The Forest Hunters

"The Forest Hunters" is the fourth episode of the second season of Bambi, and the forty-eighth episode overall. It first aired on October 7, 2000, on ABC as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning.

Summary
Bambi and Thumper both stumble upon a parallel universe where forest animals are living like normal humans would while Man has become the hunted. They appear to like the new universe that they're in at first, as they don't have to worry about Man being in the Forest and hunting them down. However, there's just one problem... The forest animals are hunters themselves, which means that the duo could potentially be in grave danger! Bambi and Thumper will have to work together to get back to the normal universe before they get hunted down, but are the Forest Hunters actually bad, or is there still some good in them?

Plot
In the forest, Bambi and Thumper talk about what they have encountered in their venture today, but when Thumper tells him how Man tend to hunt forest animals, Bambi wonders how awesome it would be if they and the hunters switched roles. As they discussed the possibilities of being forest hunters and hunting down Man, they discovered a nearby lake with a magical waterfall. They proceeded to check out the place, curious as to why the waterfall was deemed "magical", but they just proceeded to play like normal, splashing in the water and jumping around, until Thumper accidentally stumbles into the magic waterfall, leaving Bambi to go after Thumper, as the magic waterfall disappears.

The duo end up in the same place as they entered through, but in what appears to be a parallel universe, where they notice a human just grazing about in the grass, confusing them both until they hear gunshots in the distance, and the human trots off to a safe place. Bambi and Thumper began to worry, only for them to forget their worries almost immediately, when the gunshots turned out to be coming from Bambi, who appears to be different from the Bambi in the prime universe. Before any questions could be asked, Hunter Bambi takes them to his home in the forest, where his fellow forest hunters live.

After introducing his forest hunter buddies to Prime Bambi and Thumper, the prime duo are given the nicknames "Bambo" and "Thump", as to not confuse them with their Forest Hunter counterparts. Bambo and Thump are then sent by the forest hunters to do training to become official forest hunters, as that's what all forest animals do if they want to become one. During training, they discuss why Bambi and his friends have become forest hunters in this universe and how they took care of those that don't want to be hunters. Hunter Bambi responds by saying that they have always been hunters, even his mother, confusing the deer and the rabbit as the hunter deer continues by saying that they "kick out" those who don't want to be like them before giving off a smirk to the duo.

The next day, the forest hunters are practicing their hunting skills when Bambi began struggling to shoot one of the sly foxes, as he remembers seeing a fox that was his friend back in the normal universe, and he proceeds to run back to his site, giving the other forest hunters a little bit of concern for him. That night, Thumper leads Bambi to a log cabin in the forest, where they discover to their horror that the cabin doesn't just contain human plaques from which they were hunted, but also plaques of other animals, including foxes, bears, and even deer! Just as they realized that their hunter buddies have been hiding a dark secret all this time, Friend Owl bursts in to their shock, leaving Bambi and Thumper to run out of the log cabin with the hunter owl hot on their trail before running into their hunter counterparts, realizing that they knew they would leave their hunting site just to discover an "embarrassing truth".

They get tied up to a tree by the forest hunters, before Hunter Bambi tells the duo from the prime universe that in actuality, they hunted not just humans, but also forest animals who betrayed them, and they leave them to potentially get crushed by the tree when it gets chopped down by Edgar's hunter counterpart. Thumper tries to use his buck teeth to tear away the vines, but it doesn't leave a dent. Just then, Hunter Thumper, who saw the duo trying to escape as he was leaving them behind returns and, although unaware of his actions against the hunters' wishes, he frees the duo just in time, as the tree gets chopped down. Edgar sees that the duo is alright, but is about to chop down another tree, when Hunter Thumper tells him that even if it's not the same Bambi as his, he'd still be heart-broken to see Bambi be gone for good, thus filling him with sorrow and joy.

Edgar and Thumper offer to help the prime duo return to their normal universe before it's too late, as long as they don't tell them about what happened. They decide to sneak to the magic waterfall without the forest animals noticing, only for Thumper to step on a branch, alerting the forest hunters of their presence. The prime Bambi and Thumper thus flee to the magic waterfall, leaving the rabbit and beaver's hunter counterparts behind, as they start to chase after them along with the other forest animals. They eventually make it to the magic waterfall, only to find that the portal is not there, and are cornered by the forest hunters.

The Great Prince and Bambi both prepare to shoot the duo so that they could finally not worry about dealing with them anymore, but the deer from the prime universe gives a speech to the forest animals about being true to your hearts. The forest hunters appear to be moved by the speech, but they prepare to shoot them anyways. Thankfully for the duo, Faline stops the other forest hunters from shooting them, believing that Bambi is right, and that they should let him go, as they appear to be lost. They all agreed, and The Great Prince opens up the portal back to the real world for the prime duo as they both head through the portal, but not before Hunter Faline can kiss Bambi, making him blush, and Friend Owl tries his best not to look. After the magic portal closes, the forest hunters decide to continue hunting other humans.

Back in the normal world, Bambi and Thumper land in the same place where they first entered the Forest Hunters' world. Concerned at first, they noticed Faline, who was looking for them in the time that they were in the parallel universe. Relieved to be back in the normal world and see Faline being her non-hunter, carefree self again, they run up to her, before she gets curious about how long they have been gone, and Bambi proceeds to tell her all about their experiences with The Forest Hunters.

Production
Coming soon!

US

 * Bambi: Withering Stakes (VHS)
 * Bambi: The Complete Second Season (DVD)

Reception
Coming soon!