The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

This is easily one of Disney's best animated movies. A good range of characters each with different qualities so they can bring out different things in each viewer. There are a lot of songs in this movie but all of them are enjoyable and relate to the story. People of all ages can sit and watch this film together and not get bored as everyone can enjoy it and it gives adults the perfect excuse to switch off for a while and remember a time when things were easier. Also even the youngest children can sit through this and not wonder is it nearly finished?, because everything holds the attention. I have seen this movie so many times but it still cheers me up when I'm feeling blue. After all who can resist Winnie the Pooh? A truly excellent, classic movie.

I always loved Winnie the Pooh. This is my favorite of all the Pooh movies. My favorite story is the first one, Winnie The Pooh and the Honey Tree, where Pooh eats too much honey and gets stuck in Rabbit's hole. It is such a heartwarming movie. I love most of the Disney movies that I saw, but this has to be one of my all time faves. My son, who is now 14 months old, is an absolute Winnie the Pooh nut. He goes nuts when the opening comes on (even though only Pooh's right arm and leg are seen). His favorite is also The Honey Tree story. Unfortunately, I dread the very last story, because he cries because the movie is over, and that means the end of the movie. He watches it so much, I have to have a second copy! If you have children, or even if you don't and you just plain love Disney (like me and my son), I highly recommend Pooh. It will really cheer you up when you are feeling bad, so I really recommend this movie (you won't be sorry you bought it!).

This film is actually comprised of three earlier featurettes ("Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree", "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day", "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too"), the first three of the four Disney efforts at filming the world of Winnie The Pooh which (the fourth was "A Day for Eyeore") that were closely based on specific A.A. Milne stories, and were excellently done. Despite not being drawn the way E. H. Sheppard originally illustrated them (which is, perhaps a loss), the characters are played with great respect for the way they were written. They have been Americanized in their speech, and they don't rely so much on the British comedy of manners that Milne mined so successfully, but they are quite solidly the same "people" they were in the books. Sterling Holloway is a marvelous Pooh whose his furry voice seems to convey both his outer softness and his mental fuzziness. Paul Winchell's Tigger is probably an improvement of the original, simply because words alone could never really convey Tigger's manic exuberance the way Winchell's performance does. Ralph Wright's Eyeore is a delight, and the other characters hold their own and uphold their tradition completely.

The one completely un-Milne touch that has been added seems to me entirely acceptable, too. This is the occasional presence, in the story, of the Narrator, whose intervention helps move the characters through some of the more difficult moments. It is a touch of gentleness that is not cloying at all, and is occasionally rather witty.

These stories are genuinely wholesome without being sticky. If you want to feed your kids entertainment that's truly funny, has decent human values, is completely free of potty jokes, and will stand up for 6-year-olds yet won't scare three-year-olds, it doesn't get much better than this.

Could you find a nicer, more innocent film than this one? I don't know. I haven't seen one.

What it is, I think, is a compilation of three films woven into one full-length film, movies that were originally done in the mid to late-1960s and then put into this format later. Whatever, it's simply a bunch of nice stories about the famous Pooh and his friends.

This is refreshing in that there is very, very little violence and no evil characters, no bad guys, both of which are unusual in animated films. The stories are told through a "book" which is pictured as the stories unfold. Illustrations are shown in the book and they they come to life to show the particularly story.

The voice of Pooh was done by one of the great voices in Hollywood history: Sterling Holloway. All the characters are quite different and there is nice humor here and there for adults and kids. This is as sweet-natured a film as you could ever find. To some it may sound boring, but it's so different in its approach that it is subtly appealing to all ages. I liked and appreciated it much more on the second viewing then acquired the DVD for the third look.

This is timeless material and very highly recommended for your kids and for you. Almost everyone alive right now remembers these books from childhood and remembers them fondly. If it brings back good memories to you, you'll love this movie.

Yes, I know that this feature is made of 3 previously made shorts, or a package feature as Walt Disney would call it, but it's still wonderful in every way.

Walt Disney chose the perfect cast for the films. Sterling Holloway was the perfect voice for Pooh. Paul Winchell was the Best Tigger ever! John Fiedler voiced his heart out on Piglet. And the others? I'll say that they're wonderful.

The music score is truly one of the greatest musical scores ever. I mean I could just hum it to myself over and over and over again.

And the songs are really catchy, too. Like the theme song, and The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers, and the others, I like them, too.

The ending created just for this movie, is truly one of the most heart-touching endings ever. It really shows that boys and girls, like Christopher Robin, have to say good-bye to their childhood friends. But if I were you, I say to keep them in your memories as your fondest.

So there you have it. A great review for an even greater movie. What more could you ask for?