Rating:  

Featuring the Voices Of: Jim Cummings, John Cleese, Bud Luckey, Craig Ferguson, Jack Boulter, Travis Oates, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Wyatt Dean Hall, Tom Kenny, Huell Howser, Zooey Deschanel.
___________________________

Director: Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall
Rating: G
Running Time: 69 Mins.
Release Date: July 15, 2011
Home Video Release Date: October 25, 2011
Box Office: $26.7 Million
___________________________

Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.

Written by: Stephen J. Anderson, Cho Chiang, Don Dougherty, Don Hall, Brian Kesinger, Nicole Mitchell, Jeremy Spears, Paul Briggs, and Chris Ure, adapted from the works of A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.

WIN THIS MOVIE…FIND OUT HOW!

One of the sweetest and most heartfelt movies to arrive in a long, long time, “Winnie The Pooh” is an absolute delight. There is a simplicity on display here that is refreshing and the film is wonderful to experience. Fans of the series, hoping for a chance to introduce younger viewers to the characters and inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, will likely want to revisit this film time and time again.

Adapted from three of A.A. Milne’s short stories, “Winnie The Pooh” employs a narrator (John Cleese), who guides us through a (re)introduction to the lovable fluffy honey-addicted bear, Winnie The Pooh, and his group of friends – the kindhearted Piglet, the energetic Tigger, the wise old Owl, mother and joey Kanga and Roo, the oh-so clever Rabbit, the eternally depressed Eeyore, and the child who owns and plays with all of the toys which makes the Hundred Acre Wood come to life, Christopher Robin.

With this adaptation, we follow the characters through their adventures in helping Eeyore find his missing tail, go on a quest to find a missing Christopher Robin, and determine the whereabouts of the fearsome and menacing Backson, which the characters are sure took part in Christopher’s disappearance.

Misadventures and misunderstandings punctuate the proceedings and all of this is a great deal of fun. Whether it is Winnie The Pooh speaking directly to the narrator when he fails to understand what is supposed to be happening, or the characters wandering through or even utilizing the words and letters within the storybook that tells their tale, “Winnie The Pooh” is accessible and charming to children of any age.

Most impressively, although the film skews for the youngest viewers, “Winnie The Pooh” never closes itself off from the interested older kids or adults who may be viewing it. While the film does employ 9 different screenwriters for a project that runs a mere 69 minutes from start to finish, the film never loses its constant lovable tone. Following 2009′s “The Princess And The Frog”, which served as a relaunch to Disney’s hand-drawn animation division, the colors are vibrant and the drawings embody the warmth and comfort of the old storybook, almost existing as a character in and of itself.

“Winnie The Pooh” produced a smile on my face for the entire time I watched it and I simply got lost in it. In a movie world which is now defined by unnecessary and overpriced 3D releases, impressive but increasingly synthetic visual effects, and bigger, faster, louder, more, more, and more, “Winnie The Pooh” is simply perfect in delivering all of the elements which makes us movie fans in the first place.

Should I See It?

YES

The film is simply terrific and ranks as maybe the finest animated film of 2011 thus far.

Fans of “Winnie The Pooh” will fall in love with these characters all over again.

Technically, the film is refreshingly old-fashioned. The hand-drawn cell animation only giving way to more conventional CGI-animation in the storybook moments. The film is visually outstanding.

NO

You have no interest in seeing a children’s movie, especially one that has an appeal to the youngest of viewers.

The film runs 69 minutes long, although it does include a short film at the beginning. The expense of tickets, concessions, even parking perhaps…may make this an expensive hour-and-a-half for the family.

You are a former honey addict and seeing Pooh’s struggles with the stuff is difficult.