I have fond memories of watching classic Winnie the Pooh cartoons as a child but even fonder ones of my parents reading me A.A. Milne’s classic tale of a boy and his stuffed bear. To this day I have a copy of the Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh on my shelf. Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, and Christopher Robin are all unforgettable characters that many children grow up loving. I know that I am one of many.
In 1961 Walt Disney obtained rights to the British bedtime classics and he predicted that Pooh Bear and his friends would be huge. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh brings together three of Disney’s classic shorts, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974). All three were combined in 1977. These short cartoons are what propelled Winnie the Pooh out of the pages of a book and into the hearts of America.
In Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Pooh muddles his way through the acquiring of honey from a bee hive high up in a tree. He rolls in black mud and floats into the sky with the help of a balloon in what has to be an instantly recognizable image; Pooh hanging by a blue balloon as he sings about wonderful honey. I have not watched Pooh in years but I was instantly transported to the moment I first watched him when I was little and I enjoyed it just as much even though I am a little older.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won an Academy Award in 1968 for best cartoon short. Walt Disney never got the chance to see Pooh become a household name; he died in December of 1966 before the short was finished. But Pooh and the Blustery Day is one of the most well known of the shorts.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
I just went and picked up mine.