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- “He is very brave and very wise. That's why he is known as the great Prince of the Forest.”
- ―Bambi's mother
The Great Prince of the Forest is a supporting character in Disney's 1942 animated feature film, "Bambi" and the deuteragonist in Disney's 2006 midquel, "Bambi II," and a major character in its upcoming sequel, "Bambi III."
He is Bambi's father, and the Protector of the Forest.
Background[]
Little is known about the Great Prince's early life, except that as a fawn, he went to a glade in the forest and met a young doe who would grow up to be Bambi's mother.
Personality[]
According to the Great Prince, he was much like Bambi when he was just a fawn. As an adult, he is shown to be a highly dignified stag who sometimes treats his son, Bambi, coldly without even realizing it. That aside, he has opened up to him and really does care greatly about him.
Though he has an intimidating appearance, The Great Prince has a soft heart, as seen when he's in the presence of his family. After the death of Bambi's mother, The Great Prince had to appear strong for the sake of his son, but he was equally devastated, as shown whenever Bambi mentioned her.
Appearances[]
Bambi[]
The Great Prince is first seen standing on top of a hill, and watching his wife and their newborn son, Bambi, along with all the forest animals visiting and congratulating Bambi's mother.
Later, after Bambi learns to walk and talk, all the deer in the forest are running on the meadow, and they stop and stand still in reverence, while The Great Prince comes on the meadow. He stops and looks at his son, and his ears move forward in curiosity before walking away. Bambi asks his why everyone stood still when he came on the meadow, she explains that everyone respects him, because he's the oldest surviving deer, and he's very brave and very wise. The Great Prince returns to the meadow a few minutes later, after learning that Man is in the forest, and he signals all the other deer and forest animals to run. Bambi gets separated from his mother, and gets lost. The Great Prince finds him, and leads him and his mother to safety.
Later, after Bambi's mother is shot and killed by hunters, Bambi tries to look for her while calling her, and he sees The Great Prince, and he tells him: "Your mother can't be with you anymore. Come, my son." Devastated, Bambi goes with him.
A few years later in the Spring, Bambi has grown into a young adult deer, and he falls in love with Faline. His father later tells him that Man has returned to the forest in larger numbers, and they had to run deep into the forest. Bambi worries about Faline, and after rescuing Faline from Man and his hunting dogs, Bambi jumps, and is shot in the leg.
A forest fire then breaks out, due to Man's carelessness, and his father finds him and orders him to get up. They escape from the fire and jump over a waterfall, and swim to safety at a nearby island with all the other forest animals, and Bambi and Faline are reunited.
The next Spring, The Great Prince is standing next to Bambi on top of the hill watching Faline and is newborn twin grandchildren, Geno and Gurri. The Great Prince is happy that he lived long enough to become a grandfather, and father and son share a glance, and he retires and walks away, and Bambi becomes the new Great Prince of the Forest.
Bambi II[]
The midquel goes in-depth into the time period between the death of Bambi's mother and Bambi reaching adulthood.
After the death of Bambi's mother, The Great Prince takes Bambi to his den. Friend Owl visits, and asks if there's anything he can do to help, and The Great Prince is reluctant to take on the role of fatherhood, because he was taught that raising fawns is the doe's job, so he tells him to find a suitable doe to raise Bambi, but Friend Owl reminds him that food is scarce in the winter, and the does can barely feed themselves. The Great Prince decides to let Bambi stay with him until Spring. During this time, Bambi tries to get to know his father, while learning about his job as the forest's protector.
At one point during the winter, the Great Prince allows Bambi to go with his friends to see the groundhog, who is supposed to foretell the end of winter. Bambi later falls asleep, and he has a dream about visiting his mother in Heaven. When he wakes up, he thinks he's hearing his mother is calling him, but it turns out to be one of Man's tricks. Bambi goes to the meadow, and 3 of Man's hunting dogs run to him, and he freezes in fear. The Great Prince arrives, and fights them off, and they run away. The Great Prince nudges Bambi with his antlers, and Bambi snaps out of it, and they run away. Afterward, The Great Prince yells at Bambi for falling for the trick, but he was also scared of losing him, especially since he just lost his mother. Bambi apologizes, and when they return home, he asks: "She's never coming back, is she?" The Great Prince sadly lowers his head and answers: "No." He then leaves to be alone to calm himself down.
The Great Prince later sees Bambi with his friend, Thumper on his back, and he's angry at Bambi for not staying near the den, but he sees a large chasm, and asks him if he jumped, and Bambi admitted it. Impressed, he commented that he didn't make a jump like that until he had antlers.
Spring eventually comes, and Friend Owl asks The Great Prince if his feelings are changing, since he started growing closer to Bambi, but he denied it. Bambi and The Great Prince started playing together, while smiling and laughing, and The Great Prince even tested out Bambi's capabilities. One day, while The Great Prince and Bambi are playing together, Friend Owl brings a doe named Mena, to become Bambi's mother. After Bambi learned that his father was sending him away, he yelled that he wished his mother was there instead of him, and he runs away to tell his friends. The Great Prince tells Friend Owl: "This is my fault. Bambi needs a mother. A prince should NOT be raising a child!"
Bambi eventually goes with Mena, but he runs back and nuzzles his father's chest before leaving. While Bambi is going with Mena to her home, Ronno the Bully appears and taunts Bambi, and they fight, and Mena gets caught in one of Man's snare traps. After hearing Man's hunting dogs, Ronno runs away screaming: "Mommy!" Mena repeats Bambi's mother's last words, and Bambi is determined not to let history repeat itself, and he distracts the dogs, and they chase him instead.
Afterward, The Great Prince arrives to see that Bambi has driven off some of Man's hunting dogs who had been attacking Mena, and he frees Mena from the snare trap. As The Great Prince goes to Bambi, he sees him use his hooves to kick one of Man's hunting dogs off the mountain. Bambi then jumps to another cliff, but it collapses and Bambi falls, and The Great Prince finds Bambi at the bottom, and he thinks he's dead, and he sheds a single tear. Bambi then regains consciousness, and he asks for the first time: "Dad?" The Great Prince answers: "I'm here! I'm here!" and they lovingly nuzzle each other. Mena leaves, deciding that she's no longer needed.
At the end of the film, The Great Prince takes a now teenage Bambi to a glade where he first met his mother. Bambi asks his father what he was like at his age, and he reveals that he was a lot like him, much to the delight of his son.
Cameos[]
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Great Prince can be spotted during the final scene with the Toons. He is seen peeking his head out of the brick wall along with the other Toons.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the film, whenever the Great Prince speaks, we never see him actually speak. Either another character is the focus of the shot where he is speaking (usually Bambi) or his back is turned away from the camera.
- The Great Prince of the Forest is the only character whose voice actor in the midquel lived during the release of the first film.
- Great Prince's age had been stated by his mate to be one of the oldest white-tailed deers living. He has been living longer than other deers over half of the years possible reaching over 7yrs.
- Interestingly, the Great Prince of the Forest is the first character that Patrick Stewart finally voiced after previously turning down the roles of several characters. All of which include King Triton, Cogsworth, Jafar, Zazu, Governor Ratcliffe, and Zeus.
- In the original book, he was named "The Old Prince".
- In nature, deer shed their antlers during winter. Strangely, the Great Prince doesn't.
- The episodes "The Emerald Key", "Holiday in Enchancia", "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle" and "Beauty is the Beast" of the show Sofia the First, features a deer among the animals in the woods that greatly resembles the Great Prince.
- The deer also appeared in Nancy's camping fantasy in the Fancy Nancy episode "Camp Fancy".
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es:El Gran Príncipe del Bosque
fr:Le Grand Prince de la Forêt
it:Grande Principe della foresta
nl:De Grote Prins van het Woud
pt-br:Grande Príncipe da Floresta
ru:Великий Князь Леса