The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Reitherman John Lounsbery
Produced by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Story by	Larry Clemmons Ralph Wright Vance Gerry Xavier Atencio Ken Anderson Julius Svendsen Ted Berman Eric Cleworth Supervisor: Winston Hibler
Based on	Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Narrated by	Sebastian Cabot
Starring	Sterling Holloway John Fiedler Junius Matthews Paul Winchell Howard Morris Bruce Reitherman Jon Walmsley Timothy Turner
Music by	Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman Buddy Baker
Editing by	Tom Acosta James Melton
Studio	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	March 11, 1977 (1977-03-11)
Running time	74 minutes
Language	English

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977.

The film is actually composed of material from three previously released animated featurettes based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Because of this, it is seen by some as one of the Disney "package films" (movies consisting of two or more short segments), the bulk of which were produced by the studio to keep costs down during World War II. Pooh was produced for similar economic reasons. This is also the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. A fourth and final featurette based on the original books, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, was released in 1983 and is included as a bonus feature on the VHS and DVD release of the feature film.

Its characters have spawned an industry of sequels, television programs, clothing, books, and toys. The film differs from the three individual shorts by having newly-created linking material, and an ending to give closure to the stories (based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner). It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize US audiences with the characters. All three shorts as well as future feature films boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".

The film also inspired an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland. A much more elaborate attraction, also based on the film, opened in Tokyo Disneyland as "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".

Plot

• Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too
• We Say Good-bye

Voice cast

• Winnie-the-Pooh, voiced by Sterling Holloway
• Piglet, voiced by John Fiedler
• Rabbit, voiced by Junius Matthews
• Tigger, voiced by Paul Winchell
• Gopher, voiced by Howard Morris
• Christopher Robin, voiced by Bruce Reitherman, later Jon Walmsley and Timothy Turner
• Eeyore, voiced by Ralph Wright
• Owl, voiced by Hal Smith
• Roo, voiced by Clint Howard, later Dori Whitaker
• Kanga, voiced by Barbara Luddy
• Narrated by Sebastian Cabot

Production

For the character Piglet, hand gestures and other movements were used by the animators to create expressiveness, since he (and Pooh) had the appearance of dolls or stuffed animals with relatively simple button eyes.^[1] The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh's being part of the "decor of his home" was not in the original book, but was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.^[2]

Reception

Film critic Leonard Maltin called the original Pooh featurettes "gems"; he also noted that the artwork resembles the book illustrations, and that the particular length of these featurettes meant that the filmmakers didn't have to "compress or protract their script."^[3] The film holds a 91% "fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ruth Hill Viguers, however, when writing in A Critical History of Children’s Literature during the 1960s, mentioned Disney’s Winnie the Pooh along with several other Disney adaptations as having “destroyed the integrity of the original books”.^[4]

Back in the early 80's, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was not part of the Disney canon (with the other being Dumbo, because Dumbo was shown on television by Walt himself).^{[citation needed]} The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on the other hand, was the last package film to be released.

The American Film Institute nominated The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for its Top 10 Animated Films list.^[5]

Home video

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS, Betamax, CED videorecord, and laserdisc in the early 1980s. In 1996, it was re-released on VHS as part of the Masterpiece Collection and included video footage of the making which was shown before the movie starts. It was released on DVD for the first time in 2002 as a 25th Anniversary Edition, with digitally restored picture and sound. The individual shorts had also been released on their own on VHS in the 1990s.

The 25th anniversary edition DVD includes, among other bonus features, "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece", which documents the history of the books and their initial film adaptations. It also features interviews with animators Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Burny Mattinson, as well as the Sherman brothers, Paul Winchell, and others. Digital Media FX reviewer Shannon Muir stated that the audio and video quality of the film on this DVD was very high.^[6]

The "Friendship Edition" DVD was re-released on June 19, 2007. All of the special features from the previous "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD were recycled; the only new addition being an episode of Playhouse Disney's computer-animated series My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The DVD re-release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of the film. [1]

Songs

• "Winnie the Pooh"
• "Up, Down and Touch the Ground"
• "Rumbly in My Tumbly"
• "Little Black Rain Cloud"
• "Mind Over Matter"
• "A Rather Blustery Day"
• "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"
• "Heffalumps and Woozles"
• "When the Rain Rain Rain Came Down"
• "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!"

Differences between the book and the film

• Most of the stories are out of order. For instance, the introduction of Tigger does not happen before the flood.
• Gopher is not present in any of the original stories, which is alluded to by his frequent line (in context meaning his mining company's phone number is unlisted) of "I'm not in the book, you know."
• In the original stories, Heffalumps and Woozles are not associated with each other.
• Some stories are omitted, such as The Search for Small, Making a Trap for Heffalumps, etc.
• In the original stories, Pooh only wears his trademark shirt in winter time.
• Rabbit's friends and relations are not in the movie at all, although they are seen at the beginning of the film near Christopher Robin's house. This is a reference to the original books, as they are seen on the map at the beginning of the book.
• The part where Roo and Tigger jump out of a tree took place in summer in the original stories and not in winter, as in the movie.
• In the original stories, Piglet's sweater is green, while it is magenta in the movie.

References

1. ^ Thomas, Frank; Ollie Johnston (1981). Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. Abbeville Press. pp. 448. ISBN 0-89659-232-4. 
2. ^ Davidson, Bill; Kathy Merlock Jackson (2006). Walt Disney: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 128. ISBN 1-57806-712-X. 
3. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New American Library. pp. 76. ISBN 0-452-25993-2. 
4. ^ Viguers, Ruth Hill; Cornelia Meigs (ed.) (1969). A Critical History of Children's Literature. Macmillan Publishing co.. pp. 412. ISBN 0-02-583900-4. 
5. ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
6. ^ Muir, Shannon. "DVD Review of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - 25th Anniversary Edition". Digital Media FX. http://www.digitalmediafx.com/reviews/winniethepooh.html. Retrieved 2009-06-03. 

External links

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at the Internet Movie Database
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh at Rotten Tomatoes