Friday, April 4, 2014

Project Disney- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh



Project Disney: The plan is to tackle all of the Disney films, re-reading the classic stories and tales that inspired many of them and to look at how the changes the filmmakers made, the new elements they introduced and the essential elements they kept. We will, of course, be talking about the films as movies as well, saying why we enjoy them and what some of our favorite moments are, but our focus will be on looking at them as adaptations. For the films that are not drawn from any one work we’ll be looking at some of the possible literary influences that we see in the stories. I am participating in Project Disney inspired by Picture Me Reading!  


"Silly Old Bear." Project Disney this time around is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) based off the books Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.  I loved this Project Disney so much. There is so much Pooh out there that I had forgotten just how good the original Winnie the Pooh movie is.  I had never read the original Winnie the Pooh book (perhaps my mother read tit to me) and I loved it so much.  There are so many re-tellings of the Pooh stories I don't think I even knew about the Milne book.  Even re-watching the movie after all these years was wonderful.  As an adult I pushed this movie off as just for kids, and realized this is not the case.  I think all the remakes made me believe this.   I watched it all the time as a child and we even had a record with the music from the movie.  The movie is actually composed of three short movies that were made into one film which is unique for a Disney movie.

Original illustration by Shepard
The book I read is the Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh, which includes both books that Milne wrote which are Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner.  The book also includes the original illustrations by E.H. Shepard (who also illustrated the Wind in the Willows which will be a future Project Disney).  I think those are so whimsical and wonderful.  The book's stories are so simple but yet beautiful.  I found such magic in them... an innocence of sorts. The book is actually a story being told to a boy about his stuffed animals. Pooh's character in the book is just an easy going bear.  He is fluffy, doesn't have a lot of brains and loves honey.  Winnie the Pooh's real name is Edward in the real world.. but Christopher Robin names him Pooh in the stories.  Christopher Robin is the actual name of Milne's son in real life.


The film represents the original story marvelously.  I love that it even looks like a children's book. I think this is quite creative and really adds more to the film.  Disney has changed a few things from the book... really though they have just added some neat and fun lines.. especially for Tigger.  Tigger's best quote is "TTFN- TaTa for now"! Really though the movie follows the book really well.  When Pooh is tracking his own footprints, Tigger gets stuck in the tree, Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's front door.  All from the book. At the end of the book broke my heart. We are readers know that Christopher Robin is growing up and leaving his imagination behind him.  It was so sad.  I loved it.  Then to see it in this film was just as sad.  In the movie though we are told that Christopher Robin is going to school, while in the book we are reading from Pooh, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit, Piglet's perspective so they are confused and don't actually know where he is going.  They all say goodbye to him in the book.

One part of the film not in the book that is WAY out there and scared me as a child is the part where “Heffalumps and Woozles” float all around in a psychedelic way.  It is odd and still scares me as an adult!! The music is so great, like the classic song the "Wonderful Things about Tiggers"! I just loved Tigger so much. I just love Pooh.. he tries to be such a good bear.  I think people love Pooh and his stories so much because it represents what we want friendships to be, we want love to be, we want to be able to fail try again and succeed.

Again I am truly glad I watched this.  Winnie the Pooh now seems to be marketed to the preschool crowd so honestly I just brushed it off. I was also surprised by the book length and how good it was.  The book and film are great and should get more attention though it's hard with all the revamps that are out there.


Check out my other Project Disney:
Snow White
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Treasure Planet
Sleeping Beauty
The Great Mouse Detective 
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Princess and the Frog
Pinocchio 
Fantasia 
Beauty and the Beast
Lady and the Tramp
Alice in Wonderland
The Rescuers
The Rescuers Down Under
Tangled
Oliver and Company
Mulan
The Little Mermaid
Bambi
101 Dalmatians
Frozen
Fantasia 2000
The Jungle Book
The Emperor's New Groove
The Sword in the Stone
Aladdin
Atlantis
The Aristocats
The Lion King
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Robin Hood
Hercules
Pocahontas
Dumbo
The Black Cauldron  
Mary Poppins
Lilo and Stitch
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Make Mine Music
Tarzan
Fox and the Hound
Melody Time 

16 comments:

  1. Aww, that GIF!! SO cute!! I've read Winnie the Pooh when I was little, but don't remember watching any Winnie movies... maybe I should check it out... :)

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  2. So wonderful! I've been meaning to revisit some diney books and movies :)

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  3. I don't think I've seen the original Winnie the Pooh movie! Nor have I read the book, but I think I would love the story. It's great that you got to revisit and enjoy the book as an adult! I have such an idea of these characters from the cartoons, that I would love to read the book and get an idea of how they were originally portrayed!

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  4. I had forgotten about the movie. In fact.. there are two Disney Pooh films. The other one I'll do a Project Disney on later in the year.

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  5. How neat! I didn't know there was a Russian version. Is it different art and everything? Or just translated?

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  6. It is a lot of fun to revisit all Disney and see where everything originated from.

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  7. You know.. I was pleasantly surprised by the Project Disney this week. I hadn't see the movie in forever and don't even remember reading the original source material. I have seen plenty of Pooh cartoons and the books based off Pooh. But the Milne story was really quite wonderful. There is another Pooh movie Disney released in 2011 that I'll also be watching since it is part of the canon.

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  8. I love Pooh. He's so adorable!! I don't know if I've seen the original film or not...it's been awhile if I have. There was a new Pooh film in theaters a few years ago and my mom and I went. We loved it. :)
    Lauren from www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com

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  9. I remember the books from when I was a kid and I have definitely seen the Disney movie, though not for years! I used to really love all the characters, especially Tigger! I like that they stayed faithful to the book for the most part :) The illustrations/gifs you've used here are lovely!

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  10. I think it's wonderful that Disney stayed faithful to the books with this movie. The books were so good there really was nothing to change about them. I was also surprised that Pooh and the gang never meet the Heffalump! I always thought they did.

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  11. I adore you right now, even if you didn't mention my favorite part about the books. You get to see how ridiculously clever and sarcastic Eeyore is. He gets the bad wrap of being depressed all the time, I find him hilarious and so funny.

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  12. I thought the post was getting long so I didn't mention much about the characters themselves. I thought I would talk more about them in the next Pooh movie review. You are right though... Eeyore is misunderstood. Though one time I think it was Piglet... pointed out to him that maybe if Eeyore made an effort to go around and see other people then people might like him more.

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  13. Awesome Project Disney this time around. I've always loved the Many Adventures, the bee sequence in particular. I agree about the innocence of this, it takes me back to childhood whenever I see it. I have The Complete Tales and I've read parts of it but never all the way through. I'm tempted to now...


    I was always enchanted by the map of the Hundred acre wood, with all those whimsical locations. And I love the Shepard illustrations, especially that one where they're all around the table. Great stuff.

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  14. Interesting to me that you mention the map of the Hundred Acre Woods. I too love that map. I love maps in books in general. I kept finding myself glancing at the map in the book to see the locations.



    You really should read the book all the way through. It wasn't too long. I love how the characters had such simple adventure days. Like when they would race sticks under the bridge. I really felt like I was there on a lazy day watching the sticks myself.



    I didn't realize Shepard was such a big illustrator of children's book at the time. I am interested in finding more of his art.

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  15. I love him the way he is :-)

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  16. I'm a big map fan too. When I read Lord of the Rings for example I spend way too much time looking at those maps! There's something about the Hundred Acre wood map- so simple but yet it feels like a place I'd love to go.


    i think I will read it through- I know what you mean about the simple days. It just seems like it would be such a peaceful refuge... who wouldn't want to go there for a while? :)

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