The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

In the late 60s and early 70s, The Disney Company released three animated featurettes based on A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books. On March 11, 1977 they were released as one animated musical feature, with one new addition, as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Starring Sterling Holloway, John Fiedler, Bruce Reitherman, and Timothy Turner, the company eventually released a sequel in 2011.

The narrative is told in the form of the narrator (Sebastian Cabot) reading the original books, occasionally interacting with the characters.

The first story, Winnie the Pooh and Honey Tree, involves Pooh (Holloway) trying to get honey from a tree filled with bees. He disguises himself in mud and pretends to be a black rain cloud as Christopher Robin (Reitherman, Jon Walmsley, and Turner) furthers the con. Unsuccessful, Pooh visits Rabbit (Junius Matthews) for some honey and gets stuck in his front door. After a few days, Pooh is able to be pushed out and gets tuck in the honey tree.
The second story, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, takes place on a very windy day. Piglet (Fiedler) turns into a kite due to his scarf unraveling and Eeyore’s (Ralph Wright) house breaks while Pooh tries to hold on. Owl’s (Hal Smith) house also blows over and Eeyore begins to seek out a new house. That night, Tigger (Paul Winchell) surprises pooh and warns him about Heffalumps and Woozles that steals honey. During a flood, Piglet is washed out of his house Pooh and Owl help Piglet and Christopher Robin organizes a hero’s party for Pooh. However, Eeyore finds Piglet’s empty house and announces that he found a new home for Owl. Piglet lets him stay and moves in with Pooh.
The third story, Winnie the Pooh and Tiger Too, has Tigger annoying everyone with his bouncing, so Rabbit plans to lose him in the woods. However, Rabbit gets himself, Pooh and Piglet lost. Rabbit wanders away, and Pooh and Piglet are found again by Tigger, who eventually finds Rabbit as well. During the winter, Tigger and Roo (Clint Howard and Dori Whitaker) get stuck up a tree and are found by Pooh and Piglet. Christopher Robin uses his coat as a net to get them to jump down. Roo jumps, but Tigger has to be helped by the narrator tipping the book.

The final story, based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner is simply a discussion with Christopher Robin and Pooh about remembering the time they had together.

Another package film. But this one is a little bit different as it involves all the same characters and is framed by a narrator going between chapters. This makes it the smoothest package film the company has put out and the fourth wall jokes actually make sense, with explanations that Owl went on and on for 20 or so pages, that Pooh allowed the narrator to continue simply because he was in the next chapter and that Tigger was only able to get out of the tree thanks to the narrator. The way it’s done adds to the film’s sense of humor, instead of just being a way to shoehorn something in like The Aristocats did. Also, the entire “Heffalumps and Woozles” song is another Disney Acid Trip. But it’s much better and much weirder than Dumbo’s “Pink Elephants on Parade.”

The original books were based off of Milne’s own son, Christopher, and his interactions with his stuffed animals. This stays true to that. The book the story takes place in is Christopher Robin’s copy of that same book and the opening shot of the film is in his room. As such, all the characters in the film are the creation of Christopher’s imagination. The point is, that all the characters seem one dimensional. Pooh is slow witted, loyal, friendly, and constantly hungry, Tigger is hyperactive and oblivious to his own surroundings, Rabbit is full of himself and quickly gets weary to the hijinks of everyone else, Owl isn’t as intelligent as he thinks he is and often drones on and on, Piglet is paranoid and easily excited, Kanga is the overprotective mother and Roo is the brave kid. Only having one facet to their characters actually works in the film’s favor. Christopher is a young boy and young children don’t often give imaginary friends a lot of depth. This gives the film more believability.

Furthermore, the final part of the movie is incredibly deep with Christopher and Pooh going into what makes friendship and memories without derailing Pooh’s character. And then it ends. But this works really well to tie up the film, which is simply the misadventures of a boy and his imaginary friends. It’s not overtly grand, there’s no fantastic action, and the characters don’t really learn anything. But when you had an imaginary friend as a child, did that happen to you?

Final Call: just a slice of life in the Hundred Acre Wood. #5.