Movie review: “Winnie the Pooh”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 of 4 stars.
Movie review: “Winnie the Pooh”
Disney’s latest animated venture into the Hundred Acre Wood is rebelliously pleasant, seditiously low-key and blessedly loyal to the spirit, look and tone of A.A. classic Milne’s stories, Ernest H. Shepard book illustrations and the beloved ’60s short films.
All this time I thought Winnie the Pooh was just a “silly ol’ bear,” but I’ve recently learned the fluff-stuffed icon actually possesses some sort of mysterious ninja cunning.
In 2011, how else do you explain a hand-drawn animated film that can be viewed without 3D glasses starring a chubby bear obsessed with gobbling down honey, a perpetually depressed donkey gloomily seeking a new tail and a schoolboy who hasn’t quite got the hang of spelling? How did this movie slip past the self-appointed hand-wringers worried it would promote obesity, illiteracy and sadness in children? And how did “Winnie the Pooh” manage to get away with a 2D-only release without some Hollywood 3D “visionary” getting bothered?
And am I the only one who wants to give directors Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall an enthusiastic pat on the back for making such a delightful throwback that reaffirms the timeless whimsy of A.A. Milne’s classic tales?
In a day and age when simple, soft and gentle seem like subversive concepts, Disney’s latest animated venture into the Hundred Acre Wood is rebelliously pleasant, seditiously low-key and blessedly loyal to the spirit, look and tone of Milne’s stories, Ernest H. Shepard book illustrations and its beloved ’60s short films.
One of my earliest movie memories is of watching the 1968 Oscar-winning short film “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” repeatedly. When he was a toddler, my now-teenage son Chris literally wore out my VHS copies of the classic Pooh cartoons. My younger son Gabe, 4 1/2, has put plenty of spins on his DVD of 1977’s “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” which combines the shorts “Blustery Day,” “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree” and “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.”
As a diehard fan, I worried that Disney’s latest outing with Pooh and the rest of Christopher Robin’s toys would get a computer-animated, amped-up, politically correct update, but thankfully, those concerns proved unfounded. “Winnie the Pooh” is as old-fashioned and charming as ever, bless the silly ol’ bear’s heart.
The film gets a winning start thanks to Zooey Deschanel’s enchanting warbling of the Sherman Brothers’ title theme and narrator John Cleese’s warm introduction to Christopher Robin’s old-school bedroom chock full of stuffed animals. As in the shorts, the animated characters sometimes interact with the narrator as well as with the letters and punctuation on the storybook pages.
In the Hundred Acre Wood, the hand-drawn visuals look a bit brighter but still faithful to the ‘60s shorts, which were modeled on Shepard’s watercolor illustrations.
The new film’s plot is loosely based on stories from Milne’s books, in which Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings, who still is no match for the late Sterling Holloway but brings the needed cozy charm to the “bear of very little brain”) awakens with a grumbling tummy but bare cupboards and goes in search of a full pot of “Hunny.” He encounters morose Eeyore (Bud Luckey, who narrated the Pixar short “Boundin’”), who is even sadder than usual because he has again lost his tail.
Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter) gathers the community’s animal denizens and proposes a contest to find a new tail for Eeyore, with a pot of Hunny as the prize. While Piglet (Travis Oates), Rabbit (Tom Kenny), Kanga and Roo (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Wyatt Dean Hall) help Eeyore try out new tails, loquacious Owl (the wonderful Craig Ferguson), discovers a note left by Christopher Robin.
But the less-than-wise bird misinterprets its meaning and believes that the boy has been captured by a creature called the “Backson,” which grows ever fiercer through a bouncy song and clever chalkboard drawings. Naturally, the bold Tigger (Cummings) decides his one-of-the-kind skills are needed to track down and vanquish the Backson, which was briefly mentioned in 1928′s “The House at Pooh Corner.”
For the film Anderson-Lopez and her Tony-winning husband Robert Lopez, (“The Book of Mormon”) penned several new songs that fit in nicely with classics like “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers.” Deschanel closes the film with a sweet ditty she wrote, “So Long,” which she also performed with her She & Him partner M. Ward.
The film’s runtime is surprisingly short at just more than an hour, which includes a worthwhile stinger after the credits; Rabbit’s usual crankiness has been toned down; and champion worrier Piglet isn’t given nearly enough screentime with his pal Pooh. But in this age of excess, the Mouse House deserves credit for its restraint in crafting a tenderly whimsically throwback adventure with “Winnie the Pooh.”
The playful short “The Ballad of Nessie,” delightfully narrated by Billy Connolly, precedes the feature.
— Brandy McDonnell
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Comments
As a 50 something who has never grown too old for the charming tails and warm philosophy I get from Classic Pooh .
I am so glad to hear, a new adventure has arrived in classic Pooh fashion. I relish going to the cinema to join in the fun. Thanks for your well written review.
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what a lovely review – think I’ll take the babe to see it this weekend!