Tubby Little Cubby All Stuffed with Fluff

From what I understand, Walt Disney wanted to make a feature film of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, but decided to start out making shorts. After his death, three of the shorts (only the first of which was released during Walt’s lifetime) were combined into 1977′s The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. To call most of Pooh’s experiences “adventures” strikes me as pitching it a little strong, but whatever. Each of the shorts was comprised of elements from a few different Milne stories. Added to the end of the movie is the rather melancholy ending from The House at Pooh Corner, in which Christopher Robin says goodbye to Pooh. The Pooh stories were my favorites as a kid, and I remember seeing the cartoons and noticing the differences, but not really caring too much. The characters are all recognizable across media, although there are some subtle, and sometimes major, differences between them. Here’s a good post on the differences. One thing I always noted was that Pooh’s voice is nothing like it’s described in Milne’s text, but Sterling Holloway’s voice is so famous that I kind of feel wrong complaining about it. One character, Gopher, wasn’t in the book, the source for a recurring joke in the first cartoon.

One other quite notable element in the Pooh cartoons is how the stories are all presented in the form of a book, with the characters and text sometimes interacting, and the characters conversing with the narrator. I’m not sure why they chose to do this with Pooh in particular, but it’s very memorable.

I have to say that the weirdest part of this feature is Pooh’s nightmare about Heffalumps and Woozles in the middle segment.

It has no basis in Milne other than that the two words were used in the books, and indeed it bears a great similarity to the pink elephant scene from Dumbo. I’m not sure why they decided to put that in, as it’s a bizarre diversion from the look and feel of the rest of the film. Finally, I’ll mention that the songs included a lot more harmonizing than I generally associate with Disney movies. It’s a good feature, and the seams between the different shorts don’t show, even if Pooh’s seams do at times. Anyway, TTFN! Ta-ta for now!