Winnie the Pooh is a very sweet story which fits right in with the original Winnie the Pooh films Disney made in the 1960s and 1970s. The characters are loveable and entertaining and I love their devotion to Christopher Robin. Premiered on: July 13, 2011 at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California
Directed by:
Stephen Anderson Don Hall
Produced by:
Peter Del Vecho Clark Spencer
Based on: Winnie-the-Pooh written by A.A. Milne
Sequels: none
Cast:
Jim Cummings – Winnie the Pooh / Tigger Jack Boulter – Christopher Robin Travis Oates – Piglet Bud Luckey – Eeyore Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Kanga Wyatt Hall – Roo Tom Kenny – Rabbit Craig Ferguson – Owl Huell Howser – Backson John Cleese – Narrator
Supervising Animators:
Dale Baer Andreas Deja Eric Goldberg Randy Haycock Mark Henn Bruce W. Smith
Music by:
Henry Jackman Robert Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Songs:
“Winnie the Pooh” “The Tummy Song” “A Very Important Thing to Do” “The Backson Song” “It’s Gonna be Great” “Everything is Honey” “So Long” “The Winner’s Song” “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers”
Academy Awards: none The Story: Winnie the Pooh begins with live action footage of a room with a sign on the door reading “C.R. Keep Ott” on it. The title card appears. The door opens and shows all of Christopher Robin’s toys. A narrator says that this could be the room of any small boy but is the room of one young boy in particular named Christopher Robin who has a very active imagination. His favourite things are his stuffed animals. His best friend is a bear named Winnie the Pooh. A book is shown and the narrator continues to say that Christopher Robin’s adventures all happen in the Hundred Acre Wood. The book opens and inside is a map of the Hundred Acre Wood. The song “Winnie the Pooh” plays and introduces all of the characters. Chapter One begins in which Winnie the Pooh has a very important thing to do. The narrator says that Pooh leapt out of bed and greeted the day with much enthusiasm though Pooh is still fast asleep and is dreaming of honey. The narrator has to shake the book to wake him up. The book is tilted upsidedown and Pooh falls out of bed. Pooh’s stomach is growling and he sings “The Tummy Song” as he looks around for some honey. There is no honey in Pooh’s home so he runs outside and finds a bee hive in a tree hole, but he is chased away by the bees.
Pooh decides to see if any of his friends have honey to spare. He finds Eeyore and climbs into Eeyore’s stick house to look for honey. There is no honey there. He then notices that Eeyore’s tail is missing. Owl appears and finds the tree where he first hatched. Owl is writing a book about his personal memoirs. The first chapter is titled ‘Birth of a Genius.’ Pooh asks Owl if he can take a break and help find Eeyore’s tail. Pooh comments that Owl has such a talent for telling them what to do. Owl thanks Pooh for that compliment. He hands Pooh a pen and paper and says to take notes. Owl decides that first they must issue a reward. Pooh tells Owl ‘gesundheit,’ thinking that he sneezed. They argue back and forth whether Owl sneezed or not because the word ‘issue’ sounded like a sneeze. Pooh thinks that Owl is probably catching a cold and Eeyore is sad because he thinks that he will catch it as well. Owl is finally able to say what he means to say and Eeyore thinks that it is a wonderful plan. Pooh is still just thinking about honey. Owl flies off to find Christopher Robin to write up the reward posters. Christopher Robin paints on boards “a very important thing to do.” Pooh goes off with to put up the signs all over the forest. Piglet is hanging up a picture of himself and Pooh in his house. A nail comes through the picture as Pooh is hanging up a sign on the outside of the house. The song “A Very Important Thing to Do” plays as Pooh next puts up signs in Kanga and Roo’s mailboxes and then plants some in Rabbit’s garden. Pooh hangs up the last sign as a red balloon finds Pooh. Tigger is growling in the bushes nearby and then he suddenly pounces on the balloon. The balloon sticks to him by static and Tigger freaks out. But soon he is excited to have a sidekick. Tigger is then scared that something could happen to Balloon because he bounces a dangerous path and must bounce it alone. Tigger sings “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers” and bounces off. Christopher Robin is gathering everyone’s attention. He is holding a contest for finding Eeyore’s tail. Everyone is very sad that poor Eeyore has lost his tail and they try to think of what the reward should be. Roo thinks it should be a firecracker, Kanga thinks a warm hug, Rabbit needs some pruning shears, Eeyore thinks it should be thistles, and Pooh thinks honey. Christopher Robin thinks that honey is a grand idea and everyone else is excited about it as well. Everyone goes off to search. Pooh offers a cuckoo clock for Eeyore’s tail. He is rewarded with the honey as everyone sings “The Winner’s Song” for Pooh. The clock then falls off Eeyore and Owl takes the honey back. Piglet suggests Balloon and so everyone sings “The Winner’s Song” for Piglet. Eeyore soon floats off though so Balloon won’t work. Owl takes the honey away. The friends all try a great many things, but nothing works for a tail. Eeyore finally decides that he will just have to learn to live without it. Kanga knits Eeyore a tail and so everyone sings “The Winner’s Song” for Kanga. She quickly interrupts them and says to celebrate with silence. Piglet presents her the honey.
Pooh leaves the group and is still feeling very hungry. He comes across a string and follows it. He soon realizes that the string was part of Eeyore’s tail and he accidently unraveled it. Pooh then goes to Christopher Robin’s house and thinks that his friend will have some honey to share. He knocks on the door, but there is no answer. Pooh then finds a note. He is puzzled by what it says and brings it to Owl for help reading it. Inside Owl’s house, Owl is being presented the honey for putting a chalkboard on Eeyore for a tail. He writes ‘tael’ on the board. Pooh comes into the house and says that he found a note with words he cannot read on it. Owl takes it to decipher. He tells Pooh to help himself to some honey but then puts it too high on a shelf. The note says ‘Gon out. Bizy. Back soon. C.R.’ Owl interprets this note as Christopher Robin has been captured by a Backson! Tiger bounces into Owl’s house and is freaking out about the Backson. Owl describes the Backson as horrible, furious, and terribly busy. He draws on the chalkboard a picture of a giant creature with a tail, fur like a shaggy rug, horns, a mop of red hair, and is ugly. They sing “The Backson Song” and describe the Backson as someone who scribbles in books, spoils milk, stops clocks, and puts hole in socks. They come up with a plan to lure the Backson into a large pit by laying out those items throughout the woods. Everyone starts to gather the Backson’s favourite things. Piglet digs the pit while Pooh supervises. They spread a picnic blanket over it and Piglet sets out an empty honey pot to complete the disguise. Pooh is very disappointed that it is empty. The rest of the friends are finishing setting everything up. They spread out their things deeper and deeper into the woods. Tigger is busy tracking the Backson by himself and he soon pounces on Eeyore. Eeyore says that he got left behind because he was too slow. He is very sad because he wants to help Christopher Robin but cannot. Eeyore turns to leave, but instead, Tigger hurries him along to help catch the Backson. He is going to teach Eeyore how to be a Tigger. He sings “It’s Gonna be Great” while he paints strips on Eeyore and gives him a spring for a tail. After some bouncing lessons gone wrong, Tigger loses Eeyore and ends up knocking into a scarecrow and ends up dressed as the scarecrow. Tigger looks around the woods for Eeyore, but Eeyore is hiding underwater in a pond.
Piglet and Pooh are still setting out items when Pooh spies a bee hive. Pooh jumps onto a branch and shoots Piglet up into the hive to try to get some honey. He cannot reach Piglet so he hits the hive with the branch. This angers the bees and Piglet and the hive falls to the ground. They run away with the bees chasing them. They run right into Rabbit and Rabbit hangs the hive back up into a tree; the bees fly into the hive. Pooh, Piglet, and Rabbit find Kanga and Roo still setting up items. Pooh wants to stop for lunch, but Rabbit says that they must save Christopher Robin first. Rabbit suggests to Pooh to try to think of Christopher Robin instead of honey. This works for a moment, but then everything starts to remind him of honey. Everything his friends say sounds only like the word ‘honey.’ The song “Everything is Honey” plays as Pooh daydreams about honey. He comes to and realizes that he was eating mud. Pooh then comes across the picnic he and Piglet set up and falls into the pit. His friends are looking for Pooh and they hear him groaning in the hole. They think that their plan worked and that they have captured the Backson. They start to argue about who is going to go get Christopher Robin back and so they decide that they are all going to go. They realize that it is only Pooh in the hole. Eeyore arrives with an anchor he found in the pong for a tail. He sings “The Winner’s Song” to himself and Rabbit thinks up a plan to pull Pooh up with the anchor’s chain. However, no one has a good grip on the anchor when they throw it down into the hole and so everyone, but Piglet, falls down into the hole with Pooh. Piglet is scared of being up there all alone with the Backson. Rabbit tells him to go look for something to get them out of there. Piglet tries a flower and a book before finding a rope. He then cuts the rope into six pieces, one for each of his friends. However, now the pieces are too small to pull anyone out and so Rabbit tells him to tie them back together. Piglet cannot tie knots though. Rabbit tells him to go to Christopher Robin’s house and bring back the jump rope. Piglet is scared to go by himself and so Owl flies out of the hole to give Piglet some encouragement. He sends Piglet off with a plate and a spoon. Owl then jumps back into the hole and everyone is shocked at him. They are very impressed with the speech he gave Piglet. Piglet bravely ventures into the dark woods by himself, though he is still very jumpy. He finds Balloon stuck in a branch and tries to free it. Tigger arrives, still dressed as a scarecrow, and Piglet thinks that he is the Backson. Piglet runs away screaming and now Tigger is scared of the Backson being nearby. They both end up floating away on Balloon and Piglet kicks Tigger off of it. He flies away as Tigger tries to catch up. Piglet and Tigger both fall into the hole and everyone realizes that the Backson is only Tigger. Everyone thinks that they are going to be stuck there. Some of the letters from the book fell down into the hole and so Pooh uses them to make a ladder and climbs up out of the hole. The friends all follow. In the woods, they hear someone coming and think again that it is the Backson. But it is only Christopher Robin. He explains the whole misunderstanding about the Backson. He says that the school year has begun. Rabbit makes a speech about who deserves the reward honey and Pooh thinks that he is talking about him. But Rabbit then presents the honey to Balloon. Balloon floats away with the honey pot. Everyone leaves except for Pooh, who is very sad and Eeyore tries to comfort him because he understands about having a day where you just cannot win.
Pooh’s stomach is still growling and so he goes off to search for honey again. He finds himself at Owl’s house and rings the doorbell which has Eeyore’s tail attached to it. Pooh recognizes it but cannot place where he knows it from. Owl is very happy because he just finished his memoires. Pooh asks for some honey and Owl says that Pooh can have some while he reads his stories. Owl says something about finding the fail in a thistle bush and this triggers Pooh’s memory. Owl says that it was found in a gloomy place and now Pooh realizes that it is Eeyore’s tail! Owl says that he was just keeping it safe for Eeyore. Pooh leaves with the tail and ignores his hungry tummy. Christopher Robin and Pooh nail the tail back on Eeyore. Eeyore tries it out and is happy with it. Christopher Robin has a surprise for Pooh and gives him a giant pot of honey. His friends all sing “The Winner’s Song” for Pooh and Pooh dives right into the pot of honey. A reprise of “Everything is Honey” plays as Pooh swims in the honey while eating it. Christopher Robin and Pooh are on a walk and Christopher Robin says that Pooh did something very nice for Eeyore. The book closes. The end credits play to the song “So Long.” The characters are all shown first as live action toys and then as animation. At the end of the credits, the Backson is walking through the woods. He finds all of the things scattered around and finds the chalk drawing of himself. He thinks that the Backson is a scary-looking fellow and thinks that he will be nice and pick up the things so nothing gets broken. The Backson then falls into the pit.
Trivia:
- Winnie the Pooh was released with the theatrical short The Ballad of Nessie.
- Robert Lopez voiced the sounds of Pooh’s tummy growls.
- The opening and closing songs are sung by Zooey Deschanel.
- This was the second film to be traditionally animated during the Revival Era after The Princess and the Frog.
- Tigger was added to the theme song.
- The opening map is labelled “Drawn by Me. With Help from Mr. Shepard.” E.H. Shepard was the original illustrator for the Winnie-the-Pooh books. (As well as Wind in the Willows.)
Representation in the Disney Parks:
Please see The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Check out the other films of Disney’s Revival Era:
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