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Winnie the Pooh Movie Review

Winnie the Pooh is a 2011 animated family comedy film which is the 51st Disney animated feature film. It is such a pleasant, childlike, wonderful flick.

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“Oh thank you, Christopher Robin.

And now I don’t think I shall be

hungry again for a good long while.

Oh bother.

Silly old Bear“

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The plot is very simple. The Hundred Acre Wood residents embark on a quest to save their friend Christopher Robin from an imaginary friend. He left a note that he would come back soon as he went to school and our heroes misinterpreted back soon as Backson the monster. Meanwhile, Pooh deals with his hunger issues and Eeyore has lost his tail.

Needless to say, this is a highly simple plot, too simple and lacking in any real conflict whatsoever. It is predictable naturally how it will end and it doesn’t have any real stakes. However, that is mostly a positive thing as thus it led to a much more charming, simple and childlike adventure which should prove awesome for both children and Pooh fans.

I liked the entire first act and of course the ending is simply beautiful in its imagery and sweetness with a phenomenal final dialogue. I really enjoyed the Eeyore/Tigger subplot as their pairing proved to be excellent, funny and sweet. A clever clash of personalities. Pooh’s quest for Honey provided us some excellent and amusing scenes. But what is easily the finest scene in the entire film is the sequence in which everybody is in a pit and it is up to Piglet to save them. The combined stupidity of Piglet and Pooh with Rabbit’s frustration made my day as it was hilarious.

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Let’s talk about Winnie the Pooh’s characters. The greatest thing about this film is how all of its characters are basically intact and they felt like their classic counterparts from the sixties and seventies. That was amazing to witness in 2011. It does have too small set of characters and maybe one new character was needed, but its small set led to better development for everyone so I am not complaining all too much about it.

Pooh bear is as cuddly and as lovable as usual. He is still not my favorite character in this franchise, but here he was better than usual actually as many of his lines were immensely funny and he made me laugh how silly and stupid he is. And I loved his quest for honey and how it led to him becoming a better person and realizing that Eeyore’s tail is more important than his meal and he eventually did get a reward for his good heart. This is a great message for kids.

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Tigger is as awesome as he always is. He continues to be my favorite character and here he got a pretty good ark for himself. I would have liked to have heard the entire The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers song but the bit that I got was still nice. As I said above, his pairing with Eeyore proved to be a winning streak in terms of the humor and heart as they were wonderful together.

Speaking of Eeyore, he is strong here and his depression is high per usual. That one line in which we learn that he is still not happy after getting his tail back, but he says that the tail is fine was very funny and quite in-character. Piglet is funny and likable and as for Christopher Robin, he is fine, but not present all too much this time around.

Kanga and Roo are as forgettable and as underutilized as usual, I liked the narrator as his narration was mostly excellent and sweet and the post-credits scene where we get to see the real Backson was such a fun, inventive and memorable scene. Owl is even more insufferable than before in this movie as he deliberately stole Eeyore’s tail and that felt excessive, even for him. And of course Rabbit is quite good and very funny when dealing with the never-ending stupidities of Pooh and Piglet.

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Winnie the Pooh features beautiful animation. Yes, most people think that ‘The Princess and the Frog’ is the last traditionally animated Disney film, but that title belongs to this 2011 charmer. I absolutely adored this animation. It may prove too old-fashioned and simplistic to some, but to me that choice was fitting as anything else would be bad for this property. The character design is strong, the use of color (especially yellow) is accomplished and the film has such a fine classical feel to it not just in designs, but also in backgrounds, colors and the movements. The use of the book and its letters was also superb.

The soundtrack is unfortunately the film’s weakest aspect, I have to admit. The Tummy Song is fine, but short and a too typical Pooh song. A Very Important Thing to Do definitely gave me a strong 60s and 70s vibe, but it is again too short and forgettable. However, I did like that all these songs employed the old-fashioned tone to them.

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The Backson Song is pretty solid, but definitely lacking in comparison to Heffalumps and Woozles from the previous Pooh movie in the canon. It’s Gonna Be Great is okay and particularly strong as an emphasis on Tigger’s character, but it felt very repetitive to me.

The Winner Song is very annoying and I really disliked it and how it was repeated for so many times. And I have to say that the only pretty good song in the movie and the only standout one is Everything is Honey. This is a very fun, catchy tune which is accompanied by gorgeous honey and pots imagery and it is the kind of detour that is very successful, entertaining and a superb character moment. And the titular song sung by Zooey Deschanel is solid, but the original was much better.

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This movie is very short, clocking in at just an hour with the credits included. But even though it was very short, it was sweet and very engaging. The humor is actually stupendous as it made me chuckle quite a number of times and the dialogue is pretty strong. The voice acting is very good across the board with only Christopher Robin’s and in some way Tigger’s voice being not that great, but Jim Cummings is amazing as Pooh. Overall, it is such a wonderfully traditional, very good film which is a great return to an old-fashioned Disney film even if it falls short in comparison to ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’.

Winnie the Pooh is a very short, but sweet flick. This 2011 Disney outing is wonderfully and competently traditional in every sense as both its characters (Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore are the highlights) and animation were pleasantly old-fashioned. This is regrettably the last hand-drawn Disney film and it looks simply beautiful with a wonderful use of color and a great simplistic approach to it. The soundtrack is weak and the plot is overly simple and lacking in any real stakes and conflict, but the film is pleasantly childlike, sweet and charming with a surprisingly strong humor with many funny lines. It is an often overlooked, but very strong Disney entry indeed.

My Rating – 4