The Bambi Remake May Change Disney's Most Traumatizing Scene

It's standard fare now for Disney to return to its treasured collection of animated movies, and one of the next classics getting the live-action treatment is the 1942 tearjerker "Bambi." The iconic story of the fawn with saucepan-sized peepers will get the same computer-generated polish as "The Jungle Book" and "The Lion King." However, a former writer for the film thinks that a significant alteration to the story may save a new generation from asking parents that horrific question, "Where's Bambi's mom gone?" after she's shot dead by a hunter off-screen. 

Screenwriter Lindsey Anderson Beer spoke to Collider's Perri Nemiroff about the gig that she had to part from to work on her directorial debut, the Stephen King-inspired prequel "Pet Sematary: Bloodlines." Going against the grain laid out by the original, Anderson Beer theorized, "There's a treatment of the mom dying that I think some kids, some parents these days, are more sensitive about than they were in the past. And I think that's one of the reasons that they haven't shown it to their children." 

While Anderson Beer's perspective may be a considerate one, it would greatly alter one of Disney's most beloved movies and its historical moment in a way that should've been applied elsewhere. If this death were taken away, why wasn't the same action taken for Mufasa's death in "The Lion King"? Either way, Anderson Beer thinks she has an answer to work around the moment and still stay true to the original film.

While it's not been confirmed if Disney will be taking the direction that Lindsey Anderson Beer believes would be a wise one, she still thinks that updating this classic story may not need to include Bambi being orphaned before audiences are less than halfway into their popcorn. "I do think that there is a way to update 'Bambi,' and our take on it did give a little bit more of a scope to it," Anderson Beer teased while not giving away any specifics about what to expect. "I think that to be able to bring it to life for kids these days in a way that maybe they relate to a little bit more would be of service to the original."

There certainly are alternative routes that could be taken with Bambi's story, including one that would, while still including the death of Bambi's mother, be more accurate to the story the original film is based on, the 1923 novel "Bambi, a Life in the Woods," written by Felix Salten. In the original story, Bambi's mother doesn't die until he's at the age when he first grows his antlers. While this version of the story would still detail the loss, perhaps avoiding doing it during our hero's childhood would be less traumatic. Either way, we'll have to see how the big moment is handled when one of Disney's most heartbreaking stories shines through in stunning CGI fashion.