Bambification: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Bambi.jpg|link=Bambi|frame|[[Sincerity Mode|Total]] [[Badass]].]]

There's something about deer.

{{examples}}

== Played Straight ==

* The supervillain who [[Taking You with Me|fought]] [[Superman]] [[Disney Death|to the death]], Doomsday, pets a doe and then [[Moral Event Horizon|snaps her neck]] when he first appears. For his next trick, he lets a little sparrow land in his hand - and crushes her.

* [[Depending on the Writer]], [[Incredible Hulk|The Incredible Hulk]] is quite fond of deer. He even calls them Bambi! One memorable issue had him stumble upon some hunters killing deer, and he reacted [[Unstoppable Rage|pretty much exactly how you'd expect him to.]]

{{quote|'''Hulk''': ''Men killed Bambi's mother!''}}

* ''[[Starman (film)|Starman]]''

* ''[[Powder]]''

* Used in the movie ''[[Commando (film)|Commando]]'', in which Schwarzenneger's character spends quality time with his daughter... and at some point, they are seen petting a friggin' ''deer'' in the woods.

* In more fantastic stories, unicorns are used instead of deer. Case in point, ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]''.

** There is an excellent Jane Yolen short story, "De Natura Unicorni", that plays this variation absolutely straight until the climax - and it works.

* Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's novel ''[[The Yearling]]'': Jody's killing of his pet deer signifies the end of innocence.

* In ''[[Spin City]]'', Mike refuses to kill a fawn to score political points with a political contributor who's big on hunting. Mike's attempt at "missing" ends up killing the mother, though. Just to drive the point home, the hunter shows a sort of sadistic glee at the fact that the fawn will no longer have a mother, ''while they're eating meat made from her''.

** It does, however, lead to a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when they take the wounded fawn into a hospital. Carter fills out a form for it.

* In ''[[The Sopranos]]'', a minor character has a quiet moment with a deer. Then {{spoiler|it runs away and Tony brutally garrotes him.}}

* The second expansion of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' features Bambina, Mother of Bambina, Flora, and Thudder. Occasionally an NPC will shoot the mother and cheer, at which point Bambina takes several levels in badass and slaughters the NPC mercilessly. Players can watch this unfold repeatedly.

* In [[Franz Schubert]]'s [[wangst]]y song cycle ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (''The Beautiful Girl of the Mill''), the protagonist keeps a little doe, and he accuses the manly, bristly hunter, whom he imagines to be his romantic rival, for frightening it.

* In [[Rilo Kiley|Rilo Kiley's]] "Accidntel Deth" (sic) from the album ''Execution of All Things'' contains the verse "the story your father told you long ago/He was hunting with his own father/for deer, he pointed and spotted her/and then tripped over some roots or some dead trees/The gun went off, It was a mistake/And my father was only eight/And as he watched the dying deer he was changed/Cause he felt sorry for what he'd done/And he put down his gun."

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' in which Bambi himself is a summon. When you first summon him, he appears amidst a cloud of flowers and butterflies, then proceeds to prance around the battle field dropping gratuitous amounts of MP bubbles. So, in the end, it ends up [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] as cute little Bambi gives you enough fuel to spam the hell out of your magic fire, ice, and lighting attacks.

* The [[Pokémon]] Deerling is clearly a case of this. Its evolution, Sawsbuck, isn't.

* ''[[The Iron Giant]]'', though it's actually done rather well there to show the Giant's first inkling of others' mortality.

* ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'': Gaston sings in his [[Villain Song]], "I use antlers in all of my decorating!" Judging by the state of his trophy room, that's a lot of [[Kick the Dog|dead deer]].

* In ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'', during a camping trip gone wrong, Mac makes a trap to catch a deer, so they could eat it to survive. After seeing the deer, however, he chickens out.

* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'' - A group of low level thugs testing out high powered weapons from Apokolips get tired blowing up the trees and try to aim at a running deer. Then Superman appears, blocks off the shot and proceeds to kick their collective asses.

== Notable Parodies ==

* In one episode of ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Tsukasa tries hand-feeding a deer, only to have another deer show up. She feeds that deer too. And then a couple ''more'' deer walk up to her...and surround her. Uh oh. Then, a huge buck (with a [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|large scar over one eye]], no less) walks up and ''roars'', scaring her. The deer chase Tsukasa down, tackling her to get at the food, and she is left covered in deer saliva and droppings. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BsWBqWBhV0 Yeesh.]

** This can actually happen quite frequently in Nara, making it a case of [[Truth in Television]].

* ''[[Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle]]: Escape from Guantanamo Bay'' - Makes fun the bambification trope in a very dark way. On the run from an insane, racist Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, the duo finds themselves in the woods in Alabama. They encounter an adorable deer and start petting it... right before it suddenly gets shot in the head, spraying guts and blood on the horrified men, by a sophisticated redneck hunter. He then slits its throat and stuffs the body messily into a a sack. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmE2xhYQTNs All of it for comedy, of course!]

** It's also averted when they note that the deer isn't "like those asshole deer in New Jersey."

* Parodied to hell and back in ''[[Tommy Boy]]''.

* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', where Ford Prefect's ability to control his pheromones causes everything to become peaceful, and a deer even walks right up to him. And he breaks its neck.

* The music video for "No One Knows" by [[Queens of the Stone Age]] has the band hunted, jacklighted, and stuffed by deer hunters. As in ''actual deer who are out hunting''.

* Somewhat alluded to in the video for Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Going Down" (if Faun counts as an extension of Deer).

* Done in a ([[Family-Unfriendly Violence|surprisingly graphic]]) ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip.

** And at least one ''[[The Far Side]]'' strip.

* The "gentle, angelic woodland critter" cliche gets taken down ''hard'' in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL9xCWphV8s this [NSFW] clip] from Louis C.K.

* Seeing as its heroine is a [[Petting Zoo People|Wolf-Woman]], ''[[Freefall]]'' naturally [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00227.htm took this one on].

* In ''[[Bobwhite]]'', Lewis starts to tell about the hunting trip that was his worst Christmas ever, and [http://www.bobwhitecomics.com/?webcomic_post=20091217 Ivy] [[Lampshade Hanging|accurately predicts]] that Lewis shot an animal and felt terrible about it afterwards. (When Lewis shoots a deer, his dad even says it's "Just like Bambi's mom!") As it turns out, Lewis has a near-supernatural ability to shoot animals [[Accidental Aiming Skills|without even trying]].

* "[[Bambi Meets Godzilla]]".

** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VujzyznQ4eE Son of Bambi meets Godzilla]". That is all.

* There's [http://deer-s-revenge.software.informer.com/ Deer's Revenge], also a parody of the ''[[Deerhunter]]'' series that also swaps the roles of predator and prey.

* ''[[Life With Louie]]'' has Andy's war story, in which branch of soldiers has been attacked and battered by a herd of deers.

{{quote|'''Andy:''' Sometimes a deer comes to you, and run away. Sometimes deer comes, and doesn't run away. Sometimes deer comes, stares into your eyes and kick you right in the knuckle. So don't tell me about Bambi and don't left his cute eyes fool you. Deers are bastards!?}}

* [[Tex Avery]] subverted the "fawns are innocent and helpless" trope in some of his early ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'', such as having them swig moonshine or talk in a gruff voice when begging for food. And all this years before Disney's ''[[Bambi]]'' came out!

** On one of Avery's MGM cartoons, "Field and Scream", the protagonist goes hunting for deer. At the end there's a long line of hunters with their trophies strap to their hoods... except for Our Hero, who is strapped to the hood of a deer's car.

== Older, less [[Narm]]ful version of this trope ==

* ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'': The forest god initially takes the form of a large male deer{{spoiler|... before its head was shot off and it turns into a mass that starts swallowing the entire forest to get its head back}}.

* Ryu risks his life to save a deer in a later episode of ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'', and in doing so helps a gruffer than usual Joe remember his own softer side.

* A majestic elk summons the Sprite in the "Firebird Suite" segment of ''[[Fantasia|Fantasia/2000]]''.

* ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'' features a recurring [[The Obi-Wan|shaman character]] who claims to be the forst god Herne; he wears the head of a deer as a cowl.

* Although not as old as some others, the Deer Zord of ''[[Power Rangers Wild Force]]'' is a good example (by extension, the same applies for its source material, ''Gaoranger.'') He has something of a "peaceful healer" thing going for him. However, on the other hand, he has been shown to take out an Org completely on his own, implying he's one of the more Badass of the Wildzords, and also shown at times to be something of an asshole, refusing to help the rangers until Princess Shayla sang to him.

* The White Stag from the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' books.

** Which was probably derived from the British legends of the White Stag or White Hart. Follow it through the forest and (if you can keep up) it will lead you to your heart's desire (or occasionally a vision of Christ).

* It's worth noting that Herne, the god of the hunt, has deer's horns, as according to ''[[The Dark Is Rising]].''

* Defenitely averted with the [[Classical Mythology|Perytons]], an [[Exclusively Evil]] race of winged deer (lated adopted by ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'')

* [[Ars Goetia|The demon Furfur]] is a weird example. In spite of being a demon, he has the form of an [[Light Is Not Good|angelic white stag]], and creates love, but is still a liar and, well a ''demon''.