is alright. Bambi asks her what had happened, and why everyone ran. After a moment of silence, his mother replies that Man was in the forest.

When Winter arrived, Bambi discovers snow. While Bambi looks around the snow, he sees Thumper sliding on the ice. Bambi, feeling inspired, tries it for himself, but fails. Thumper, seeing it all, teaches him on how to slide on ice. However, even after experiencing it for himself, he still couldn't do so. They then meet Flower, who is trying to hibernate in his den by gaining body fat. After a harsh winter, Bambi and his mother go to the meadow and discover a patch of grass, signifying the arrival of spring. As they eat, his mother senses a hunter and orders her son, Bambi, to flee. As they ran, his mother gets shot and killed by the hunter. When Bambi arrives at the thicket, he discovers that his mother is no longer with him. He wanders off in the forest calling for her, but he stumbles upon the Great Prince. He revealed to Bambi that his mother was dead, then takes him away to his den.

Friend Owl swoops by the Great Prince, who asks him to find a doe to raise his son, Bambi, since his duties are to his herd, but Friend Owl informs him that because of the harsh winters, the does can barely feed themselves, let alone any extra mouths. The Great Prince has no choice but to look after Bambi until the spring.

Months later, the Great Prince allows Bambi to accompany his friends, Thumper and Flower, to see the Groundhog, whose shadow will foretell if winter will end soon. Bambi lies to them about how close he and his father are, while the Great Prince keeps the truth of his mother’s death from him. Both he and Thumper journey across icy cold water and difficult obstacles to reach the Groundhog.

When they got to the groundhog ceremony, Bambi meets up with his future wife, Faline. The nervous Groundhog is eventually coaxed out of his hole, only to be scared back in again by Ronno, Bambi's rival and an older fawn than him. He tries to impress Faline with his stories of his encounter with Man, and the whistles they use to imitate deer, but Faline does not believe his tall tale while Bambi actually believes it and says it is unbelievable, but Ronno takes it literally. Bambi and Ronno immediately dislike each other, but Bambi is intimidated by Ronno, afraid to stand up for himself, and is relieved when he leaves with his mother.

The other animals leave as well, and Bambi falls asleep waiting for his father to come get him. But after many hours of waiting, he finds himself in a shining golden meadow and begins chasing butterflies. As he does so, he hears his mother's voice calling him. Overjoyed, he runs towards her and begins to nuzzle her lovingly. His mother comforts him, telling him that she's there even though he can't see her.

As the dream fades, Bambi continues to hear her voice, which confuses him. He begins to believe that the voice is his mother's, so he follows it through the other sections of the forest and out onto the meadow where he stumbles upon a mechanical machine, Bambi's worst nightmare. He gathers his courage and defeats it, but it fades into nothingness, as he realized that it was all just his imagination. Just then, a flock of crows fly past screaming about Man. It turns out to be an ambush by Man using the same trick Ronno warned him about. The Great Prince comes to his rescue and orders Bambi to run, but the fawn is too scared to obey. Both manage to escape and Bambi is yelled at for almost getting himself killed. It’s then that Bambi realizes the hunters killed his mother, and the Great Prince confirms it. While Bambi sleeps, the Great Prince tells Friend Owl that winter is ending and he should have no problem finding a doe now.

Back in the present again, Thumper felt sorry for the death of Bambi's mother and what happened in the wide meadow with the imitating deer noises, as he explained that his father is never around with his family for a long time. Miss Bunny comforts him by cuddling him and their bunnies. Bambi II tells the stag that they are both ironically named Bambi, except with numerals for namesake. Bambi I acknowledges it and continues his story.

Meanwhile, again, in the past, Flower, after waking up, hears a strange noise and decides to investigate the forest to find out what the voice was. He later finds the occurrence of the noise, which happens to be Thumper, who is trying to find a place to hide from his sisters. Flower suggests that they hide in a log, and only move when they don't hear Thumper's sisters moving. Thumper agrees to him and they move along the forest.

Meanwhile, the Great Prince confines Bambi to the den where he’ll be safe, not trusting him to be out by himself anymore. When he leaves, Bambi confesses to Thumper and Flower the estranged relationship he and his father share, and tells them that he wishes he could impress him. They decide to help Bambi learn how to be brave by sneaking out, and while doing so, get into an altercation with a porcupine. They flee back to the bank, and Thumper sees the Great Prince. Since Bambi is supposed to be back at the den, Thumper suggests they leave. But Bambi realizes that this is a good opportunity to show his new-found bravery. So he goes to confront the porcupine. Bambi leaps over the porcupine, angering him. The porcupine stiffens his quills and begins chasing Bambi backward and forwards across the log. He then engages in a battle against the grumpy Porcupine, but it eventually ends with quills rammed into Bambi’s backside and his father almost catching him outside of the den.

Faline, hearing the commotion, went to investigate. However, she comes into contact with Ronno, who starts to bug her as usual. But then they hear another noise and they both went to find Bambi, who is getting the porcupine quills pulled out of his butt by Thumper, one of his friends. Ronno teases Bambi after the meadow incident where Bambi froze, then decides that he and Faline should leave, but Faline wants to stay. Ronno tries to force Faline to leave and Bambi stands up for her. Ronno comes back to confront Bambi and tease his forest friends, causing Thumper to push Bambi so that he headbutts Ronno onto the ground. Ronno is furious and chases Thumper and Bambi through the forest until Bambi leaps to safety over a large ravine. The Great Prince, having seen the whole thing, is both angry at Bambi and impressed by his feat. Ronno (jealous of the young prince) tries to leap after him, but falls into the chasm, thwarted for now.

Years later, Bambi finishes telling his story, with Geno and Gurri both being amazed about his childhood. They both get curious again and ask him what he was like at their age. Bambi tells him that like the previous Great Prince before him, he was a lot like them. Geno and Gurri, both happy and glad, thanked Bambi for telling them about his childhood, and he goes back to his duties of watching over the forest. Faline says goodbye to the other forest animals as they headed back to their homes. In Geno and Gurri's den, they both go to sleep with Faline, who snuggles up with her little fawns, as Bambi looks down at them from a nearby cliff ledge, just like what his father did years ago when the young prince was born.

Characters
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Characters

Levels
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Levels

Voice Cast

 * Wendee Lee - Baby Bambi, Young Flower
 * Alexander Gould - Young Bambi
 * James Taylor - Adult Bambi
 * Kayzie Rogers - Young Thumper
 * Jeff Bennett - Adult Thumper
 * Michael J. Fox - Adult Flower
 * Grey DeLisle - Bambi's Mother, Bluebell
 * Fred Tatasciore - The Great Prince, Mr. Bullfrog
 * Andrea Bowen - Young Faline
 * Holly Fields - Adult Faline, Miss Bunny
 * E.G. Daily - Young Ronno
 * Rachael Lillis - Mrs. Possum, Thumper's Sisters (separate)
 * Jess Harnell - Adult Ronno
 * Keith Ferguson - Friend Owl
 * Kath Soucie - Mrs. Hare, Aunt Ena
 * Veronica Taylor - Thumper's Sisters (separate), Mrs. Quail, Geno
 * Ariel Winter - Thumper's Sisters (seperate), Gurri
 * Cree Summer - Mena
 * Frank Welker - Various Forest Animals, Man's Dogs
 * Michael Gough - Porcupine
 * Tara Strong - Jumper, Fluffy, Milly and Topsy (Thumper and Miss Bunny's bunnies), Bambi (Flower and Bluebell's son)

Quotes
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Quotes

Extras (Console)
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Extras

Store (GBA)
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Store (GBA)

Achievements (Xbox 360 version)
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Achievements



Credits
See Bambi: The Fawn's Journey/Credits

Trivia

 * This was the only Disney-based video game developed by Eurocom for the 6th and 7th gen consoles before it's name change.