The Winnie the Pooh
books, penned by A.A. Milne and illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard, were a staple
of childhood for many, and certainly the barbershop-style, lightly crooned
theme song by Richard and Robert Sherman, with its evocations of “deep in the
100-Acre Wood, where Christopher Robbin plays,” is like a front row seat in a
ride back in time. That trip gets a mainstream release, now, with the DVD bow
this week of the three magical tales that really started the Pooh tradition —
“Honey Tree,” “Winnie the Pooh with Tigger Too” and “The Blustery Day,” the
latter the Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short Film of 1969.
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh features a live action opening which
pans over to a bookcase and picture book, thus setting the piece — in the
tradition of many classic fairytales — firmly in the imagination, both
individually and collectively, of its viewers. Narrated by Sebastian Cabot, the
adventures that follow are warm, friendly and lightly moralizing set pieces for
the entire family — stuff like Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit’s house after
eating too much honey, Pooh being feted by Christopher Robbin on “Hero Day”
after an act of kindness, and together everyone battling the perils of high
winds. All the lovable characters that from the frontline of Disney’s stable
are here: Pooh (voiced in young-hearted fashion by Sterling Holloway), Tigger,
Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit and Piglet.
here, in a crisp transfer with surprisingly little grain — it’s interesting how
many of this movie’s images trigger such a strong sense of recollection, from
Pooh and Piglet’s plummet over a waterfall to Piglet tearfully ceding his home
to Owl, who doesn’t recognize it as Piglet’s. (Piglet takes ineffectual
timidity to a new level.) The material was first grouped together for a feature
release in 1977, and the animation cheekily feeds the notion of the entire
enterprise as a story of the adolescent mind, with the seams on Pooh’s back
popping open at one point, before he sticks his own stuffing back in.
smallish pause mid-feature, this “Friendship Edition” of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh comes housed in a regular
Amray case that in turn slides into a sturdy cardboard slipcover. Running just
under 75 minutes, the movie comes with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio
track, and is actually available in three languages — English, French and
Spanish. A nice little slate of bonus features complements the main attraction,
kick-started by the debut episode of the Disney Channel’s television show My Friends Tigger & Pooh, a
performance of the movie’s theme song by Carly Simon (!) and a brief video art
gallery. For younger viewers, there’s a special short for Eeyore, a sing-along
special and a “100-Acre Wood Challenge” set-top game. On the outside of the
release, there’s a coupon good for purchases on other Disney titles, on the
inside there’s a cardstock insert and a small, fold-out advert with information
on the aforementioned Disney Channel spin-off show, its special Christmas movie
and the Disney “Movie Rewards” program. B+ (Movie) B+ (Disc)