Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore

This is a classic video that everyone should own. It shows true friendship when the friends make effort to make Eeyore's birthday cheerful. It is a great edition to the Pooh series. The animation is good, the voices are great, the illustrations and color are nice, and the story is entertaining and enjoyable. This video is based on two ideas from the original books by A.A Milne. It is based on a part where Pooh invents a game, and where Eeyore has a party. Out of the four Pooh movies,two, The Honey Tree, and Blustery Day are better than this. One, Tigger too, is not as good, but only by a little bit. This video is so much fun, that adults and kids will watch this over and over. It is great.

"Winnie" is having an amble when he finds a fir cone. He drops it into the river - inadvertently discovering the game of "Pooh Sticks" - and is soon playing with his friends "Rabbit", "Piglet" and "Roo". Their game is disrupted by a large floating object - and that turns out to be the glass-half-empty character that is "Eeyore". What's he doing in the river? Seems he was "bounced" into it - and there can only be one culprit for that. "Tigger" denies all knowledge but a bit of intervention from the narrator proves who did what and reminds us that it's also the gloomy donkey's birthday! Quickly they decide that they have to get him some gifts - but what chance "Pooh" is actually ever going to remember his task. "Owl" might be able to help out? "Piglet" has got him a balloon - or has a balloon got him a "Piglet"? "Pooh" eventually gets him an useful pot and "Christopher Robin" gets everyone together for a nice birthday tea - well it's nice until "Tigger" arrives and we are soon all back where we started - on the bridge with the sticks! It's a little bit long, this animation, but the characters and the friendly nature of the story makes for an easy watch with just about everyone in on the act and trying to pull together to cheer up "Eeyore".

As a kid this short was important for two reasons: 1) Eeyore was a vital character and presence as a child because he was sad and, while told sometimes to try and cheer up, he wasn't forced out of his state (this kind of precedes Sadness from Inside/Out, but you get the idea). 2) I recognized the animation and the voices were different, subtly so, from the three shorts that made up the 'Many Adventures' feature, and this was the first time I realized that cartoons were not made at the same time (ie this was post Sterling Holloway's death). Small things, but I was a freak for Winnie the Pooh as a real little kid! (Hell, the first movie I ever saw and all) This is a wonderful short to watch and is a celebration of Eeyore as an essential part of the Pooh-verse: his dry sense of humor, his seriousness, and acceptance when surrounded by friends.

And yes, there are 'Pooh sticks'.

I do think out of the four Winnie the Pooh vignettes this is my least favourite, but it is fun to watch. It isn't as funny as the other three, though Tigger is still very funny, and the narrator just lacks the thoughtfulness of Sebastian Cabot.

That said, it is well animated, the voice acting especially from Paul Winchell and John Fiedler are without fault, and it is still very charming, and has a good story that just about engages the young audience.

The music is not so bad either, and the Pooh Sticks scene was inspired.

All in all, not the best our favourite bear has to offer, but worth watching. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This forth installment in Disney's Winnie the Pooh series of short is in many ways the most endearing and rewarding of the four. The story revolves around Eyeore's forgotten birthday and Pooh and friends' attempts to make amends. It rings true in its themes of isolation, desiring and achieving companionship, and true friendship.

Thankfully, this short is available in the supplemental material on the DVD (2002 release, Region 1) edition of `The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'. If you have this DVD, don't pass over this delightful extra.