Bambi's mother lives!

In this version of the story, Bambi's mother isn't shot.

Reading it to my son, I was waiting for it to happen, half thinking I'd skip over that scene while he's young enough not to notice the gap in the story.


But it never came.

I've always avoided watching the Disney cartoon simply because it's too sad to see the mother killed while protecting her baby. Yes, I know it's an animation and it's not real but it's still an upsetting concept.

I have the same problem watching Dumbo. The mother elephant isn't killed but she's chained and locked away in a cell for protecting her baby. And that scene where she caresses him with her trunk through the bars of her cage is heartbreaking.

There are a number of cartoons that sacrifice the mother character, either on-screen for all to see or in some unseen incident many years earlier.

I can only think of one where the daddy dies protecting his kid: who could forget the scene (and the tears) when Mufasa falls to his death by stampede in The Lion King?

There's an interesting article about it: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/why-are-all-the-cartoon-mothers-dead/372270/