While writing the title to this post I can picture all of my readers smiling and sighing contentedly. Winnie the Pooh. The only person who doesn’t like Winnie the Pooh seems to be PL Travers at the beginning of Saving Mr Banks!
When I was 10, 16 and 18 my mother had babies, which meant as a teenager, not just children’s programming , but small, toddler focused entertainment was often playing at my house. Barney and Telletubbies would get a huge eye roll from me and most animated films are too scary, sad or long for children under 5.
The only shows I wasn’t completely miserable watching was Wishbone and Winnie the Pooh. And yet it’s hard to say why? What is it about a bear looking for honey with his friends that is so darn appealing? Even watching it today I was completely charmed.
Production-
The production on Many Adventures is pretty simple. It combines 3 shorts that had been released previously in the 60s into one film. This included Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Many Adventures was released in 1977 just a few months before The Rescuers (talk about a change of tone in one year!).
All 3 shorts have songs by the amazing Sherman Brothers. They are sweet, simple songs and I love them. All 3 have the same cast, except for Roo and Christopher Robin. All break the 4th wall and involve the narrator, Sebastian Cabot, and the book in the story.
Here’s a great example of the narrator involvement from Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too:
Not many movies can pull off the breaking the 4th wall (Ferris Bueller comes to mind but not many others).
This would be one of the last package films for Disney in theaters until 1999’s Fantasia 2000 and I think it was a smart move on their part. Because it could be divided into bits it was very easy to transfer to television and if it was on TV a small child is going to have a far easier time staying engaged for 24 minutes vs 2 hours and a mother is more likely to allow a child to watch a brief program than a full length movie. This made it easy viewing for nearly every child for decades.
In fact, we didn’t have the combined feature but had 3 separate VHS tapes with the shorts and I remember liking them all but especially The Blustery Day (more to come on that later).
Why so Loved?
Brevity and a target audience wouldn’t be enough to be so consistently and universally loved. So why? Well, it simply makes a lot of correct choices.
First of all, it is lovely to look at. The animation is light without the heavy outlines of the last 15 years of sketch Xerox Disney films. It was a breath of fresh air just to look at today.
It’s about toys and playtime. It’s the same reason we love Toy Story. It has easy to understand conflict and characters who learn subtle but important lessons.
They also have iconic voice performances by Sterling Holloway as Pooh, John Fieldler as Piglet, Junius Matthews as Rabbit and Paul Winchell as Tigger. Winchell in particular played Tigger until 1999. There’s a warmth to all of their performances which is so winning and almost comforting to all ages.
Finally, the reason I think people love Winnie the Pooh is they are genuinely great characters. Pooh is not relentlessly cheerful like Mickey or Minnie. He can be very selfish and self-absorbed. Of course, Eeyore is always gloomy, Tigger has no boundaries, Piglet stutters, Rabbit is a nag, Owl is pretentious etc. They all have flaws and strengths and they learn through the story. It just shows good writing really does make all the difference.
One of the best examples of character growth and tender-hearted characters is in The Blustery Day when Piglet decides to give up his house for his friend. In a matter of seconds you see Piglet’s face and body go from concerned about self to amazing charity, and even knowing it is the right thing to do doesn’t make the words easy to say. Love that! It feels so genuine:
Story-
Let’s talk about the individual shorts for a second .
We get a lovely intro to the picture.
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
We start out learning that Pooh is thinking and “when he thought, he thought in the most thoughtful way he could think”. He then does his stoutness exercises which is such a fun number.
So off he is to find honey! With Christopher Robin’s help he creates a clever disguise to fool some bees into giving him their honey.
He’s so innocent and funny. How can you not love it?
Next Pooh decides to visit his friend Rabbit and eats all his honey. He gets stuck in Rabbits open door . What I’ve always thought was funny is Rabbit could push him back but he’d rather have him stuck than back in his house. ‘Having gone this far it seems a pity to waste it’.
We also meet the Gopher in this segment. His humor is meant entirely for adults as he talks about not wanting to give an estimate and working strictly cash. Concepts kids wouldn’t understand. He’s not in the book you know!
Finally he is free and we move on to
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day-
We start out meeting Piglet and hearing about his house and what a blustery day it is! Piglet even gets turned into a kite
Piglet and Pooh visit owl and tells them a story about his aunt that plays the glockenspiel (see good writing again!) but then disaster strikes!
Eeyore sets off to look for a house for owl and the blustery day turns into a blustery night. This is when we first meet Tigger.
What a loveable character! But he has also told Pooh about Heffalumps and Woozles and despite his best efforts Pooh falls asleep and dreams of creatures stealing his honey. This scene is so reminiscent of Pink Elephants on Parade it is exhilarating and quite bold for a film for toddlers. Does it scare little children in your life? Oddly enough I don’t remember it scaring my siblings and they were wimps 😉 .
After a lot of films of safe animation the heffalumps and woozles segment was so refreshing. It must have felt that way to viewers in 1977 too!
Next we wake up to the blustery day turning into a flood. I love Piglet says ‘it’s awfully hard to be brave when you’re such a small animal”. What great writing for a movie geared towards small children (and even now I feel like a small animal sometimes).
Pooh saves Piglet and we have a hero party. Piglet gives Owl his house in the scene from above so it becomes a double hero party!
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too-
This last set is all about Tigger. He has gotten so bouncy that he has ruined rabbits garden and rabbit has had enough:
They decide to trick Tigger and scare the bounce out of him! But things don’t workout quite the way they expect. What I love about this story is the team is trying to take away what makes Tigger special. After all bouncing is ‘what Tiggers do best’.
Rabbit wants to change Tigger but he ends up grateful for his friend and being humbled more than a little bit! I love this scene:
Then the last segment is Tigger realizing that even bouncing can be done too much. He gets stuck up in a tree and as you saw in the narrator clip above it is tough getting down!
Finally we get an ending to all 3 pictures I had never seen before with Pooh and Christopher Robin talking before he goes off to school. I found this segment very touching:
Rip my heart out why don’t you. Now I know where Toy Story 3 got the idea for their ending.
“Pooh promise you won’t forget me”
“Oh I won’t ever Christopher I promise”
That’s exchange alone demonstrates the staying power of Winnie the Pooh. I think one of the great fears of nearly every human is a fear of being forgotten and for a child’s film to pick up on that is so lovely.
Conclusion/Review-
I heard an interview with the creator of Elmo and he said Elmo always meant love, and I think Winnie the Pooh is all about childhood- the innocence, selfishness, forgiveness, imagination and friendship. So often as adults those virtues get lost and a movie like The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh reminds us to go back to Pooh corner and remember.
The voice work is fabulous and fits perfectly with the stories.The songs are lovely. The animation is fluid and non-sketchy. It feels light and the story rarely drags.The writing is sharp and full of memorable lines.
It is also not always syrupy and sentimental. We get scares and trippy nightmares. Characters have to make hard choices and sacrifice for their friends. They make mistakes and have to be rescued. They overdo things and are judgmental at times. It’s just go it all.
Each of the shorts is the perfect length to entertain very small children who can be difficult to find programming for. The Heffalump and Woozles might have to be skipped for toddlers but it depends on the kid.
The ride at Disneyland is also a lot of fun if you ever get a chance to ride it.
I really don’t have anything bad to say about The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Overall Grade- A+
(If people disagree with me on this one I will be stunned!).
It really is awesome!
So, are you reviewing a movie every day?
These early movies are easy to review every day because they are almost all 75 minutes or less. The 90s-2000s will be tougher. Plus, I injured my knee so I’ve had a lot of bedrest which is changing.
The only thing which bothers me is that there Heffalump sequence is very derivative of the Pink Elephant sequence. But it is impossible not to like movie.
That’s fair. You wouldn’t believe people challenged me on this movie saying they didn’t like it. Geesh! 🙂
I would have preferred it to have a more cohesive overarching narrative rather than essentially be a collection of vignettes. But you can’t have it all!
True. I can see that point but when I consider the attention span of little one’s who are the prime audience it kind of makes sense. But an overarching narrative would have been cool too.
I’ve never read the AA Milne books. Are they episodic in nature? Maybe that is part of the reason they went that way?
‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ has probably gotten better with age for me as well. I remember the first time I watched it again as a late teen, and just finding myself taken in by the charming music, narration, animation and character and was grinning from ear to ear! What was originally a fun distraction for me as a little kid blossomed into something more meaningful and humorous as an adult, that’s rare as far as animated family films go! And yes, I’m one of those people who prefers Pooh-bear to Mickey Mouse, mainly because he’s just that rind kind of cheerful and innocent without coming off as unbelievable. Like the best Disney films, its practically perfect all around!
The Heffalumps nightmare scene, while I can see frightening small children, I think is still a relatively ‘safe’ scare, in so much as children who want to feel a little braver can sit throuhg it and not feel traumatized. I’m sure I was completely perplexed the first time around, but grew to enjoy it for its insane quality.
I haven’t seen the more recent Winnie the Pooh from 2011, but I’ve heard nice things about it, and might check it out eventually.
The short “Winnie the Pooh & the Honey Tree” had been released by itself in 1966, months before Walt died. Little did he know that it would be included in a package film 11 years later!
Cool. I think Blustery Day won an Oscar for best short.
This is one of the best reviews I’ve read of my favorite Winnie the Pooh film (and films of all time) and my #2 favorite Disney animated film of all time (#1 being Pinocchio!), excellent job. I still love this movie today (though I haven’t seen it in quite a while) as an adult, the characters are all lovable and feel realistic like I know them as friends, the animation/art are beautiful and top notch, the music and songs are wonderful and a treat on the ears, the stories, which I see as one big narrative as I was introduced to this format first, are simple, well written and always filled with stuff happening so it’s not dull (also compared to the original Milne stories which I recommend reading, while liberties were taken they still keep the tone), this is probably one of the most perfect, and I daresay flawless masterpieces of art I’ve ever seen. Pooh has been something that has always stuck around with me ever since I received a plush of him for Christmas at age 1 (still have him sitting right next to me), and I hope to collect more as time goes on. I agree with the previous commentor saying how it’s even better to watch as an adult too, I wish there were more family films out there like this.
There are actually some people I’ve seen who might disagree with this review (some think it’s boring when I say it’s not), but I believe they’re only in a 1% minority for what is a universally beloved movie. For the other animated films (one flaw about them is that they had Piglet and Owl get their homes back though oddly I never feel Blustery Day’s events were “disregarded”), I loved Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (it could scare little kids more than the Heffalumps and Woozles segment though), The Tigger Movie is fine in my opinion, unfortunately Very Merry Pooh Year didn’t age well for me and I count it as non-canon to the Pooh universe, I loved Piglet’s Big Movie, I did not care for Springtime with Roo from what I saw of it (declare it non-canon too. The Heffalump Halloween Adventure also was alright in my opinion and Seasons of Giving could have been better), Pooh’s Heffalump Movie was fine, and I sadly really did not like the 2011 Pooh film (and see it as non-canon), which I heard was a reboot.
I’ve played this for my babies way over 100 times and it is their favorite. I never get tired of this movie. The humor is incredible. I loved Heffalumps and Woozles and think it is brilliant. I’m a professional ballet dancer so maybe I really get it. I’ve seen so many animations and to date only two come close to Many Adventures. They are the original Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. The other Pooh animations don’t do it as the casts are not as good. Sterling Holloway was Pooh and Paul Winchell cannot be imitated as Tigger. It was a small miracle to get that incredible cast together. The animation is so fluid and comforting without harsh transitions. All of the characters are become so real life that it is easy to have an emotional connections with them. You could play a hundred animations for a child and fill a room with stuffed dolls from all of them. Which one are they going to pick up and hug out of all of them? Winnie the Pooh.
This is one of the best comments I’ve ever received. I have similar feelings about Winnie the Pooh. He is joy and childhood personified in a character. I love this movie so much