Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore

Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is an animated 1983 featurette based on the 6th chapter from two books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner written by A.A. Milne. Produced by the Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, the short initially received a limited release on March 11, 1983, before expanding to a wide release on March 25 as part of a double feature with the 1983 re-issue of The Sword in the Stone (1963), which it was accompanied in most countries except for Australia where it accompanied a reissue of Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Directed by Rick Reinert, the featurette featured the voices of Hal Smith, John Fiedler, Will Ryan, Ralph Wright, and Paul Winchell.

## Plot

The film starts off when Pooh invented a racing game he called Poohsticks as Pooh goes for a walk on the wooden bridge through a river where he loves doing nothing in particular. And on this day, he finds a fir cone and picks it up. Pooh thinks up a rhyme to go with the fir cone, but however, he accidentally trips onto a tree root and drops it in the river. By noticing that the flow of the river takes the cone under the bridge, Pooh made a racing game out of it. As the game uses sticks instead of fir cones, he calls it "Poohsticks".

Later that day Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Roo are playing Poohsticks, then see Eeyore floating in the river. After somehow rescuing him with a rock, he tells them that he fell in due to being bounced from behind. Piglet assumes it was Tigger who bounced Eeyore into the river. When Tigger arrives on the scene, he claims that his bounce was actually a cough, leading to an argument between him and Eeyore, but with some outside help from the narrator, Winnie the Pooh and his friends find out that he had indeed deliberately bounced Eeyore on page 245. Tigger says it was all a joke, but nobody else felt that way. Tigger disgustedly says that they have no sense of humor, and bounces off.

But as Eeyore seems particularly depressed this day, Pooh follows him to his Gloomy Spot and asks what the problem is. Eeyore says that it is his birthday, and nobody has taken any notice to celebrate it. Pooh decides to give him a jar of honey, but does not get far before he has a hunger attack and ends up eating the honey. He decides to ask Owl for advice. Owl suggests that he writes to Eeyore on the pot so that Eeyore could use it to put things in. Owl ends up writing a misspelled greeting (hipy papy bthuthdth thuthda bthuthdy meaning A Very Happy Birthday, With Love from Pooh) on the pot and flies off to tell Christopher Robin about the birthday. Piglet, who heard about Eeyore's birthday from Pooh, planned to give a red balloon to Eeyore, but when Owl greets him from the sky, Piglet forgets to look where he is going, until he hits a tree and caused it to accidentally pop the balloon.

Piglet is very upset that his gift for Eeyore is ruined, but he presents it to him anyway, and only a minute later, Pooh brings the empty pot. Eeyore is gladdened, as he puts the busted balloon into the pot and removes it again (he also claimed that he likes the color red). Pooh and his friends then pitch in and plan a surprise party for their friend.

During the party, Tigger arrives and bounces on Rabbit out of his chair, after Owl had a discussion talk. Roo welcomes him to the festivities as Rabbit draws himself up from being bounced on by Tigger, incensed. Rabbit wants Tigger to leave for the way he treated Eeyore earlier, Roo wants Tigger to stay, and Christopher Robin's solution is for everyone to go over to the bridge and play Poohsticks to settle everything down, which Pooh asked him. Eeyore, who's a first-time player, wins the most games, but Tigger didn't win at all, causing him to say that "Tiggers don't like Poohsticks". However, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit decide to go home, because they had to go to bed, as Christopher Robin waves goodbye and Eeyore said, "Thank you.", but Tigger walks sadly away from the bridge, because he did not win at all. Eeyore's secret for winning, as he explains to Tigger afterwards, is to "let his stick drop in a twitchy sort of way." As Tigger bounces Eeyore again, they both go home and Christopher Robin, Pooh and finally Piglet all decide that "Tigger's all right, really".