Храбрый оленёнок (The brave little deer)

The Brave Little Deer is a Russian animation made around 1945 by directors Olga Khodataeva and Leonid Aristov. The story takes place in the winter season at the Cold Sea where all the animals migrate down to a warmer climate. The animation introduces the herd of deers and their leader Тургун. The group of deers must journey to the other side of the mountain where greenery grows. In the herd, there is one female deer called Тенгене, her fawn Аукно and an older grumpy female deer that sees Аукно as a scared and timid fawn who tries to put on a brave face for his mother. Then, the group is being followed by a pack of wolves that are sniffing down the deers track. When the leader Тургун sends the group off first into the mountain, he acts as a diversion and runs towards the wolves. The wolves then try attacking. Тургун knew the wolves were stronger in packs so he ran towards a cliff and jumped on the other side. The wolves could not jump from a far distances and plumped it to their doom. Soon, the group continued on their journey to the mountain. But what they did not know was that one of the wolves survived the fall. Though the wolf was injured, the wolf continued the search for the deers. While the deers had to jump over a small cliff to get where they need to, Аукно stopped dead in his track—for he was scared of the height. The older female deer then told Аукно that he has a heart of a hare but his mother Тенгене encourages and helps him to keep trying his best. Unfortunately due to the snow storm, Аукно and Тенгене were separated by the group. When daylight came out, Тенгене and Аукно were trying to find the group, they encountered the wolf. They barely managed to escape the wolf for a brief while but soon, they faced another problem when Тенгене fell into the river which was covered by ice. She tried getting back on the ice but kept breaking. Аукно tried helping his mother but she had told him to go find Тургун and the other deers. So, Аукно ran as fast as he can and found the group and Тургун. When told Тургун that his mother was in trouble and looked yonder the landscape, Аукно saw the wolf approaching his mother. So Аукно ran and with courage, he ran towards the wolf and acted as the diversion. With that, Тургун and the other deers were able to save Тенгене, and in turn the whole deer group pushed the wolf down to the river where it drowned. Тургун then told Аукно that he had a brave heart and especially the old grumpy female deer then recognized Аукно’s horns and said he was a brave fawn.

This story in some way is similar to the Disney animation Bambi however, the difference was that the fawn was able to save his mother from death. Giving the animation a happy ending and showing that anyone can be brave if they put their efforts into it.