my review of Winnie the Pooh

Since John Lasseter took over Disney animation, a transition took place that appeared to be steering closer to the qualities once so prominently on display for the studio. There are few ways that could be as obvious of a harkening back to times of old than to bring back Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger Too) and give him and his company a feature-length revival. The prior feature release of Pooh, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, was a collection of three shorts tied together with live-action pieces,lovely narration, and further interstitial material, but this is the first time Pooh has been actually given the feature treatment. Certainly, making a feature film of Winnie the Pooh is bold in many different ways. Winnie the Pooh is something of an affront to the high-tech, 3D, and busy, busy, busy animation world that surrounds it in popular culture. Can something like Winnie the Pooh draw people to the cinema? But also it is a question of whether or not the current crew of animators could possibly capture the magic that made the original shorts as wonderful as they are and as classic as they have become. The key animator from Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (one of the shorts that comprises the original package feature), Bunny Mattinson, was brought onto this new feature as the lead storyboard artist, certainly stepping toward an effort to recreate what originally worked so well. And to direct, Stephen Anderson and Don Hall, both people prominent in the prior decade of Disney animation and being go-to guys to shake-up productions considered faltering. Without need for re-invention, how would this new-fangled return to the big screen for the titular character fare?

As to be expected, the plot to the film is thin, plot not being a major part of this particular universe. Eeyore has lost his tail, and Christopher Robin goes off at some point leaving a not behind, which the characters misread. Christopher's note says he will be back soon, but with some misspelling and characters that can't quite read anyway, the note is misinterpreted in saying that Christopher has been taken captive by a monster called the "backson". Put that on top of Pooh's eternal search for honey and you essentially have the film, which runs at a trim hour and three minutes. The warmth of the characters, the wit in the storytelling, and the gorgeous simplicity in the animation are all elements that made the original shorts work so extremely well, as well as a healthy dose of nostalgia. That nostalgia resonated to thinking of when we were all once children, at how time flies, and to never forget that part of us that could get lost in our own "hundred-acre woods", where nothing seemed to be beyond the non-existent borders. This new film somehow feels restrained, as if the world actually is small. Nobody ever wonders that far from anyone else, and yet nobody communicates. That's not to say that it is bad, but that something feels ever so slightly off. When Christopher Robin goes off to school, it seems like a simple little revelation and nothing more. Watch the way it is handled in the original shorts and it feels like a new adventure for Christopher Robin, one that highlights time moving faster than Pooh and company. Even if some of the adventures were themselves slight, there was still a place of gravity outside, and that is a quality somewhat absent from this new film.

But the film is still frequently charming, with some winning touches and a lightness where everything stays pretty even. There is a healthy dose of wordplay in the film, like the "backson", but also with knots, issues, and more. There is also literal wordplay, when the movie runs with the concept of this being from a storybook, and the characters consistently are amongst the actual words in the book, walking on top of them and so on. That is something taken from the original shorts, but pushed much further in this film, and while it is funny, it is also done a little too much and only serves to highlight more of the lack of imagination in the new film with its own originality. The backson as well is a decent enough concept, but it seems pretty slender an idea, and when you compare it to heffalumps and woozles, it is especially slim. Kudos for an attempt at something different, and it isn't an altogether bad attempt, but it never fully takes off. I mean, heffalumps and woozles are actually kind of frightening, and that surrealist take off adds to the texture of the originals. Here, the backson is never really all that inventive, and also, the dream sequence we get is a pleasant one. Pooh imagines everything turning into honey, and it is a fine little sequence, but doesn't do a whole lot either. That makes me think of another point, that the film has next to no consequences, like when Pooh in the originals ate too much honey and got stuck in the hole into Rabbit's place. Things can be light and fun, but if nothing ever means anything at all, it is hard to connect.

The animation itself is fine, with a certain gentility. It is never as inventive or fluid as what came before, though, and the use of computers in it sometimes detracts from the film. I expect new techniques to be added in this hand-drawn world, but sometimes too much is happening, and yet not enough inspiration to bring it fully to life. Computer bees, computer dream, characters popping up at different parts of the frame, all unneeded. The characters themselves all look like their original selves and carry over their unique personalities for the most part well, but the characters are not altogether what they used to be. Pooh is fine, as voiced by Jim Cummings, like he has been for a while. Cummings is wonderful as Pooh, and brings him nicely to life, and the film generally does a good job with its lead. Tigger is also voiced by Cummings, and it isn't as much of a success. He is sometimes a bit too obnoxious. Eeyore (Bud Luckey) is handled decently, if not quite the fully sad character he is so well known to be. Piglet (Travis Oates) is adorable as always and is well drawn. Rabbit (Tom Kenny) is maybe a little too snarky, but overall decent. Owl is voiced by Craig Ferguson, and I wasn't too much of a fan of this rendition. I just didn't like Owl in this take too much, and they could have done a better job at making Owl a better, more enjoyable character than just this pretentious and boring wise owl. Kanga and Roo are frustratingly non-existent, only once in a while hopping in. Christopher Robin himself (Jack Boulter) is a fitting presence, but almost seems entirely unimportant, which misses the boat big time. He almost just is another character rather than the boy himself, the source of life to the place.

There are some nice enough tracks by Zooey Deschanel that are strung throughout, but the bulk of actual songs for the film were written by Robert and Kristen Lopez. These songs written for the movie are nice and all, but generally lack the spark or invention to really make them work. It's all a little too flat and repetitive, and that is a shame. I still get some of the music and songs from the originals stuck in my head every so often, but this stuff just kind of sits there. The score itself by Henry Jackman is fine, but works alongside a film that never fully takes flight, and that makes me a little sad. I didn't expect great pathos, I was just hoping for something with more inspiration and less derivative than this final product. I don't feel the connection here, and that is the biggest sticking point. It is as if the filmmakers feel above the material. They like it, they find it pleasant, but they just want to churn out this little film, the kids will like it, and it is for them, and to be fair, what they churned out is not a bad film and it serves its purpose decently enough. But with the originals (and I do hate to keep citing them, but it is key to understanding why this film falls short and helps illustrate), I feel something. I feel that the makers were in love with this world, that they were inspired, that they let the kid inside come out to play. This sensation is missing here. And some greater sense of gravity, of darkness, wouldn't hurt. Being a kid, sometimes the unknown becomes scary, and that quality is also absent. This movie needed to explore what it was to be a kid more. All the same, what is here is fine. It is funny, breezy, enjoyable, and I wish it not overstaying its welcome wasn't something worth bringing up as a positive, because the film could have had more to it. Oh well. This film falls short of the heights of its inspiration, but manages to be a pleasant diversion all the same.

B-


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