The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a 1977 American animated musical anthology fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It was first released on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves on March 11, 1977.
Its characters have spawned a franchise of various sequels and television programs, clothing, books, toys, and an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland in addition to Pooh's Hunny Hunt in Tokyo Disneyland.
== Plot ==
The film joins three previously released Winnie-the-Pooh animated featurettes based on the original A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard sources, with extra bridging material of Pooh interracting with the Narrator to introduce the three stories: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974).
A short scene was added to bring the film to a close; originally made during the production of Blustery Day (based on the presence of Jon Walmsley as Christopher Robin), and based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner, Christopher Robin must leave behind the Hundred Acre Wood to start school. The Narrator concludes that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting.
== Later featurette ==
Six years after the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Disney commissioned a fourth featurette based on the stories. Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore premiered in theaters on March 11, 1983, but was not originally connected to the preceding films in any manner. It has since been added to home video releases of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
== Voice cast ==
* Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh
* Bruce Reitherman, Jon Walmsley and Timothy Turner as Christopher Robin
* John Fiedler as Piglet
* Ralph Wright as Eeyore
* Clint Howard and Dori Whitaker as Roo
* Barbara Luddy as Kanga
* Paul Winchell as Tigger
* Junius Matthews as Rabbit
* Hal Smith as Owl
* Howard Morris as Gopher
* Sebastian Cabot as The Narrator
== Production ==
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize U.S. audiences with the characters. All three shorts, as well as future feature films, boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".
The character Gopher, which does not appear in the Milne stories, was created because Disney wanted an all-American character that could appeal to the children, and also add an element of comedy.[1]
For the character Piglet, hand gestures and other movements were used by the animators to create expressiveness, since he (and Pooh) had the appearance of dolls or stuffed animals with relatively simple button eyes.[2] The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh's rump being part of the "decor of his home" was not in the original book, but was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.[3]
== Release ==
=== Reception ===
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh holds a unanimous critic approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews, with an average of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads "Perhaps the most faithful of Disney's literary adaptations, this cute, charming collection of episodes captures the spirit of A.A. Milne's classic stories."[4] Film critic Leonard Maltin called the original Pooh featurettes "gems"; he also noted that the artwork resembles the book illustrations and that the particular length of these featurettes meant that the filmmakers did not have to "compress or protract their script."[5]
Ruth Hill Viguers, however, when writing in A Critical History of Children’s Literature during the 1960s, mentioned Disney's Winnie the Pooh along with several other Disney adaptations as having "destroyed the integrity of the original books".[6]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
* 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
** Nominated Animation Film[7]
=== Home media ===
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS, Betamax, CED videorecord, and laserdisc on August 15, 1981
Category:1977 Cartoons
Category:Walt Disney Productions Cartoons