Faline

Faline is a female deer in the Walt Disney movies Bambi and Bambi II. First shown as a fawn and later as an adult doe, Faline's role is as Bambi's love interest and friend. Although she is only a minor supporting character, Faline possesses many interesting and complex dimensions of her personality and life.



Personality
Faline is about Bambi's age, give or take a week or two, but in both movies her personality is considerably more mature than his (granted, her first appearance is the exception that makes the rule). It is she, for instance, who always makes the first move, whether in mere play (as a fawn) or in pursuits romantic (as an adult). The way this is so, however, shifts as she grows older. When they first meet, she comes across as a wild, giggly little girl, an image which at first puts Bambi on the run-until he finally manages to get a lock on her location after she steals one kiss too many from him. When we next see her (chronologically speaking) in Bambi 2, she seems to have settled down a bit. By the time she is an adult (in Bambi again) she has progressed to a stage where she makes her moves with what almost comes across as a thoroughly deliberated strategy of near-military grade.



In Bambi II, she still has the tendency to giggle, but her laugh is a bit quieter and certainly less wild. Her effect on him is still very much the same-she has him on the run, but she's managing to reel him in a bit. A note of interest is that here her coloration is somewhat darker and browner than it was earlier, which seems to reinforce her image of greater maturity. This is conflicted, however, by the fact that she is the only fawn in Bambi 2 who never loses her spots at any point in the movie. When we see her next, again in the first movie, she is a fully grown and very attractive doe.



The lighter coloring she showed as a fawn is back and (predictably) she still has Bambi on the run. Luck and love are with her though, and this time she finally manages to catch him.

The only time we see her looking truly calm, in the typical Disney image of an adult female, is when she is seen at the end of Bambi with her and Bambi's twin fawns. Apparently Walt Disney felt that, having become a mother, it was time for Faline to start looking and acting like the typical image of a mother (at least the typical image of a mother in the 1940s).



Faline in Bambi II
Faline's overall image is somewhat different in Bambi II. For one thing, she has darker coloring. For another, she is at a rather independent stage. She makes a face at Bambi's attempt at a growl (Bambi was trying to ward off Ronno). The attempt at a growl, acording to most viewer, sounds like a bleating lamb, which is probably why it was not very successful. That is not enough, however, to alter her preferences; she still clearly prefers Bambi's company to Ronno's. Unfortunately, Ronno pays little mind to what Faline thinks, and when he tries to force her to go with him Faline tries to stand up for herself, unlike a similar event in the first movie, when she immediately called to Bambi for help. It is hard to say who is most surprised in this movie when Bambi tells Ronno to leave Faline alone: Faline, Ronno, or Bambi himself.

Unlike in the first movie Faline makes no attempt to steal a kiss from Bambi. However, as her luck would have it, she doesn't need to this time. A grumpy porcupine with a grudge against Bambi takes his revenge by pricking Bambi in the hind legs, making Bambi leap forward and accidentally engaging Faline in a kiss. After a few moments of stunned silence, Bambi stumbles backwards, stuttering uncontrollably, wheras Faline suppresses facial expressions of silent joy and happiness.

Trivia

 * In the book on which Bambi was based, Faline had a sickly brother named Gobo. His exclusion from the movie probably had something to do with the fact that he died in a way that was arguably even worse than what happened to Bambi's Mother, and filmmakers felt it would be too depressing if they included him.


 * Faline's mother's name is Eena, which was probably the basis for the name of Bambi's foster mother (Mena) in Bambi II. Some eyebrows were raised over the fact that in related literature Eena was referred to as Bambi's "Aunt Eena," which would mean in theory that Bambi and Faline were cousins.  However, it has been pointed out that the reference to Eena as Bambi's Aunt may have been a term of familiarity, much the way children may call an older male friend "Uncle" So-and-so.


 * Towards the end of Bambi 2, when Thumper complains that Bambi never has time for them (that is, for Thumper, Flower, Faline, and his other friends) anymore because he's always spending time with his dad now, Faline comments, "Yeah. Isn't it wonderful?" One viewer was heard to observe that Faline was both the first and the last character one would expect to make a comment like that. Faline's love for Bambi is the purest kind. She wants what is best for him and will make him happy, with little or no regard for her own interests.


 * Faline's presence in Bambi II is confusing at first because, when she and Bambi met as adults, she asked if he remembered her, implying that they had not seen each other for a while. The speed of a deer becoming mature depends up to a point on their environment.  Under ideal conditions (plenty of food, minimum of predators), a girl fawn like Faline would become a doe at the age of two.  At the end of Bambi II, Bambi and Faline are only one year old.  So despite what is filled in by Bambi II there is at least a one-year gap.