Bambi: The Reckoning Is Now Streaming for Free on Tubi

A few years ago, familiar characters from classic children’s stories began headlining low-budget horror movies. Filmmakers bypassed Disney copyrights by adapting the original public-domain books, combining classic storybook tropes with slasher and creature-feature conventions. In 2025, the production team expanded that shared world by giving another woodland tale an environmental horror spin.

Directed by Dan Allen, Bambi: The Reckoning draws on the 1923 novel by Felix Salten. The project belongs to the Twisted Childhood Universe, often called the Poohniverse, which includes titles such as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. The feature is currently available to stream for free on Tubi.

The film opens with an animated prologue of deer roaming a peaceful forest before a hunter arrives, directly referencing the death of Bambi’s mother. The story then moves to the modern day, reversing the dynamic between humans and nature. Instead of becoming a gentle prince of the forest, Bambi emerges as a giant, red-eyed monster with rotting fangs and oversized antlers, driven to violent retribution after human pollution ruins his territory.

The main narrative centers on Xana, played by Roxanne McKee, and her young son Benji, played by Tom Mulheron. The mother and child travel to visit Benji’s estranged father and his grandmother, played by Nicola Wright, who struggles with dementia and paints unsettling portraits of antlers and woodland scenery. The deer stalks the family, overturning cars and smashing through their shelter. Allen stages several graphic attacks, including an encounter with a group of aggressive bunnies that parodies Bambi’s classic companion, Thumper.

As the chase unfolds, the family encounters local hunters who are tearing through the woods in pursuit of the beast. Salten’s original novel served as an early environmental story detailing human destruction of nature, and Allen pulls that premise into an aggressive survival horror framework. Bambi: The Reckoning provides an easy starting point for viewers curious about the expanding lineup of public-domain horror adaptations.

Bambi: The Reckoning is streaming on Tubi.

Source: Polygon