Winnie the Pooh is a unique animated movie because it barely has a plot. The story is structured like a children’s book with a narrator (John Cleese) as Pooh (Jim Cummings) and his pals go through a villain-less adventure. The adventure consists of Pooh, the wise Owl (Craig Ferguson), Piglet (Travis Oates), Rabbit (Tom Kenny), Kanga (Kristen Anderson-Lopez) and Roo (Wyatt Dean Hall) as they try to replace Eeyore’s (Bud Luckey) tail. Their good deed leads them to further adventure as Pooh thinks that their human friend, Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter) is kidnapped by a monster.
What it lacks in running time (62 minutes), it more than makes up for it with its naïve storytelling and good-natured characters. The characters remind me of my little nieces and nephews. One moment, they’re worried and sad. The next moment, they’re laughing and playing again. The characters are nice to each other and help each other out.
The movie has several songs and the best one was with Winnie the Pooh and the honey pots. The song was catchy and the sequence had impressive animation.
Winnie The Pooh lost my attention several times because the characters just kept on trekking without a major conflict. Kids will love this movie but adults might have mixed reaction to it.
Grade: B+
Video:
The movie is presented in 1080p, 1.85:1 ratio. Winnie the Pooh was mostly hand drawn with a little computer graphics thrown in for the background and the song montages and it looks great. The water colored background really adds a dimension to the classically drawn characters. The picture is clean and glossy and impresses on Blu!
Grade: A
Audio:
Subtlety is the best way to describe the lossless DTS-HD track. The movie is mostly center driven. Just like its video counterpart, it’s really clean without distortion. Surround effects is there but it’s not as obvious as action movies. I think this was part of the movie’s intent to take viewers back to the old school animated classics such as Sleeping Beauty and Jungle Book.
Grade: A
Extras:
Winnie The Pooh has several extras including:
Winnie The Pooh And His Story Too – A short documentary about the second most recognized Disney character, next to Mickey Mouse.
Deleted Scenes – 5 scenes that didn’t make the final cut.
Ballad Of Nessie – A cute short movie.
Minni Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: Pooh’s Balloon – Another short movie
Sing Along – Text accompanies the songs from the movie.
Pooh Nursery – How to design a Pooh themed nursery
The extras aren’t as informative as I wanted it to be. Once again, kids will love the extras for sure.
Grade: B-
Overall:
Winnie The Pooh is a hidden gem that got lost in summer blockbusters. It was a bad move releasing it with higher budget and more hyped movies. There is no doubt this title will do well with its home video release because of the unique storytelling superb presentation.
Overall Grade: A- (not an average)
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