The “Bambi Factor”

Disney films have rarely been seen as contributing much more to environmental awareness than the creation of a clutch of cuddly talking animals to the cause. However, a new book by a researcher at Cambridge University is suggesting that, far from just cute, Disney icons like Bambi, Nemo and Baloo are the all-singing, unsung heroes of the green lobby.

According to academic David Whitley, Disney’s screen fables have been helping successive generations of children to develop “a critical awareness of contested environmental issues” ever since Snow White in 1937. Far from simply offering sheer escapism, he says the films carry important messages about our relationship with the natural world. Conservation is so central to Bambi, for example, that the film is credited with having inspired many 1960s environmental activists at an early age. Read the full story.