Winnie l'ourson: À la découverte des saisons

After making Food and Fun: A Nutrition Adventure for the Walt Disney Educational Media part of Walt Disney Productions, director Rick Reinert then did this Winnie the Pooh short for the same unit in which Pooh learns about all four seasons of the year with help from Christopher Robin, Rabbit, Piglet, Eeyore, and especially Owl. This was both educational and entertaining as a cartoon with a few amusing gags on hand. Hal Smith returns from the previous Reinert short to voice Pooh and Owl. And John Fiedler, who was Piglet from the second Disney Pooh short on, makes a welcome return as well! In summary, Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons was another worthy rarity from the Disney company.

I don't think Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons is the best I've seen from Winnie the Pooh; I do prefer The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh(and the three short films it's made up of), Welcome to Pooh Corner and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. However it is still quite charming and managed to entertain me in just 9 short minutes.

Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons is very short, but it is very swift and likable that it isn't an issue. The story is cute if somewhat thin structurally with plenty of the childhood innocence that makes Winnie the Pooh in particular such a joy to read and watch. I also love how whimsical and droll the writing is- Pooh's "I like the puffy white clouds! Aren't they.... uh, that is..." (thunder rumbles) "Oh my goodness, they've turned grey" is a good example of this- and how beautiful the music is.

The animation is elegant enough with well drawn characters and smooth backgrounds, even if some of the colours have an occasionally dull look to them at the start. Of the characters, Pooh and Christopher Robin are my favourites here. I admit I was disappointed at the lack of any Tigger, as he is my favourite character, however the cartoon was charming enough without him. Besides Honey Tree and one or two episodes of New Adventures... don't have him in either, and they are great.

Voice acting is mostly solid, with the best being Laurie Main as a very thoughtful narrator and Hal Smith as Pooh and Owl, Smith is adorable as Pooh especially. Kim Christianson brings a lot of charm to Christopher Robin without being too cloyingly sweet, and Ron Feinberg is appropriately cynical as Eeyore. There were two I wasn't crazy on though. John Fiedler does bring across Piglet's timidness, but his voice sounds rather low here in pitch. More so Ray Erlenborn as Rabbit, too much like a cross of Paul Lynde, Big Bird and Bugs Bunny, that mix seemed rather weird to me.

Overall, charming and worth watching, if nothing particularly amazing. 7/10 Bethany Cox