Disney's original release A.A. Milne's property in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) was one many people took note of. While the characters had been around years before, Walt Disney Studios was the production company who gave the iconic group of characters their voices. The most recognizable being Sterling Holloway as Pooh, Paul Winchell as Tigger and John Fiedler as Piglet. The rest of the initial cast also cemented the personalities as well even though they were later replaced, including Holloway. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series reinvigorated the franchise with new life while developing the newest Pooh voice from Jim Cummings. Since then Cummings has played the bear onward along with many home video movies on top of it. Finally, though, the characters would return to the big screen once again to be admired by fans.
Unlike The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), which followed segmented stories. This feature has a plot for the entire run time. Crediting eight different writers who also worked on Frozen (2013) and Big Hero 6 (2014), two of which also directed this feature (Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall), created an equal follow up to that of the original film decades ago. The plot starts the usual with a narrator (this time John Cleese) introducing the audience to Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings) deciding he needs to feed his grumbling stomach. But before he does that, he discovers Eeyore's (Bud Luckey) tail is missing. Thus Pooh meets with the rest of his friends to either find Eeyore's missing tail, or makeshift a completely new one for him. Whoever accomplishes the task first, will be awarded a pot of honey from Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter). Just what the doctor ordered.
Being that story structure is now one entire narrative, it's a refreshing direction from a theatrical viewpoint. While this method has been used for all the home video releases, people watching it on the big screen may feel different about it as opposed to watching an anthology of shorts. All the voice actors who were cast for their roles do great jobs; every single one. The unfortunate part is that particular characters who had already been voiced by certain actors could not make the production. Ken Sansom as Rabbit, Peter Cullen as Eeyore and Michael Gough as Gopher should have all reprised their roles. Especially Gopher,..mainly because he's not even in the film, which is very sad to see. These three actors had solidified their status as those characters. Again though, this does not take away the performances of Craig Ferguson as Owl, Travis Oates as Piglet, Tom Kenny as Rabbit and Kristen Anderson-Lopez as Kanga.
As for tone and comedic elements to the story, it remains very much consistent with past stories. Pooh is still a small brained bear, Piglet is still afraid of many things, Rabbit is as methodical as usual, Owl loves to talk about anything related to him, Kanga still watches over Roo, Eeyore is still as mopey as ever and Tigger is bouncing around like he always does. There's also the usual 4th wall break the characters make with the narrator, as well as leaping off pages and stumbling onto the text in the body of the story. Perhaps what’s utilized even more is that the letters also become entangled into certain scenes with the characters. It's funny, but it also seems even more meta than it has to be. Does the book itself say the characters use the letters from the last page that fell into the story? It's like the 4th wall breaking the 4th wall....if that's even a thing.
Visual speaking, while the film was classically animated instead of digitally, the look of the movie is very crisp. The character movements are fluid and fun to watch. The character emotions displayed are expressive and match the voice over work. There's also cinematography shot by Julio Macat, which was utilized for the live action introduction. Macat also filmed for Home Alone (1990) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). As for music, songs were also composed by Robert and Kristen Lopez. The new songs for this feature work very well and match the tone of the other films. The score was composed by Henry Jackman, which also does the same thing. To hear music for Winnie the Pooh in full orchestra is rare as well, since very few films in the franchise was released with an official score. The soundtrack in its entirety work well together for a pleasant listening experience.
The only disappointing aspect about this feature is that Ken Sansom, Peter Cullen and Michael Gough couldn't return as the voice actors for their respective characters. That's it though. The story, music, animation and writing very much make this film a family picture to be enjoyed by all ages.
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