Winnie Puuh und der Honigbaum

The "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons from Disney are classics. This is the quality program that you would want your children to see. And it makes you glad you have children so that you have an excuse to see it too.

They did a wonderful job of adapting the A. A. Milne stories to the screen. It's good clean fun with no "undesirable" elements such as violence or bathroom humor. All the characters are brought to life faithfully and their casting of the voices is perfect. Sterling Holloway IS Winnie.

The story line of this cartoon revolves around Winnie, the honey-loving bear trying various schemes to get his golden delight. He is so funny, stopping at nothing to get some honey, regardless of the practicality of the effort. He uses a toy balloon to float to the bees' nest high up in a tree, but is foiled by the bees.

Each different character has a unique trait. Eeyore shows the depressed side of human nature, always finding the down side of anything. The other characters succeed in cheering him up. Owl is the "educated" one who loves to hear himself talk. Tigger, happy-go-lucky tiger bounces around exuberantly on his coil-spring tail, greeting everyone, and sometimes accidentally knocking them over. The cartoons say a lot about friendship -- friends helping friends.

Very enjoyable -- worth seeing, whether you're a child of 3 or 93.

'Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)' was the first animated adaptation of A.A. Milne's children stories, and presents itself rather charmingly as a moving picture-book depicting the imaginary adventures of Christopher Robin and his favourite toys. In this first episode, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman (future director of 'The Aristocats (1970)'), Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Sterling Holloyway) attempts rather unsuccessfully to steal honey from a bee-hive in the uppermost branches of a tree, before getting himself stuck in the front-door burrow of an increasingly-exasperated Rabbit.

The film seems to have been rather influential in the Soviet Union. The first Russian Winnie the Pooh cartoon, released as 'Vinni-Pukh (1969)', uses the same storyline. 'The Fox and the Hare (1974),' from my favourite animator Yuri Norstein, similarly uses the stylistic device of animating its characters as figures in a moving storybook. Here, I was slightly disappointed by the absence of Piglet. He appears for a moment in here, but doesn't say anything. John Fiedler, who subsequently voiced the character in 'Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968),' would continue to do so until his death in 2005, and his voice is quite unmistakable.

One of the best shorts ever, it marked my childhood a lot. Highly recommend.

If memory serves, the original Steiff toy belonging to the late Christopher Robin Milne, "Winnie the Pooh", now resides in Manhattan, either at the New York Public Library or at publisher E.P. Dutton's headquarters. The symbolism is obvious: a British children's classic has made the transatlantic leap.

Disney scriptwriters have been heavily criticized for de-emphasizing the Britishness of Pooh, beginning with this first film in what became a series of theatrical short subjects. Most of the voices - Christopher is an exception - are American. Sterling Holloway became so identified with the title role that it is hard to imagine anyone else, British or American, taking it over.

The best thing about "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" is that it is adapted directly from Alan Milne's printed work. As I did in 1966, a child today seeing this film for the first time could ask for the book version and receive something unusually congruent with the screenplay.

Christopher Robin Milne, bookshop owner and authors' rights heir, had notoriously mixed feelings about his father's creation. In particular, he had his doubts about the effect Disney's version might have on the original.

Not to worry: the Disney machine has generated far more positive attention for Pooh than a global army of publishers.

This is a wonderful gem, with great memorable songs by the Sherman Brothers, and excellent animation.

The story is great fun, with Pooh running out of honey and climbing up a tree to get it. Afterwards, he gets stuck in the door of Rabbit's house and has to wait until he's thin enough to budge.

The characters were wonderful, especially Gophyr, I particularly loved the phrase, "that supercilious scoundrel has confiscated my honey". They are well voiced by the likes of Sterling Holloway, John Fiedler and Junius Matthews, with Sebastian Cabot giving a thoughtful insight as the narrator.

This vignette is wonderful, highly recommended! 10/10 Bethany Cox