Winnie the Pooh

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.

"Winnie the Pooh" is not just another classic animated book transformed into a live action movie. Pooh and crew know exactly where they belong; in classic 2D animation leading to a flawless transcription of these characters to contemporary times. "Pooh" does not trying to impress anybody and avoids falling into modern day pop culture stereotypes, instead it is simpler than ever making no better way to spend an hour of authentic entertainment for all ages. The story follows the ideals of the original 1926 book by A.A. Milne originally made into animated productions starting in 1966 told in the definitive page by page storybook form. Narrated by John Cleese ("Monty Python"), Pooh (Jim Cummings, "Princess and the Frog") begins his day like any other. After sleeping in, he wakes up to an empty honey jar inevitably initiating a quest for honey. On the way he runs into Eeyore (Bud Luckey, "Toy Story 3") who is still as downtrodden as ever and misplaced his tail giving Pooh another task to complete. The issue is brought up with the rest of the gang; Tigger (Also Jim Cummings), Rabbit (Tom Kenny, "Meet the Robinsons"), Owl (Craig Ferguson, "How to Train Your Dragon"), Kanga (Kristen Anderson-Lopez), Roo (Wyatt Hall) and Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter). They decide to make it a contest to find Eeyore a replacement tail. After their creativity runs out, Christopher Robin goes missing sending the bunch into song as they find their friend, Eeyore's tail and "huny" for Pooh.

Anyone who grew up with "Pooh" will be instantly transported back to a humbler time through this short and sweet snippet of flawless storytelling. The most important accomplishment of the film is staying true to its routes because of its ability to create context. What do I mean by context? Its simple; from its primary coloring, delicate characterization, stark banter, and tranquil plot, everything is coherently joint together. It is a franchise true to itself and is the best movie parents have had in years to take their little ones to. Its just plain old' harmless, straightforward fun without any unnecessary forced plot conflicts or hang-ups on contemporary spectacle.

Many people may feel short-changed because of the hour runtime, even though this is part of what makes it what it is. This is not a monumental life changing film by any means; therefore, if you are expecting a film synonymous with "Toy Story 3" you will be very disappointed. In the contemporary eye of animated cinema "Winnie the Pooh" does not stand a chance at making money.

A perfect little tale everyone young and old should see at some point because while "Pooh" will not make history, it is a historical flashback to the early days of cinema.

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.

Disney Animation Studio's (DAS) 51st animated feature Winnie the Pooh takes us back into the stories of A.A. Milne. There a donkey named Eeyore, Kanga, and Little Roo. There's Rabbit, and Piglet, and there's Owl, but most of all Winnie the Pooh (there is also Tigger, but he is not apart of the song). In this installment, Eeyore has lost his tail and it's up to the gang to either find his old tail or fashion a replacement one.

Like the previous installment by DAS back in 1977, the stories are simple, much like the minds of their characters. The one genius thing about the Winnie the Pooh stories are how the minds of the characters imitate the minds of the child, Christopher Robin. After all, the characters are all imagined in the mind of Christopher, so it makes sense that they have the same thought process. Even the wisest of characters, Owl, who uses big words and impresses the others, is as outlandish and nonsensical as Tigger. It's not to say that these characters are unintelligent. Like a child they are still learning. They are gullible, easily excited, fearless in the face of real danger and scared in the face of imagined danger.

1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a breakthrough not just in animation but in style. The physics of the film are still untouchable today. The way the characters act out certain scenes inside the book, walking across sentences, leaping from page to page, etc. It's still a joy to watch today. This new version uses a very similar format both in the physical storytelling and in the story arc. There is nothing incredibly different in this film compared to its predecessor, only the voices have changed and the animation is glossier.

For children who have not been exposed to the original film, I suppose this would be a nice film to grow up with. It's cute, innocent, and has a good moral backbone. The animation is up to snuff with Disney standards. It has a beautiful palette and a really nice finish. The characters haven't changed, only the quality of the animation, and for that I thank Disney.

For those who grew up with the 1977 original, this might be a sour grape in the bunch of DAS features. There is too much music, not enough action, and almost follows the old format to a "T." One aspect that Disney is not at fault at is the voice acting. Having grown up listening to Sterling Holloway as the voice of Pooh Bear, I knew going in that this wouldn't be the same. The same goes for the rest of the characters, and I applaud Jim Cummings filling in as both Pooh and Tigger. An arduous task to say the least and he does so with style. Still, I miss the old voices and will always associate those stories to the voices. New audiences will have no problem whatsoever.

The music. The original film had one big number (Heffalumps and Woozles) with a few minor songs thrown about ("Little Black Raincloud," "The rain, rain, rain came down" to name a few). This film seemed weighted down by some of the musical numbers. There are two larger numbers and what seemed like a lot of little ones thrown about. Part of the problem is that the film has such a short run time (barely over an hour) so the numbers are close together, taking away from the action of the story. Some are forced in there when a few lines of dialogue could have helped. It shows that there really wasn't that much of a story to begin with. Not to bash on the music too much, but I am not a huge Zooey Deschannel fan to begin with (at least on the mic) so that didn't help. Sorry Zooey.

Other than these problems the main thing I had wrong with the film was how eerily similar the format was to the original. From the songs to the jokes I was disappointed with the unoriginality of it all. That's not to say the entire film is a rip off, but I wanted to see something new, rather than the same format.

Regardless, it's a decent effort and another sign that Disney hasn't completely given up on making animated features the old fashioned way, though I was surprised by how little advertisement was put into the film's release. Did they forget or just run out of money after all of the Cars 2 ads? Children will enjoy, especially the young ones. This will be a nice DVD to pull out for a car ride or a rainy day. It's hard for a film like this to compete with the 3-D juggernauts of Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2, but I commend DAS in their effort and pray that their next releases is something to write home about. It looks like the next few releases might be computer animated like Tangled and Bolt, so who knows what could happen. Disney's roots are embedded in ink and paint, but how much longer will the magic last? It will be a sad day when the ink wells dry up at Disney.

Winnie the Pooh is a marvelous and innocent adventure that has been anticipated by me since its trailer debut. Every time I see the trailer, equipped with the wonderful song "Somewhere Only We Know," I break down. There is not a thing sad in the trailer, but just the soft melody of the song, combined with warm and vibrant characters from my younger years just puts me in tears. It's cute, innocent, and just the way I wanted it.

I am beyond grateful that this didn't support the 3D epidemic sweeping our nation these past years. Winnie the Pooh is made up of hand-drawn animation that gives itself a water-color sort of look. It's truly a throwback, and is a nice break from all the CGI animation that, while nice to look at, can't match the feel of classic animation. I couldn't imagine Winnie the Pooh in CGI anyway.

Before the movie, we get a short called The Ballad of Nessie, a kind and gentle Loch Ness Monster who lives with her rubber-ducky. Her pond gets taken over by a golf company and she is forced to move out and find a way home. The short is sad, and well crafted simultaneously. Combined with gentle narration.

On with the film, the story starts out as Pooh (Cummings) trying to find some "hunny." Then, much to the surprise of everyone, Eeyore's (Luckey) tale has gone missing. Christopher Robin (Boulter) holds a contest with all his friends to find a new tale for Eeyore. Whoever finds a good enough tale will win a jar of honey.

The next day, the gang still tries to find the tale when they find a note from Christopher Robin saying "Gon out back soon C.R." Owl (Ferguson) convinces the gang that the "back soon" means "The Backson," a vicious monster who does so many unexplainable things which they make up on their own. So now it's up to everyone to go into the woods and find The Backson and get their friend back.

There is a lot of singing in the film. Lots of well composed songs are in here, my favorite being "The Backson Song." I wasn't under the impression this was a musical, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. The target audience for this is most likely between 4-8. So to put in a lot of soft and melodic songs in it was a good idea.

Winnie the Pooh is perhaps the most gentle film I can remember. Even the "scariest" scenes won't freak out the little ones, and everything is so calm, so tender, and so unobtrusive it's wonderful. Growing up with Winnie the Pooh, this film was everything I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be nostalgic, warm, and inspiring.

During moments of this film, my eyes watered. I can't answer if someone asked me "Why?" I think it was because the film was so joyful and very sweet. Plus, these are characters that I've known since my childhood. I was grateful they didn't play the song "Somewhere Only We Know" from the trailer. I would've broke down in front of everyone.

The voice acting is beautiful. The film doesn't market its actors either. There is no grade-A "Brad Pitt," "Ellen DeGeneres," "Johnny Depp" marketing scheme here. The actors who voice the characters were chosen because they were fit to voice whoever they were able to. They weren't picked because their names look good on a poster.

This is probably the best Disney film in years. It goes back to everything that made Disney so great when they started off. Hand-drawn animation, a lovely story line, and a positive feel. Even at an incredibly short sixty-nine minutes, (minus, maybe, five from the beginning short) Winnie the Pooh is lovely, crafty, and limitless.

Voiced by: Jim Cummings, Tom Kenny, Craig Ferguson, Travis Oates, Bud Luckey, and Jack Boulter. Narrated by: John Cleese. Directed by: Stephen Anderson and Don Hall.