This was deemed too dark for a children's film and was cut. Of course, 52 years later we got Simba nudging at his dead dad's corpse in "The Lion King," but the makers of Bambi refused to show this death. It does work wonders with the imagination not showing it though." Over the years, Bambi's mother's death has become as iconic as any other movie death and, yet, we never saw it.
Redditor "PolskiCanuck" has this to say about the phenomenon:
"In a law class I read about someone doing a memory study, asking people to describe the death of Bambi's mother. Many answers included descriptions of blood, gore, Bambi's mother screaming in pain, etc., even though we never actually saw it. It was used as an example of how our memory is faulty and why witness testimony isn't always accurate, particularly when trying to recount traumatic events."
The composition of this shot eerily beautiful and the kind of the way I imagined Disney would have shot the scene: with effortless simplicity. A natural way of dying for such a creature. Haunting.