Abstract

Walt Disney’s animation film Bambi is transparently liberal, and in the post-1968 era could even be seen as post-modern and deep-ecological. The reading offered here, however, makes three counter-moves to this prevailing interpretation: First it follows in both broad technique and ultimate conclusion Žižek’s critique of The Sound of Music wherein he unmasks a fascist ideology encoded in this ostensibly liberal musical. Second, it introduces a gender lens via Silvia Plath’s autobiographical poem, “Daddy,” and third, it employs Lacan's Mirror Stage as key to this construction of a gendered identity and hierarchy. These three moves combine to show that, far from a simple coming-of-age cartoon about a cute little deer, the perennial classic Bambi can be read decidedly other-wise