The Beginning of Pooh's Disney Career

Edited from three 20-minute 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) -- The Many Adventures takes us inside the Hundred Acre Wood and introduces us to the characters from A.A. Milne's book series. Winnie the Pooh - "short, fat, and proud of that" - gets stuck in Rabbit's door after a satisfying quest for honey leaves him rounder than normal. In the second episode (Best Short Oscar winner "Blustery Day"), Pooh meets Tigger, who warns the silly old bear of honey-stealing Heffalumps and Woozles. Pooh and Piglet find themselves swept away in a storm. The third act finds Rabbit hatching a plan to deal with Tigger's bouncing once and for all. The magically imaginative adventures conclude with one of the most touching scenes ever animated.

Title: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Release: March 11, 1977
Genre: Animation
MPAA Rating: G
Writer: A.A. Milne (books), Winston Hilber (supervising), Larry Clemmons, Ken Anderson, Ralph Wright
Director: John Lounsbery & Wolfgang Reitherman
Produced By: Wolfgang Reitherman
Distributed By: Buena Vista Pictures
Run Time: 74 minutes

Official Site

A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh has been one of the most beloved characters for a very long time but it wasn’t until Walt Disney recreated him and his pals in several animated featurettes called Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! All of which were later compiled into one feature called The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh that takes inside Milne’s famous book (the characters hop across pages and everything!).

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is comprised of three featurettes that are based on real the real Pooh stories but whomever edited together all of them did a fantastic job because if I hadn’t been told that they were originally released individually I wouldn’t have guessed. I love how Disney and his animators used the original Pooh artist, E. H. Shepard’s work as inspiration for the final look of the film. You can especially tell with the backgrounds.

One of the things that I found bothered me the most about Disney’s early Pooh characters was how the audience is reminded repeatedly that they’re just stuffed animals. In one of the first scenes Pooh keeps his head stationary and turns completely around which is just kind of creepy! Thankfully I got to grow up with a Pooh that for the most part is a lot more life-like.

That’s not the only thing that has changed about Pooh since this film was made. In all three featurettes he was voiced by the talented actor Sterling Holloway who is probably most well-known for being the voice of the Cheshire Cat from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. He was also the voice of several other Disney characters too. By the time I was born though Pooh’s (and sometimes Tigger too, who was originally voiced by Paul Winchell) voice was by Jim Cummings so understandably the voice bothered me at first.

That didn’t stop me from enjoying the cute little songs that the whole movie is just chock full of! They’re catchy and hummable whether they are singing about being Rumbly in the Tumbly, Little Black Rain Clouds or Heffalumps and Woozles so it came as no surprise to me when I found out that they were created by my favorite duo of songwriters, the Sherman Brothers.

Although the Winnie the Pooh gang’s general appearance and even sound has slightly changed over the years they have always remained the same sweet cuddly characters that the whole world loves and hopefully they always will.

Wikipedia has tons of articles on this film and the featurettes that make up the whole film. Even one on the Disney theme park ride based on the film. Imdb.com also has a page on the film with trivia and here is a fansite with songs from the film.

Pooh Songs:


Tigger's Song:


Many Adventures of Pooh Special: