THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH: Blu-ray (Walt Disney 1977) Disney Home Video

If ever a Disney classic had a more inauspicious beginning, it is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). Conceived by Walt as a series of short subjects - the first released in 1961 - the aegis for this enduring and endearing masterwork began with A.A. Milne’s unassuming book of short stories entitled ‘When We Were Very Young,’ first published in 1924. A successful writer in Britain, Milne was encouraged by his friend and illustrator, Ernest H. Sheperd to compose stories deriving from Milne’s own son, Christopher Robin’s childhood playtime memories and experiences. Sheperd would eventually contribute the illustrations to Milne’s first book as well as the three subsequent installments that followed. Reportedly, Milne had given Chris’ a bear named Edwin for his first birthday – a toy eventually rechristened Winnie the Pooh after a chance visit with a Canadian black bear named Winnipeg, that was housed at the London Zoo. In Britain, Winnie the Pooh quickly became a cherished fictional creation. But in America, he and Milne were virtual unknowns, despite the fact many American soldiers stationed in Europe during WWII had sent copies of the Pooh stories to their own children back home. Reportedly, Mrs. Disney was chiefly responsible for Walt’s eventual discovery of Milne – having read the author’s stories to their daughters at bedtime. And Walt, after reading the books himself, was as easily enchanted to pursue the matter further.

Tight financial times forced Walt to reconsider his original plans to do a full-length theatrical release. Indeed, after the war, other projects had intervened, putting a strain on his coffers. Walt’s foray into live action picture-making, his launch into television, and ground-breaking on Anaheim’s Disneyland theme park effectively monopolized most of the 1950’s – a decade, fraught with excitement, upheaval, great ambitions realized, and, costly super-productions that occasionally failed to make back their weighty production costs. So, instead, Walt chose to debut the character in a short subject – ‘Winnie The Pooh and the Honey Tree’ in 1961 to test public response. Walt had little to fear. The general reaction to Pooh and his friends was overwhelmingly positive and Walt began work on a second short – intending to unite them and a few subsequent shorts, at a later date, into one feature length film. The second short, ‘Winnie the Pooh and The Blustery Day’ was released in 1967 and won the Oscar for Best Short Subject. It was a bittersweet and posthumous victory, as Walt had died from lung cancer the year before. Finally, Disney Inc. released its third, and final short, Winnie The Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Then, in 1977 directors, John Lounsbery and Wolfgang Reitherman embarked on the final chapter in Milne’s Pooh stories – the moment when young Christopher Robin bids a fond farewell to his childhood and with it the many adventures gone by. Marrying the first two shorts to this last installment, Lounsbery and Reitherman finally realized Walt’s goal. By then, Winnie the Pooh was his own celebrity in the Disney canon– as much admired and beloved as any of Walt’s original creations from the golden age of animation.

Incorporating a voice-over narration by Sebastian Cabot to bridge these shorts together, the feature film begins in earnest with Winnie the Pooh (brilliantly voiced by Sterling Holloway) in search of some honey to satisfy a ‘rumbly’ in his ‘tumbly’. Unable to reach the top of the tree on his own, Pooh borrows a balloon from Christopher Robin (John Walmsley) who is currently nailing a tail onto the backside of his old pal, Eeyore (Ralph Wright). But the bees are not so easily fooled by Pooh’s camouflage as a little black rain cloud. He is attacked by the swarm and sent into a thistle bush… ‘Oh, bother!’ To satisfy his hunger, Pooh decides to visit Rabbit (Junius Matthews) who always keeps a stockpile of honey at his disposal. However, after devouring every last drop in Rabbit’s cupboard, Pooh becomes stuck in Rabbit’s hole, resulting in several humorously failed attempts to free his rather rotund self. The narrative next moves onto the second short: Winnie the Pooh and The Blustery Day. Pooh and Piglet (John Fiedler) are blown by a great wind into the treetop home of Owl (Hal Smith). A rainstorm and advancing flood sends the inhabitance of the Hundred Acre Woods scampering for higher ground with Christopher Robin once again coming to their rescue.

In the third adventure, Tigger’s (Paul Winchell) bouncing gets the better of Rabbit who orders the rambunctious tiger to cease his enthusiasm at once. Alas, in their attempt to lead Tigger deep into the woods, Rabbit, Pooh and Piglet become lost.  While Rabbit wanders off, Pooh and Piglet take a nap, awakened by Pooh’s hungry stomach. Meanwhile, Rabbit is frightened until Tigger finds him and escorts him home. As winter advances on the Hundred Acre Woods, Roo (Dori Whitaker) wants to go play. Kanga (Barbara Luddy) employs Tigger as Roo’s chaperone. The pair engage in all sorts of mischief, culminating in Tigger’s fear of heights after he bounces his way up a tree. After some miscommunication, Pooh and Piglet arrive to help rescue Tigger.  Rabbit releases Tigger from his promise never to bounce again, and the inhabitants of the forest rejoice at his reinstatement to their group. The narrative structure of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is such that there really is not much of a forward trajectory to involve the audience. However, the sustained subtly of the animation, coupled with several memorable songs by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman are more than enough to captivate the heart and mind. In the end, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh works because of Walt’s strict adherence to the episodic source material – its unassuming patchwork, a perfect cushion to sustain our disbelief.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh arrives on Blu-ray with a lot of DNR liberally applied to its palette. With the total eradication of film grain also comes a loss of some minute fine details – a shame, though not to the extent of Disney Inc.’s disastrous The Sword and the Stone Blu. DNR’s most egregious presence is felt during the live-action sequences that book-end our story – a lot of clumpy grain, plus a complete lack of textures, so that all of the objects appear to have been made of the same, non-descript, materials. The main titles are ‘soft’.  There is also a hint of edge halos and digital sharpening.  Age-related artifacts have been removed. But this transfer appears to have been derived from an older master, and not original camera elements that, given the company’s meticulous archiving methods, ought to have been used in its stead. As we shift from live-action to the animated pages of the storybook, contrast becomes slightly boosted, resulting in greens, browns and yellows in background art appearing slightly washed out and/or faded, while the more dominant foreground colors also lack refined richness.  As with other vintage Disney product, the present era’s management believes everything needs to be brought into contemporary standards to be marketable to a younger generation.  Wrong! The preservation of an ‘as close as possible original theatrical presentation’ ought to have been the goal here. In point of fact, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh looks absolutely nothing like it did theatrically. The 5.1 DTS is an improvement. There are some residual inconsistencies from sequence to sequence, but this is due to the fact each was produced during a decidedly different – nee, steadily advancing – vintage in sound recording. Overall, this is not a stellar edition to Disney Inc.’s Blu-ray canon. And yet, it isn’t an outright travesty either. Falling somewhere in the middle, the virtues overcome the vices in the end, creating a sort of ‘tie’ in this viewer’s experience. So, good, just not great. Regrets.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

3