Winnie the Pooh, one of the most loved children's storybook characters graced the cinema screen for the first time in 30 years this year. Fans of Pooh Bear and his friends Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo and Christopher Robin, flocked to the cinemas to see a brand new Pooh adventure from Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The story of "Winnie the Pooh" is taken from three short stories written by A A Milne and David Benedictus (who wrote "Return to Hundred Acre Wood" in 2009). Pooh Bear wakes up one morning is and his tummy rumbles very loudly. He looks for some hunny to eat, but can't find any at all, so he goes to look for a spare pot. As he wanders around the hundred acre wood, Pooh finds Eeyore who has lost his tail again! The two go and see Christopher Robin who sets up a contest to see who can find the best new tail for Eeyore, with the prize being a large pot of hunny.
As the animals go off to find potential tails, Christopher Robin disappears, and with the help of Owl who read the note left by Christopher Robin, discover that he has been kidnapped by the "Backson"! The animals decide that they must rescue him and set up and an elaborate trap to capture the fearsome Backson. While all this is going on Tigger, decides that Eeyore should become a Tigger and dresses him up as "Tigger 2".
Eventually, the animals manage to get themselves trapped in the trap set for the Backson and Piglet has to be very brave in order to rescue them!
As you can imagine all ends well, as it should in a Disney movie, and the audience are left with a happy feeling at the end of the movie that everything will be alright in the end.
Disney Animation Studios decided that the new "Winnie the Pooh" movie should be a homage to the original Pooh movie and TV series, "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh". In order to ensure that this new movie had the same look and feel, the animators only used hand drawn animation techniques and the story is actually told using a story book by a narrator (John Cleese). This is direct step away from the high tech, digital 3D movies which are flooding our cinemas today, and is also very different from the 3D-esque Winnie the Pooh TV series "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" which ran from 2007 to 2010.
"Winnie the Pooh" is also important in the hearts of Disney fans as it is the movie which Walt Disney himself wanted to create originally in 1977, when the economic conditions of the time meant that he was only able to combine three previously created animated short films to create the original Pooh Movie.
Get your "Winnie the Pooh" DVD or Blu Ray soon and re-live the fun and adventure of the friends of hundred acre wood.
