Winnie Puuh

I have always been a fan of AA Milne's charming and whimsical stories since an early age. The 1977 movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh epitomised the childhood innocence that made the stories so wonderful, as did the TV series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I also liked a vast majority of the various film and TV incarnations that were made between then and now.

Ever since hearing of this movie I knew I wanted to see it. Part of me knew it would work, and for me when I saw it last night it did. My only complaint of Winnie the Pooh is the length, at barely an hour(exluding the credits and the short) the film is too short. Otherwise it is a wonderful movie that like the 1977 movie and TV series captures perfectly the childhood innocence that I know and love. Not only that, it is also a welcome return to the traditional animation style as seen with the original movie.

Speaking of the animation it is great. I always felt The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh along with The Rescuers was the best looking of the 1970s Disney movies, it had an elegant and warm feeling to it. Winnie the Pooh maintains that elegant and warm feeling with colourful backgrounds, cutely drawn characters and ravishing colours. The songs and music heard in the movie aren't quite classic status perhaps, but they are very memorable in the melodies and sweet in the lyrics.

The dialogue is delightfully droll, with a lot for children and adults to enjoy. The story is structurally thin somewhat, but it is never dull thanks to the bright and breezy pace and the familiar yet absolutely delightful story lines including Pooh hunting for honey, Eeyore hunting for his tail and the search for the creature that Owl thinks has carried off Christopher Robin. The characters are engaging and wonderfully whimsical, Pooh is still endearing, Tigger is very funny and Piglet is cute.

The voice acting is terrific really. These are not the original voice actors, and most of the voice actors(excepting Jim Cummings) in the likes of Tigger Movie, Pooh's Heffalump Movie and Piglet's Big Movie don't return, but the new voice actors do make an effort to not sound too different. Jim Cummings still does a wonderful job as Pooh and Tigger, and John Cleese for me is the most thoughtful narrator of any Winnie the Pooh film since Sebastian Cabot. I wasn't so sure though about Tom Kenny at first as Rabbit, but he being a very talented voice actor is also good.

Overall, delightful, charming and a lovely nostalgic trip down memory lane, if only it wasn't so short. 9/10 Bethany Cox

My little girl is 5 years old. I was afraid this would be an update of Pooh, an attempt to make him and his world more contemporary...try to compete with Transformers and Harry Potter.

To my delight this is not the case. If you let your youngster watch this movie they are in for a gentle play date with old friends. Perfectly pitched silliness for my young one, she literally belly laughed twice. Never once trying to cross that line with "risque humor for adults".

I was so happy they avoided the intensity of Toy Story 3. Winnie the Pooh is a small, quiet and perfect, like my little girl.

I was able to see a special screening of this movie at the L.A. Film Festival and I was very excited for it. For starters, I'm a huge Winnie the Pooh fan and the 1977 animated movie is one of my favorites. However, even though I was very excited to see it I was a bit worried that this might be a disappointment because I heard the running time for the film was less than an hour. Well, while watching this movie my worries were pushed to the side. I loved everything about this movie and in the end I was quite pleased with the length of the film and when I thought about it I'm not sure why that was a worry for me. Winnie the Pooh isn't not something that can be stretched to 90 minutes without having some major filling and this movie had none.

There have also been some talks about the animation and how it's in 2d and that is one of the reasons I was excited. Winnie the Pooh wouldn't work in any other type of animation and so Disney made the right choice in returning to the 2d for this movie. The characters all look great, especially Eeyore and Christopher Robin. Another thing that surprised me about the movie was how every character was well represented. I was worried that the story might not focus on all the characters and that some would be left out. However, that was not the case. Every character has their fair of great moments, from Eeyore's tail contest to Rabbit's silly antics later in the movie.

I think another reason why this film succeeds is because of the story line. There is plenty of going on, but it doesn't get overstuffed and it doesn't drag. The movie starts off on the characters looking for a new tail for Eeyore and smoothly transitions into the characters trying to rescue Christopher Robin because they miss read the letter he left at his house. The voices for all the characters are great and it's another reason this film succeeds. Everyone involved adds something to each character and truly makes it their own, something a lot of other animated movies fail at.

Lastly, the score for the movie was great and really added something special to the scenes that carried the movie and hearing Zooey Deschanel sing the Winnie the Pooh theme song was terrific. When I think back on it there was nothing that disappointed me in this movie and it was everything I could ever want from a Disney movie

Winnie the Pooh is out of honey. Eeyore has lost his tail. Owl is writing his memoirs and suggests a reward for a replacement tail. Christopher Robin takes Pooh's suggestion of a honey pot for the reward. After many attempts, Kanga knits Eeyore a tail which later unravels. Pooh finds Christopher missing and a note at his doorstep. Owl misreads the note leading the group to think that Christopher has been captured by a monster called Backson.

This movie maintains the sense of play from the Pooh franchise. It is the stuff of childhood. It's fully connected to its book origins with the familiar style. It is traditional and what great traditions they are. Disney is not reinventing the wheel as much as giving it a good wash. It's adorable. The animation is old fashion but a little crisper than the older versions. It recreates what makes the old stories so beloved.

Eyeore has lost his tail, and Winnie the Pooh and his friends hold a contest to get him a new one.

There are some minor complaints to be made about this film. First, even with the credits, it barely hits the one hour mark. Now, I do not mind short films, but if you paid to see it in theaters, you might have felt ripped off. And also, the voices are not always spot on, but I suppose with the original voice actors quite dead, what can you do?

Those complaints aside, not a bad flick. Cute, fun, captures the Pooh spirit. I really enjoyed it. Well-played choosing the Backson story to turn into a full-length film.