Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Return to the forest and join Bambi as he reunites with his father, The Great Prince, who must now raise the young fawn on his own. But in the adventure of a lifetime, the proud parent discovers there is much he can learn from his spirited young son.
Bambi II is a midquel that fills in a narrative gap between Bambi's mother's death and his growth into adulthood, exploring the father-son relationship with the Great Prince. While it handles the emotional weight of loss with some sincerity, the plot is formulaic for a Disney direct-to-video release — predictable beats, a bullying subplot, and a tidy resolution. The animation is notably better than most direct-to-video Disney fare of the era, with reasonably faithful backgrounds echoing the original's style, but it doesn't approach the artistry of the 1942 film. Voice acting is competent but unremarkable. As a sequel, it adds little distinctive to the original's legacy and follows a well-worn template of the parent-learning-from-child story. The ending is bittersweet in concept but rushed in execution.