A Noisy Neighbor (Bambi episode)

"A Noisy Neighbor" is the seventh episode of the American animated television series Bambi, based on the book of the same name. It first aired on September 25, 1999, on ABC as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning.

Summary
When Bambi and his friends meet Edgar the beaver, Bambi, Flower and Faline become friends with him almost immediately. Thumper, however, isn't as certain, as he isn't really interested in making friends with him, thinking that he's a noisy beaver. As the rabbit tries to stay away from him, the beaver just always finds a way to easily distract him, which continues to upset him even further. However, the rabbit soon realizes just how good Edgar really is when he helps save his home and family from flooding, and resolves to be a better neighbor and friend to him.

Plot
One spring day in the forest, Bambi is chasing butterflies for a bit until he goes into the meadow, where they land in a field of flowers. As Bambi goes to smell them, one of the flowers started speaking, surprising Bambi and causing him to fall backward on his fluffy tail. The flower turns out to be Flower the skunk, as he asks him if he wants to play hide-and-seek. Before Bambi could answer, Thumper came hopping across the meadow and tags Flower, meaning that Bambi and Thumper will have to find a hiding spot. They go to the low hill where Thumper's family lived, and Thumper hides in it, forgetting that his deer friend is too big to fit in there, as he only got as far as his ears, causing him to be tagged by Flower in the process.

As they think about whether to keep playing or not, Thumper decided that he is tired of playing hide-and-seek, and that they should all thump instead at his favorite spot in the forest, which happens to be a hollow log that is perfect for thumping. As they got closer, however, they start to hear a loud thud echoing through the forest. They follow the noise to find a beaver raising his tail and smacking the hollow log like a drum. Bambi and Flower enjoy watching him banging the log like a drum, while Thumper wasn't pleased with how the beaver is using his favorite spot. After complaining for a bit, Thumper realizes that the beaver was named Edgar, and he likes to use the hollow hog for his own fun, too. When Edgar leaves, Bambi and Flower both try to ask Thumper what's wrong with the beaver, but Thumper doesn't want to tell them, as he believes it will hurt their feelings if he did.

The next day, Faline was playing around in the meadow as usual when Bambi, Thumper and Flower came up to Faline and ask her to play around with them. After getting approval from Aunt Ena, she romps around the woods with them until they spot Edgar the beaver at a distance away from them, collecting branches and twigs. Faline rushes up to him to greet and befriend him, but before she can engage a lengthy conversation with him, Thumper storms over to the beaver and tells him off for taking branches and twigs as his own "supplies", but he just takes them with him and leaves, anyways, leaving the rabbit to sulk in anger. Faline feels upset that Thumper would be so cruel to her new beaver friend, but Bambi reminds her that not all friends can be made right away, and this makes her feel a bit better.

Later that afternoon, Bambi, Faline, Thumper and Flower were playing at the stream when they heard a crash. Hurrying to see what had happened, they saw a tree stretched across the water. They also saw Edgar, who is admiring his work that he created using the gathered supplies. Thumper is upset, because he thinks he'll destroy the woods by chopping down trees with his teeth. However, Bambi thinks otherwise, believing that Edgar's doing the right thing by building his home that acts as a dam. This makes Thumper very cross, and he stomps away from them, thus making Bambi realize that Thumper really is not like himself today.

As the days passed, as the dam grew bigger, so did the pond. Bambi, Flower and Faline often come there to splash and play, while Thumper just grumbles and watches his friends. He also tries to do other things, but Edgar just keeps finding ways to distract him, annoying him even further. One rainy night, however, Thumper and his family were awakened by a loud thud, and he knew right away that it had to be Edgar. When he got out, he found the beaver slapping his tail on a hollow log, which made Thumper almost tell him off for waking him up rudely, but he realizes that Edgar was trying to warn him and his family about the pond, now that it has gotten bigger thanks to the rain.

Thumper didn't want to believe him at first, but after seeing that the pond has turned into a lake, he realizes that the beaver was right, as the lake slowly got higher. Thumper quickly leaped into action as he warned his family about the water rising and got them to a safe place. Meanwhile, Bambi and Flower had heard the alarm and went to Thumper's house to find Edgar building a wall of sticks and mud to keep out the water. Bambi thinks that it isn't going to be enough, as the water is rising too fast, and it could potentially ruin Thumper's house, only for Edgar to come up with an idea.

Edgar began digging through the dam at one end, with Bambi helping him out soon after. The water nearly reaches the front door of Thumper's home when they both finally broke a hole in the dam, and the pond got smaller, leaving Thumper's house out of danger. In the process, however, the hole in the dam becomes wider, leaving them to get to safety as the dam breaks apart, causing Edgar's house to be completely destroyed.

On safe grounds, Edgar asks Thumper to forgive for building the dam too close to his home, thinking he hasn't been a very good neighbor. However, Thumper thinks that he the best neighbor he could have, since he not only rescued his family, but he also tore down his own house to save his. As Faline walks up to them, she becomes curious as to why Thumper would think that Edgar's not a bag neighbor, only for him to realize that he's the one who hasn't been a good neighbor, and ask if there's anything he could ever do to thank Edgar, which gives Bambi an idea.

The next day, Edgar builds a new dam that would act as his new home, with Thumper, Flower, Faline and Bambi helping him out by collecting twigs and branches for the beaver. After a while, they stopped for a break, as Thumper hops onto a log and starts thumping on it. Although the sound was nice, he thinks there's something missing, looking at Edgar, and smiling at him, as the beaver jumped up beside him and started pounding the log with his tail. Thumper joined in, and the woods are soon filled with a happy rhythm, as his friends watch with joy.

Production
This episode was adapted from the story "A Noisy Neighbor", which was first published in 1998.

After seeing the potential that story had, ??? decided to adapt this story into a full episode of the TV series.

More coming soon!

US

 * Bambi: Season 1, Volume 2 (DVD)

Reception
Coming soon!