Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The (DVD)

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Notable songs include "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers," "Heffalumps and Woozles," and "The Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down." What's more, the animation is more brilliant than ever. 9/10

"Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too"
Tigger is so bouncy in this episode that his friends get annoyed with his behavior and decide to lose him the woods. Unlike the first two segments, however, this one is rather too action-oriented, missing some of the quaint, old-fashioned charisma of the first two. It concentrates more on what the characters are doing rather than on the interaction among them. Worse, it loses track of Pooh for long stretches, focusing on Tigger, instead. While, admittedly, Tigger is a cute, silly, robust character who is undoubtedly appealing to kids, I found him rather tiresome and longed for a return to the relative quiet of Pooh's personality.

All good things must come to an end. "Oh, bother!" 6/10

While Disney's later, full-length Pooh movie, "Pooh's Grand Adventure," looked better than anything the studio had done in a long time, these earlier Disney Pooh short subjects look quite nice, too. They have the look of the black-and-white, pen-and-ink drawings of the first Milne books, but, of course, the addition of color bring them further to life. The animators use details that are reminiscent of the books' illustrations without actually trying to imitate them. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with the detail in the backgrounds or with the modest, unpretentious visual style of the character renditions.

As Milne's biography indicates, Pooh obviously represents the child within us that we all try to hang onto, no matter what our age. He's the friend who never deserts us, the feeling that no matter what happens, all is right with the world. It's that engaging spirit that Disney's "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" tries to capture, and surely it reaches out and touches youngsters and adults alike.

Video:
The Disney engineers present the film in the aspect ratio of its original camera negative, 1.37:1, or as the keep case says, 1.33:1. Thanks to the cleaning, restoring, and digital remastering, it looks fresh and new. Colors are bright and deep, due to a high bit rate, and there is only a trace of grain or noise in the picture. "Blustery Day" seems the richest and lushest of the three short films, and none of them betrays any signs of age, scratches, lines, flecks, or fades.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio does not have much to do in this film. In its favor, it is smooth and quiet and easy on the ear. On the minus side, it displays a very limited front-channel stereo spread, a limited frequency range and dynamics, and very little ambient bloom in the surrounds.

Extras:
For adults, the main attraction on this "Friendship Edition" will probably be the twenty-five-minute making-of featurette, "The Story Behind the Masterpiece." Produced in 2002, it contains comments and reminiscences from many of the Disney artists, actors, and filmmakers who helped create the first Pooh adventures. Next is a music video, "The Winnie the Pooh" theme song, performed by Carly Simon. After that is a Winnie the Pooh art gallery; a sing along, "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"; a children's game, "The 100 Acre Wood Challenge"; Pooh's Pop-up Fun Facts; and a Disney storytime feature, "Pooh's Shadow," that children can read themselves or have read to them.

Then, if that weren't enough, there are two bonus short subjects, the best of which is "Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore," made in 1983, with the voices of Laurie Main as the narrator and Hal Smith as Pooh. The other bonus short, "My Friends Tigger & Pooh," is not as good; it's an episode from Disney's new TV series, and it loses much of its simple appeal done up in fancy computer graphics.

Things conclude with twenty-one scene selections; Sneak Peeks at seven other Disney titles; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; English captions for the hearing impaired; and a lovely, embossed slipcover.

Parting Thoughts:
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" offers innocent delights and unaffected charm. It is among Disney's best animated movies for young people, and at least the first two entries in the series, "The Honey Tree" and "The Blustery Day," will keep adults happy as well.

A final word from Milne's biography: "The Pooh books are favourites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every language. In 1985, the Russian translation, 'Vinnie Pookh,' sold more than three and a half million copies in the Soviet Union and, in the same year, the Latin version, 'Winnie Ille Pu,' became the first book in a foreign language to be included in the bestseller list in the United States. Soon after the publication of 'Winnie-the-Pooh,' Milne wrote in the Nation: 'I suppose that every one of us hopes secretly for immortality; to leave, I mean, a name behind him which will live forever in this world, whatever he may be doing, himself, in the next.'"

"TTFN...Ta ta for now."

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