Winnie the Pooh

After Lasseter took over, the three previous theatrically released Winnie the Pooh films were stricken from the main canon. However, in 2011, Disney’s 51^st animated film was a part of the franchise aptly named Winnie the Pooh. Starring Jim Cummings, Travis Oates, Tom Kenny, Craig Ferguson, Bud Luckey, Jack Boulter, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, and Wyatt Hall, it was narrated by John Cleese and had music performed by Zooey Deschanel, which were written by the co-writers of Avenue Q. It grossed $44.7 million.

When Pooh (Cummings) runs out of honey, he goes to find some and finds that Eeyore (Luckey) is missing his tail. But when everyone goes to find one, it’s discovered that Christopher Robin has gone away for a while, but left a note and everyone assumes he was captured by a monster called the Backson.

 This film really hearkens back to the 70s and the original film, especially in the characterizations. Everyone is back to their incredibly oblivious selves, highlighting their quirky qualities rather than playing up the negative. Pooh is back to being dim, yet very aware, Piglet isn’t that scared anymore so much as he’s high strung and says the oddest things, Rabbit is still highly on edge, but it’s not about work, Tigger has returned to being the overly confident blowhard and Owl is back to being somewhat smart, but just barely smarter than anyone else. And notice that Gopher isn’t in this. Just like he wasn’t in the books or the first movie.

It’s also much less dramatic than the films from the 90s and 2000s, which can be seen in many of its gags. For instance, at one point, Owl keeps talking about the “issue” at hand and Pooh constantly thinks he’s sneezing. There’s also a point where the gang, sans Piglet, is stuck in a hole and Piglet is trying to get them out. It keeps building on gags that don’t work, like when Piglet finds a rope, but cuts it up for each of them. And yet, it doesn’t occur to anyone that Owl, who is in the pit, can fly. And when he does fly up to encourage Piglet to travel to Christopher Robin’s house, h flies right back and everyone compliments him on the speech. And one of the plots is finding a new tail for Eeyore. And a song is sung every time a new tail is found. Including when Eeyore uses an anchor as one.

Then there’s the plot, which consists of three chapters from the books turned into one coherent story. And with all the scenes that don’t advance the plot, it really enforces that it’s all in Christopher Robin’s imagination.

Better than all the films between this and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. If there ever was a place to bring the series to a close, this is it.

#39 

Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin

The success of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh prompted Disney to make a direct sequel in 1997. Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin was an entirely original story, not based on any of Milne’s original works. Starring Jim Cummings, John Fiedler, Ken Sansom, Paul Winchell, Andre Stojka and Brady Bluhm, the film is the first Winnie the Pooh movie to have its own special edition.

Christopher Robin (Bluhm) spends the last day of summer with his friend, Winnie the Pooh (Cummings), while keeping a secret from him.

When Pooh wakes the next day, he discovers a note from Christopher Robin attached to a pot of honey. Owl (Stojka) deciphers the message, which had been splattered with honey and says that Christopher Robin has been taken to a horrible place called the Skull by the Skullosaurus. He equips the group with a map and they set off on an adventure to save their friend.

As a direct sequel, the continuity in this film is astounding. The conversation that takes place at the beginning is the exact same conversation, word for word, from the end of the first Winnie the Pooh movie.

Though the characters start out all the same from the first movie, all the trials they go through in their search leave them more rounded. During the course of the film, they are broken by their greatest flaws and fears. Piglet’s fear of heights neuters him, Tigger’s fear of not being able to bounce high cripples him and Rabbit is left near catatonic after his leadership skills are shown to be nil. But it’s after they find Christopher Robin that that they realize what he told Pooh at the beginning is true. They’re better than they give themselves credit for and at the end of the film, they’ve conquered those fears and flaws.

It’s also interesting to see the juxtaposition of how the “Great Unknown” appears before and after they’ve found Christopher Robin. Before, it’s how Owl described it: dark, treacherous and foreboding. But afterwards, it’s like every other spot in the Hundred Acre Wood. It’s changed because they’re not afraid anymore and find that there was no real reason to be afraid in the first place.

While the songs aren’t all bad, only the first two are actually worth writing home about.

#23

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.