Winnie the Pooh is one of Disney’s most beloved characters. He has starred in numerous TV shows and films since the 1960s. He meets with guests at every Disney Parks Resort around the world and has six attractions in five of the parks. Winnie the Pooh and his friends have been on countless pieces of merchandise including mugs, plush, pins, and clothing.
The Winnie the Pooh stories were first created by A.A. Milne and were based on his son’s stuffed bear named Edward Bear. His son, Christopher Robin Milne, renamed Edward Bear after befriending a black bear cub named Winnie at the London Zoo. The original Winnie was named after the city of Winnipeg and was a mascot for the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps for WWI and was brought to England by Harry Colebourn. Colebourn then left Winnie at the London Zoo when he went off to France and she lived there until her death in 1934. The Pooh part of the bear’s name has a much more unclear origin. Some stories say that the Milne family met a swan named Poo on vacation and a swan character did appear in some of A.A. Milne’s early work. Another explanation is found in the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh: “But his arms were so stiff … they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think, but I am not sure that that is why he is always called Pooh,” as this was the sound he made. A.A. Milne wrote poems and short stories about Christopher Robin’s adventures with Pooh Bear and friends: Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Roo, whom were all based off of stuffed toys as well. The characters of Owl and Rabbit were added to the stories by Milne.
Though the Winnie the Pooh franchise rights have a long and complicated history, I will just briefly describe how Disney first got involved. In 1930, producer Stephen Slesinger purchased the U.S. and Canada rights for Winnie the Pooh merchandising, TV shows, and recording from A.A. Milne. He started to grow the franchise until his death in 1953 when his wife, Shirley Slesinger, took over. In 1961 she met with a very persuasive Walt Disney and passed on her Winnie the Pooh rights in exchange for royalties. In that same year, A.A. Milne’s wife Daphne Milne licensed her Winnie the Pooh rights, which included motion pictures, to Disney as well.
The first Disney animated version of Pooh appeared in the 1966 featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. In this short, Pooh is seeking out some honey for his empty tummy. He tries to disguise himself in mud as a little black rain cloud and floats up to the bee hive with a balloon. This attempt is unsuccessful so Pooh visits Rabbit and eats all of the honey there. Pooh becomes so large that he gets stuck in the doorway of Rabbit’s home and has to be pulled out by his friends. Pooh then goes flying through the air and lands in the hive which scares away the bees. Now Pooh has plenty of honey to eat as he waits to be rescued once again by his friends. This short followed a few of A.A Milne’s stories closely such as In which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, and the stories begin and In which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place, but one major change was that the character of Gopher is introduced for the first time. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree has some wonderful songs written by the Sherman Brothers such as “Up, Down and Touch the Ground”, Rumbly in My Tumbly”, and “Little Black Rain Cloud”. The opening song “Winnie the Pooh” was first written for this film and is used in almost every Winnie the Pooh feature.
The next featurette was Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), also directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. The story takes place on Winds-day where the Hundred Acre Wood friends are trying to deal with the strong wind. Owl’s house collapses and Eeyore goes out to find a new home while Owl tells the rest of the gang stories. After nightfall, Pooh is kept awake by growls outside his home and it turns out to be Tigger. Tigger warns Pooh that Heffalumps and Woozles may try to steal honey and Pooh then has nightmares about this happening. The rain kept coming down so Rabbit, Tigger, Owl, Kanga, and Roo went to Christopher Robin’s home because it was on higher ground but Pooh and Piglet were stuck in the flood. Pooh and Piglet go over a waterfall and land right at Christopher Robin’s place. Christopher Robin declares Pooh a hero and throws a party in his honour. The party turns into a two-hero party as Piglet gives Owl his home in the grand Beech tree. This Pooh short film is based on a number of A.A. Milne stories including In which Pooh & Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle, In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water, and In which Piglet does a very grand thing. This is the only Winnie the Pooh short to receive an Academy Award, which Walt Disney won posthumously.
The third Winnie the Pooh featurette made by Disney was Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) and was directed by John Lounsbery. Tigger is going around bouncing on everyone and is starting to annoy his friends, especially Rabbit. Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet leave Tigger in the woods with intention of finding him the next morning in hopes that Tigger will lose his bounce. However, their plan backfires when Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet get lost instead and then get separated from each other. Tigger ends up having to rescue them because “Tiggers never get lost”. The next part of the story takes place after a snow fall and Tigger teaches Roo how to bounce. Tigger ends up bouncing so high into a tree that he is afraid to come back down and Roo follows. Pooh and Piglet hear Tigger’s scared howls and think it is a Jagular. They find Tigger and Roo up in the tree and Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and Kanga come to help. Christopher Robin uses his coat to catch Roo but Tigger is still too scared to come down. He asks the narrator for help who tilts the book sideways so Tigger can use the text as a slide in exchange for his promise to never bounce again. Tigger is very sad that he cannot bounce and Rabbit feels sympathy for him and allows him to bounce again. Tigger then teaches everyone how to bounce.
These three short films were all put together in 1977 as the full-length animated film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. These Winnie the Pooh stories feature an amazing voice cast including: Sterling Holloway with his iconic Pooh Bear voice, John Fiedler as the timid Piglet, Barbara Luddy as Kanga, Ralphy Wright as Eeyone, Paul Winchell as Tigger, Junius Matthews as Rabbit, Hal Smith as Owl, and Sebastian Cabot as the Narrator.
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