The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Disney Theatrical Animated Feature #22
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). The Mister and I watched all 63 Disney Animated features in release order. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is #22 and can be found on Disney+. Reviews are posted Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.
The ‘70s were not kind to Disney animation and would get much worse in the 80s. Not only was Walt’s death in the late 60s a major blow of confidence and leadership, but, in the era of Vietnam/Watergate and Norman Lear-style shows dominating TV, Disney’s storytelling approach left much to be desired. It’s not so much that they were ‘bad’, just a bit of out of touch for the times. Perhaps had Walt been alive, or the world hadn’t been moving so quickly, the studio would have adapted quicker.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a ‘package’ film, in a sense, the way that the 1940s animated pictures like Saludos Amigos and Make Mine Music were, except that 3 of the 4 shorts featured in TMAWTP had been released theatrically making this, essentially, a clip show. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and the quality of the shorts is evident to even the most casual viewer.
I loved the imagination of the Winnie the Pooh shorts growing up and my family had the segment with Pooh stuck in Rabbit’s door on Super 8mm. I would watch that endlessly once I figured out how to thread the family projector in our wood paneled, shag carpeted basement. Also: as part of the Disney record club, I had a recording of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day on vinyl. I played that endlessly as well.
Given that this was released in 1977 and I was spending my time seeing “Star Wars” as often as I could (difficult when you’re 13, live in the country, and know your parents would be upset that you saw any movie more than once), I did not see this in the theater. In fact, I think the next Disney film that I saw ‘live’ was “Beauty and the Beast”.
Anyway, this is still Disney at it’s best and, although geared for the younguns (although not as much as the latter Winnie the Pooh feature in 2011), the animation is cute and the ideas clever. It’s a bit of a window in to an earlier era. At this point, we’re only 5 away from the Renaissance, and, knowing it’s coming, you can start to see the pieces get put in place for that to happen. Even the on-every-level disaster of “The Black Cauldron” contains a seed for the Renaissance (although we watched it so you don’t have to.. no, really do not watch it, it will really bum you out that this was very nearly the end of the Disney studio).
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - I have to grudgingly give it an B since it has no where near the skill and depth of the classics but I admit to wanting to give it an A even if just for the feelings I get when we watched it. That may count for something your book.
As a side note, I know it’s heresy, but I am not a Tigger fan and there is a lot of Tigger in this film and even more in the 2011 film. I understand but don’t share the appeal although I concede Tigger does bring some unusual energy, but ugh less is more in this case.
