This cartoon illustrates the principle of flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories typically are remarkably vivid and seemingly permanent memories. These memories are typically of highly emotional and personal events in one's life. Flashbulb memories can also be of personal circumstances during an event that did not affect one personally, such as a leader's assassination or a devastating airline crash.

In this cartoon, each of the forest animals remember their whereabouts when they heard that Bambi's mother had been shot. The news did not affect them personally, but the event was significant enough that they each recalled what they were doing when they heard about the event. A quote from the caption, "To this very day," suggests that Bambi's mother was shot some time ago, and still forest animals can recall their personal situation at the time. This also demonstrates that flashbulb memories are extremely long lasting.

Some theorists have suggested that a certain flashbulb mechanism is responsible for capturing such events and storing them in memory for an indefinite period of time, yet others suggest that these memories are not encoded any differently than others. What makes flashbulb memories different, they argue, is that they are much more often rehearsed. Personal reactions to such events are usually brought up in conversation often, and so they are remembered more often. This cartoon also exemplifies that principle. Each of the forest animals are gathered around, talking about their experiences, which may help them keep this memory from being forgotten.