I've been a diehard Winnie the Pooh fan since birth (or close enough). I watched this all the time when I was both 4 and 5 years old, and I still enjoy it to this day, but I don't find it as good as I used to. I heard that a lot of Pooh fans didn't like it because of the inclusion of pop music, Darby "replacing" Christopher Robin, unnecessary new characters being introduced, and the switch to CGI. I understand that. This isn't the best Pooh show, but it's better than Welcome to Pooh Corner, Playdate with Winnie the Pooh, and Me and Winnie the Pooh!
The aforementioned reasons why it was hated are the only major differences between this and the previous Pooh projects. My Friends Tigger and Pooh is very faithful to the cartoons for the most part, and I got to admit that the animation is surprisingly well done, colorful, and vibrant with sophisticated movements. The old characters are still the same old lovable characters they've always been. Pooh Bear may be a Super Sleuth here, but he's still the same bear of very little brain. When my grandma and I first saw the characters in their Super Sleuth uniforms, we both thought that Tigger and Pooh Bear were dressed as Superman. Their Super Sleuth uniforms do look very similar to Superman's suit.
I'm aware that this doesn't mark Lumpy's debut, but this is what introduced me to him, and he's really cute and brightens up every episode he's in.
There are some great morals here and there, mostly ones related to problem solving. There's an episode where Rabbit has to write a song about his vegetables for a contest, and each of his friends write a song for him, but he likes all of them and doesn't know which one he likes best. Instead of entering one song in the contest, he merges all the songs into one song. What a perfect solution!
To put bread on the table, I find Rabbit more likable in this, Welcome to Pooh Corner, and The Book of Pooh than in the other Pooh incarnations. He's nicer and more relaxed, but he still gets irritated by his friends' actions at times.
Darby is nice and resourceful, though she nor Buster is as good as Christopher Robin. I didn't know this when I was little, but Christopher Robin appears in 2 episodes of the show, so Darby technically didn't replace him. I'm intrigued as to why Darby is the main human character here instead of him. I once googled, "Why did Darby replace Christopher Robin in My Friends Tigger and Pooh?", but I couldn't find the answer.
The other new characters are okay, nothing special. Beaver slightly reminds me of Gopher, but the latter and Owl unfortunately don't appear in this at all, though Pooh says that he misses Gopher in one episode.
The songs are good and easily remembered. The theme song is incredibly catchy. An off-screen singer (I don't know who) sings it in the first season, and to put more bread on the table, Darby sings it in the second and final season! The song "Think Think Think" that appears in various episodes references one of Pooh's catchphrases. Tigger has his own fast paced and bouncy song about his favorite hobby called "Nothing Can Bounce Like a Tigger." I agree that nothing can bounce like a Tigger. There's a whimsical song that all the important characters sing about the joy of the winter season called "It's So Much Fun in the Snow." I've never heard another song quite like it! I remember a song Eeyore sings about how much he misses his tail. It was high time a song like that came along because said character losing his tail is a running gag in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, but there's was no song about it before MFT&P (as far as I know). As good as the songs are, I'm surprised that Pooh and Tigger's signature songs didn't appear in this at all.
