Disney Daze: Winnie the Pooh

Winnie The Pooh (2011)

Disney Animated Classic Number 51

Starring: Jim Cummings, Travis Oates, Tom Kenny, Craig Ferguson, Bud Luckey & John Cleese

Directed by: Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall

Rating: ★★★

Proving that toy sales are more important than originality in modern cinema, Disney decided to once again make a movie about the much loved yellow bear with an eating disorder. Even though the Disney Animated Classics canon already has a Winnie the Pooh entry, it didn’t stop Disney from producing another film in between original animations to make sure that no one had forgotten about one of their bestselling toy lines.

Don’t worry, Disney, we haven’t.

People seriously loveWinnie the Pooh for some weird reason. And although I’m not a fan, after watching the original movie I became slightly more besotted by Pooh and his assorted animal friends with mental health problems. But having had made a feature length movie about Pooh already, could this remake/reboot/sequel add anything more to the Pooh mythos?

Pooh's quest for honey is much more intense- and interesting- this time around.

The short answer is: yes. The long answer is as follows:

As in the 70s version, the film is a composite of various short stories originally found in A.A. Milne’s books, but unlike the 70s version, the stories here are seamlessly woven together, and because of this, aren’t clunky or boring. The film has a running time of just over an hour, which is good, as it doesn’t need to be any longer than that, and does everything it possibly can in its miniscule time frame, without it becoming boring or dull. 

Tigger makes sure he is once again the star of the show.

The main thread of the film is once again about Pooh desperately trying to find, and devour, as much honey as possible, although this time is he is much more unsuccessful, and a lot more moany. While he is allowing his issues with overeating to ruin his life, Eeyore loses his tail, Tigger Rabbit and Owl try to fend off a monster called a ‘Backson’ and Piglet has to use his wits to save the day. Throughout the duration, there are various songs, the best ones being the one in the chalkboard about the monster, and the song Pooh sings about honey, which is, far and away, the best part of the entire movie. I absolutely loved this song and the animation that goes along with it, as we see Pooh fantasise about honey in a moment of starvation (which includes a ‘cameo’ by a honeypot shaped Sebastian from The Little Mermaid).

All Pooh cares about is eating honey...

Overall, the movie is a lot stronger than the 70s version, mainly because it is much more cohesive and interesting. It doesn’t drag on and isn’t boring, and because of the fact it is silly and funny, younger children would absolutely love it. Even I laughed out loud at one point: when Piglet gets sent straight into a beehive, another highlight that proves that the movie’s strength is in its quirky sense of humour. It also takes the self-referential moments that were the best parts of the other movie and improves upon them- having the characters leaping from page to page and using the letters from words in the book they are inside of to build a ladder. The narrator also gets involved and the framing device of him ‘reading’ the story to us once again works really well.

The moments when the characters interact with the 'book' they are in are some of the best bits...

The characters too are much better. Rabbit is no longer a homicidal psychopath; instead he is brainy and helpful. Owl too is a much more interesting character and Eeyore gets his moment in the sun, mainly to show children what someone acts like when they have Major Depressive Disorder. Piglet is more of a bumbling sidekick, and Tigger does what he does best (by being a Tigger). Roo, Kanga and Christopher Robin add additional support, and Pooh is wholly much more unlikeable than he is in the other movie, which is odd, but that is mainly because all he cares about for the duration is eating honey, which is incredibly one dimensional.

He does, however, manage to save the day and show selflessness, for which he is rewarded, but this happens in the final minutes, long after the stains on his character can be undone.

Even though, for the most part, Pooh is an incredibly selfish character, this film is much stronger than the original, and also much more interesting. It also doesn’t have any evil murder related subplots or a completely depressing unhappy ending, making it much more upbeat. The honey song is excellent and I loved the charm and originality of the story and the fantastic animation.

Poor Piglet... although he goes through a lot, he does manage to save the day- again...

In fact, I liked Winnie the Pooh so much that I can almost ignore the fact it was directed by the same man who had a hand in the atrocious mess, Meet The Robinsons. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over how bad that movie was, but by making movies that are good, he could be on the road to recovery. Unless he screws it all up. But still, this film was fun and enjoyable (even though it won’t ever erase the pain of Meet the Robinsons from my mind, body and soul), so if you have young children, or are a fan of Winnie the Pooh and all movies sickly sweet and slathered in honey, this is worth a watch.