Wilted Flowers

"Wilted Flowers" is the twelfth episode of the American animated television series Bambi. It first aired October 30, 1999 on ABC as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning.

Summary
Flower finds that his favorite flowers have become wilted, so he decides to figure out what caused the wilting of his flowers and teach whoever has done it a lesson.

Plot
One spring morning, Flower wakes up to the beautiful sight of the forest, eager to see what will happen today. As he strolls along his way to the flower field, he keeps thinking about how wonderful his favorite flowers are, and what they smell like as he heads to the flower field. Once he gets there, however, he discovers to his shock that the flower field wasn't as beautiful as it always had been, as all the flowers there have become wilted, including his favorite ones! After ruling out the sun, as it's still spring and the lack of water, as there had been rain recently, he determines that someone must've wilted them, either by accident, or on purpose!

The skunk decides to enlist the help of Bambi, Thumper, and Friend Owl to find out who wilted the flowers and teach whoever has done it a lesson. After he makes a detective hat out of leaves and sticks, the gang first asks Mrs. Quail about the wilted flowers, but she denies wilting them, even if it was an accident. After finding a trail of sticks and branches and following them to Edgar the beaver, they ask him about the wilted flowers, but he believes that if the flowers weren't beautiful, they would have gotten too much water, and the beaver know he doesn't want to drench the forest with so much water by ruining his dam. They decide to ask Bambi's rival, Ronno, to determine if he has done it. However, Ronno denies that he wilted the flowers, as even if he did, he would make Faline worried if he showed her the wilted flowers, and Bambi, to the surprise of his companions, actually agrees with him.

As the gang makes their way back to the meadow, they rule out the other animals except for the raccoons. They then notice them just running about in the meadow, so they asked them if they wilted the flowers, and while they did say that they took some of the flowers for their own fun, they didn't cause the flowers to wilt. Friend Owl then realizes that the culprit could be anybody in their group, even Flower or himself. Bambi almost asks Flower if they have asked the foxes, but Flower quickly prevents him from doing so. Shocked at the realization, the group argue over who really wilted the flowers before deciding to split up, leaving Flower on his own without any help.

The skunk decides to continue his search all on his own, and while searching through the forest with his sense of smell, he comes across a flower petal, then notices many more in a straight line. He comes to terms with the pathway, and concludes that it must be the sly foxes who wilted them, so he follows the path to their den. He arrives at their den, where the sly foxes are planning their next attack, when Flower started to interrogate them, wanting to know if they wilted them. However, the foxes tell him that they would never wilt the flowers, and even if they did, they wouldn't take them, as they aren't pretty. However, Flower sees through their lies and discovers a machine that transfers heat to plants, revealing that the foxes somehow gotten hold of the machine and used it to wither the flowers in the flower field.

After realizing this, Flower is about to give the foxes a piece of his mind, when suddenly, a human arrives and becomes angry at the foxes for stealing his heat transfer machine, so he starts shooting at them and Flower, with all of them narrowly escaping as the foxes attack the human, who is taking off with his machine, while Flower returns to Bambi and his friends. Confused at first, they are eventually relieved when Flower tells them that the foxes were responsible for the wilting, and apologizes to them for ever doubting them, asking if there's anything they could do for him. The next morning, Flower, with his eyes closed, rides on Bambi to the flower field, and when the skunk opens his eyes, he discovers that the flowers are not wilted anymore, filling him with joy, as he proceeds to smell the flowers after a long time of being wilted, as Bambi watched him with a glad expression.

Production
Coming soon!

US

 * Bambi: Season 1, Volume 1 (DVD)

Reception
Coming soon!