I can think of no more beloved childhood icon than Winnie the Pooh. Based on the 1920s books by A.A. Milne and made even cuter by Walt Disney, children everywhere know and love this adorable, if somewhat vague bear.
In “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” the first full length film to feature our bear, we meet the whole complement of animals who live in the Hundred Acre Wood: Eeyore the donkey, Kanga and Roo, a kangaroo and her joey, Rabbit, Piglet, and Owl – but most of all, Winnie the Pooh. They are all stuffed animals belonging to a boy named Christopher Robin, but in his imagination they are alive, and he can play with and have conversations with them.
We get to see three Winnie the Pooh shorts in this film, hooked together to make it feature-length. First comes “The Honey Tree.” Pooh is very hungry, but there doesn’t seem to be enough honey in his house to fill up that rumbly tummy. So he heads on over to Rabbit’s house to mooch some lunch off him. Rabbit isn’t too happy to see him, knowing he’ll soon have no honey left at all, but with a sigh so typical of Rabbit, he gives in. Pooh eats and eats and eats until he’s so full, he can’t leave through Rabbit’s front door. In fact, he gets stuck, wedged tight. No one, not even Christopher Robin, can pull him out, and so he has to stay there for several days until he has lost weight. When the happy day arrives, all the animals come to help, and the velocity with which Pooh is pulled out of Rabbit’s hole sends him flying up, up and over, until he lands with his whole top half stuck in a honey tree. With gallons of honey right under his nose, it’s anyone’s guess how they finally got him out of there.
We also see a segment called “The Blustery Day,” where the animals fight their way through a storm, and “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too,” when Pooh meets Tigger for the very first time. Each segment is beautifully and gently told, with no harsh scenes or drama that’s too intense.
We didn’t have good TV reception when my daughter was born, so we relied on videos. We watched Winnie the Pooh over and over again, and I appreciated the way it entertained her without making her want to run all over the house yelling or pretending to shoot ‘em up. We also enjoyed the great songs that came from this film, such as “Little Black Rain Cloud” and “Rumbly in My Tumbly.” I still sing these songs to my children from time to time.
If you haven’t yet added Winnie the Pooh movies to your child’s collection, now is the time. Don’t miss out on these wonderful stories about this loving little bear.
This film is rated G.
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