The death of Bambi's mom, and the impact of it on our childhoods and life in general, has been satirized to death. We all know how it goes. Or do we? Yeah, well, we all knows they are running away, and scary music and BOOM! and we never see Bambi's mom again. And Bambi goes around a bit looking for her and then the great stag comes out of nowhere and says: "Your mother can't be with you anymore." And.... then nothing. Do you remember the next scene? Little birds bathing and chirping and singing a happy song.
THAT'S THE PROBLEM! Well, not the birds singing, per se, but the fact that the death is never touched upon again. In comparison:
No one (that I know of) satirize the death of Simba's father, Mufasa. Do you remember the Lion King, particularly the parts about Mufasa's death and the aftermath of it? Simba gets cornered by stampeding herd, Mufasa saves him, gets dragged down, makes it aaaalmost to safe ground hadn't it been for Scar... dies. Scar chases Simba of into the wilderness... and then they spend the rest of the movie bringing it up again, and again, and again. It might be a little subtle for some, but there are plenty of hints that the lionesses grieve, Zazu makes comments about the differences between Mufasa and Scar, and, ultimately, Simba faces the death of his father and the grief he feels, and is ultimately rewarded by his bravery for doing so. (Face it, people, facing the loss of someone and the emotions it brings up takes courage.)
My point is, we feel confused and marred by the death of Bambi's mom, but not Simba's dad, because Bambi gets no closure. Not any that we as an audience gets to partake in, at any rate. Simba gets his closure, and we as an audience gets our closure, because the issue IS addressed and we GET to feel what the characters in the movie feels. And thus, it feels better.
So how do we prevent future kids to get traumatized by Bambi and his mother's death? Try my mantra for taking care of the kids: TALK WITH THEM! Not TO them, or AT them, WITH them. Don't just sweep it under the rug, pretending it never happened. And that goes not only for dealing with Bambi's mom, but for dealing with anything that comes with being a little child in this big, scary, confusing, wondrous world.
