It’s Film Strip Friday!
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Release Date March 11th, 1977
SYNOPSIS:
Full of fun and heartwarming stories, this animated classic tells the tale of the first unforgettable meeting between Tigger and Pooh. Your family will laugh along when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's house from eating too much honey, and enjoy the lovable characters' flurry of hilarious activity on a windy day. These timeless adventures are brought to life through extraordinary Disney animation and engaging songs.
FUN FACTS:
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977.
The film is actually composed of material from three previously released animated featurettes based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Because of this, it is seen by some as one of the Disney "package films" (movies consisting of two or more short segments), the bulk of which were produced by the studio to keep costs down during World War II. Pooh was produced for similar economic reasons. This is also the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. A fourth and final featurette based on the original books, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, was released in 1983 and is included as a bonus feature on the VHS and DVD release of the feature film.
Its characters have spawned an industry of sequels, television programs, clothing, books and toys. The film differs from the three individual shorts by having newly-created linking material, and an ending to give closure to the stories (based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner). It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize US audiences with the characters. All three shorts as well as future feature films boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful thing About Tiggers".
The film also inspired an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland. A much more elaborate attraction, also based on the film, opened in Tokyo Disneyland as "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".
Plot
Segments
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 animated featurette released by The Walt Disney Company. Based on the Winnie-the-Pooh Book by A. A. Milne, it is the is the only Winnie the Pooh production released under the production of Walt Disney before his death later that year. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Music and lyrics were written by the Sherman Brothers, (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman). Background music was provided by Buddy Baker. This featurette was shown before The Ugly Dachshund. The Estates of A.A Milne including Christopher Robin Milne, were not happy with the ending of the film, especially the part when Winnie flies though the air, landing inside a bee tree.
The story begins with Winnie-the-Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood doing his morning stoutness exercises; not to get in shape, but to make him hungry for more food. During which he accidentally rips the stitching on his bottom. After repairing his torn rump he gets a "rumbly in his tumbly", he finds that his jar of honey is empty and starts wondering where he can get more. Slurping the last bit of honey from the empty pot, he hears a bee fly by, and decides to try to get honey from the bee's hive in the nearby honey tree. He climbs the honey tree and reaches as high as he can, but the branch he is standing on breaks, and he falls into a gorse bush.
Pooh decides to visit Christopher Robin in order to get a balloon from him to try and get the honey from the honey tree. He rolls himself in a mud puddle to disguise himself as a little black raincloud, and then uses the balloon to float up next to the hive. Pooh is soon surrounded by angry bees, his 'disguise' wearing off. He kicks a bee, causing it to fall into the same mud puddle that Pooh rolled in, but it angrily comes back and stings Pooh's bottom, sending him swinging upward and back down again, getting his bum stuck in the hive entrance. An onlooking bee sits laughing. Pooh hastily admits to Christopher Robin that these are the wrong sorts of bees, and shoved out the hive by the bees which swarm on his bum pushing it out. When this happens, the balloon runs out of air and Pooh falls down, being caught by Christopher Robin. The chase is now reversed; the bees chase Pooh and Christopher Robin. The two barely manage to escape the angry swarm by diving into a nearby mud puddle.
With honey still on his mind, Pooh Bear goes to Rabbit's house, hoping to find honey there. Rabbit politely invites Pooh for lunch, despite being aware of Pooh's vast appetite. He gives Pooh some honey, but Pooh asks for a larger helping. Rabbit reluctantly gives Pooh the whole honeypot, as he then proceeds to eat every last bit of honey in Rabbit's house. Pooh Bear, patting his very full tummy, thanks Rabbit in a rather sticky voice and waddles off to leave. He tries to exit through Rabbit's front door, but he is now so full of honey that he gets stuck. Rabbit tries to free Pooh by pushing on his over-sized bottom, but the bear won't budge. As Rabbit tries to get Pooh free, Pooh argues with Rabbit, saying "it all comes from not having a front door big enough", to which Rabbit crossly replies "it all comes from eating too much!" Seeing it's no use, Rabbit goes off to fetch Christopher Robin for help. While Pooh waits, he is visited by Owl and Gopher. Owl tries to cheer Pooh up, but ends up making Pooh feel embarrassed by his tight predicament. Gopher offers to free Pooh using dynamite but Pooh refuses. Rabbit then comes back with Christopher Robin and try to pull Pooh Bear out, but he won't budge one inch from all the honey. Since they can't pull him out, Christopher Robin suggests pushing him back in, but Rabbit protests, shoving a chair up against Pooh's rear to prevent him from going back into Rabbit's house. Eventually, Christopher Robin comes to a solution: Pooh will just have to wait to get thin again. Rabbit is forced to make the best of a bad situation and tries various methods of disguising the bears bottom.
One night, Gopher returns to see Pooh. Pooh wonders what's inside Gopher's lunch box. When he learns that Gopher has a pot of honey, Pooh asks him for a little taste of it, but Rabbit, who overheard their conversation, runs out and reminds Pooh that he can't eat anything until he is thin again.
After many days have passed, Rabbit discovers that Pooh's bum has budged ever so slightly when he leans on it, sending him dashing off to find Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin, Kanga, Eeyore, Owl, Roo, and Gopher start pulling on Pooh Bear while Rabbit frantically pushes from behind, but the bear won't move. Fed up with all the delay, Rabbit takes several steps backwards and charges into Pooh Bear. With a loud "pop!" he bursts out of Rabbit's front door like a cork and goes flying through the air, coming to an abrupt halt in the honey tree getting himself stuck again and frightening the bees away. The gang runs after him, and Christopher Robin tells Pooh that they will help him get out again but Pooh tells them to take their time; he is quite content to remain stuck as he happily eats his honey.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena vista Distributions on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh shorts. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the 1968 Academy Award for Animated Short Films. The Academy Award was awarded posthumously to Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer more than two years before the film's initial release. It is also the only Winnie the Pooh production that won an Academy Award. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, which was released six years later in 1974, was nominated for the same Academy Award, but lost to Closed Mondays.
It is also the first Disney film to feature the current MPAA logo in the credits, which was unveiled in that year. The short also appears as a bonus short in Pooh's Grand Adventure: the Search for Christopher Robin. The animated featurette also served as the inspiration for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride in Walt Disney World in which the rider experiences several scenes from the cartoon, including Pooh's Heffalump and Woozle dream.
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too is a 1974 animated feature from Disney released as a double feature with The Island at the Top of the World. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but lost to Closed Mondays. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. A soundtrack album was released simultaneously and featured such songs as "The Honey Tree" and "Birthday, Birthday." The film, whose name is a play on the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" made famous during the 1840 United States presidential election, is based on the fourth and seventh chapters of The House at Pooh Corner, the second Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne.
During the fall, Tigger has been bouncing on anyone he comes across for fun, especially Rabbit when he is gardening, which makes Rabbit furious. Soon Rabbit holds a meeting with Pooh and Piglet and the three agree to take Tigger to explore through the Hundred Acre Wood. As they do so, they then abandon Tigger on the hopes he would get lost which is part of the plan. The three hide in a log as Tigger searches for them. The three try to make it back home, but end up at a sand pit.
Pooh offers a silly suggestion to search for that same sand pit, and Rabbit responds that he will prove him wrong by finding a way home by himself. After he goes off, Pooh and Piglet wait a long time but he doesn't come back. Pooh then realizes that he and Piglet can find their way out of the mist by following Pooh's appetite for the honey pots he left at his house. Just when the two finally reach the end of the mist, they come across Tigger who reveals that he never gets lost easily. Pooh tells Tigger that Rabbit is still in the forest and Tigger heads back to find him. Rabbit is lost and ends up in a dark, damp and misty part of the forest, to add to that, he's scared by various animal noises. Frogs start croaking loudly, a caterpillar munches loudly on leaves and after seeing frogs sitting there in front of him, that gets to him so badly that it drives him mad and he frantically tries to run away, only to be tackled by Tigger. Tigger explains to him that "Tiggers never get lost", and drags Rabbit home.
Wintertime comes and Roo wants to go play. Kanga cannot be with him so she calls on Tigger to look after Roo as long as he comes back in a while for Roo's nap. Tigger gladly accepts. Along the way through the woods, Tigger and Roo see Rabbit skating on the ice. Tigger tries to teach Roo how to ice skate by doing it himself, but unfortunately, he loses his balance and collides with Rabbit while trying to regain it. In moments Tigger slides into a snowbank and Rabbit crashes into his house. Tigger then decides that he does not like ice skating.
Later on, while bouncing around the woods with Roo on his back, Tigger accidentally jumps to the top of a very tall tree and is too scared to dare climb down. He gets even more scared when Roo uses Tigger's tail as a swing, making Tigger think he's "rocking the forest". Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet are investigating strange animal tracks that are really Tigger and Roo's. Suddenly, they hear Tigger howling for help and quickly hide. At first, Pooh mistakes Tigger's howl for the sound of a "Jagular"; but after seeing that it is only Tigger and Roo in the tree, he and Piglet come to the rescue. Shortly afterward, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and Kanga arrive and the gang uses Christopher's coat as a net for Tigger and Roo to land in once they jump from the tree. Roo successfully jumps down but Tigger, who is still too frightened to move, makes up one excuse after another to not come down. Rabbit then decides that the group will just have to leave Tigger in the tree forever, on which Tigger promises never to bounce again if he ever is released from his predicament. At that moment, the narrator chimes in for help. Tigger begs him to "narrate" him down from the tree, and he tilts the book sideways, allowing Tigger to step onto the text of the page. Tigger starts to feel better that he made it this far but before he can do otherwise, the narrator tilts the book back the other way, causing Tigger to fall down into the snow.
Happy, Tigger attempts to bounce but Rabbit stops him reminding Tigger of the promise he made. Devastated, Tigger realizes he cannot bounce anymore and slowly walks away and Rabbit feels better that there will be peace. But everyone else is sad to see Tigger like this and remind Rabbit of the joy Tigger brought when he was bouncing. Finally, Rabbit also feels sorry for Tigger and takes back the promise they had agreed on, he is then given a friendly tackle by an overly-excited Tigger. Tigger invites everyone to bounce with him and even teaches Rabbit how to do it since Rabbit has the feet for it. For the first time, Rabbit is happy to be bouncing, as is everyone else as Tigger sings his signature song once more before the short closes.
We Say Good-bye
Final segment
Voice cast
· Winnie-the-Pooh, voiced by Sterling Holloway
· Piglet, voiced by John Fiedler
· Rabbit, voiced by Junius Matthews
· Tigger, voiced by Paul Winchell
· Gopher, voiced by Howard Morris
· Christopher Robin, voiced by Bruce Reitherman, later John Walmsley and Timothy Turner
· Eeyore, voiced by Ralph Wright
· Owl, voiced by Hal Smith
· Roo, voiced by Clint Howard, later Dori Whitaker
· Kanga, voiced by Barbara Luddy
· Narrated by Sebastian Cabot
Production
For the character Piglet, hand gestures and other movements were used by the animators to create expressiveness, since he (and Pooh) had the appearance of dolls or stuffed animals with relatively simple button eyes. The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh's being part of the "decor of his home" was not in the original book, but was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.
Reception
Film critic Leonard Maltin called the original Pooh featurettes "gems"; he also noted that the artwork resembles the book illustrations, and that the particular length of these featurettes meant that the filmmakers didn't have to "compress or protract their script." The film holds a 91% "fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ruth Hill Viguers, however, when writing in A Critical History of Children’s Literature during the 1960s, mentioned Disney’s Winnie the Pooh along with several other Disney adaptations as having “destroyed the integrity of the original books”.
Back in the early 80's, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was not part of the Disney canon (with the other being Dumbo, because Dumbo was shown on television by Walt himself). The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on the other hand, was the last package film to be released.
The American Film Institute nominated The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for its Top 10 Animated Films list.
Home video
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS, Betamax, CED videorecord, and laserdisc in the early 1980s. In 1996, it was re-released on VHS as part of the Masterpiece Collection and included video footage of the making which was shown before the movie starts. It was released on DVD for the first time in 2002 as a 25th Anniversary Edition, with digitally restored picture and sound. The individual shorts had also been released on their own on VHS in the 1990s.
The 25th anniversary edition DVD includes, among other bonus features, "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece", which documents the history of the books and their initial film adaptations. It also features interviews with animators Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Burny Mattinson, as well as the Sherman brothers, Paul Winchell, and others. Digital Media FX reviewer Shannon Muir stated that the audio and video quality of the film on this DVD was very high.
The "Friendship Edition" DVD was re-released on June 19, 2007. All of the special features from the previous "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD were recycled; the only new addition being an episode of Playhouse Disney's computer-animated series My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The DVD re-release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of the film.
Songs
· "Winnie the Pooh"
· "Up Down and touch the Ground"
· "Rumbly in My Tumbly"
· "Little Black Rain Cloud"
· "Mind Over Matter"
· "A Rather Blustery Day"
· "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"
· "Heffalumps and Woozles"
· "When the Rain Rain Rain Came Down"
· "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!"
Differences between the book and the film
· Most of the stories are out of order. For instance, the introduction of Tigger does not happen before the flood.
· Gopher is not present in any of the original stories, which is alluded to by his frequent line (in context meaning his mining company's phone number is unlisted) of "I'm not in the book, you know."
· In the original stories, Heffalumps and Woozles are not associated with each other.
· Some stories are omitted, such as The Search for Small, Making a Trap for Heffalumps, etc.
· In the original stories, Pooh only wears his trademark shirt in winter time.
· Rabbit's friends and relations are not in the movie at all, although they are seen at the beginning of the film near Christopher Robin's house. This is a reference to the original books, as they are seen on the map at the beginning of the book.
· The part where Roo and Tigger jump out of a tree took place in summer in the original stories and not in winter, as in the movie.
· In the original stories, Piglet's sweater is green, while it is magenta in the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org
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