(I can't find the previous thread to this if this is one.)
I thought I'd open discussion on the anthology film released in March 1977.
I think that this film works a lot better as a compilation feature than any of the package features. With the package features, much of the material consisted of short stories once considered for their own full-length films, or musical segments intended for a new Fantasia. (One of the segments was actually a rejected Fantasia segment.) Those features have varying styles and tones in each film, related only by an overhead theme, and have long-since been shown as separate shorts.
The Pooh movie started out as three separate featurettes: The Honey Tree (1966), The Blustery Day (1968), and Tigger Too! (1974). They have sometimes been shown separately, and The Disney Channel sometimes replaced the Tigger Too segment with A Day for Eeyore (1983).
Most of us bash Disney for their general lack of innovation during the 1960s and 1970s, marked by a streamlined style, gaping shortcuts in their footage, and smaller story choices for their films. In a strange way, this frugality worked to Pooh's benefit.
While the featurettes were produced over nearly a decade-long period, they all use the same quality of Xerography that was possible up to that period. The rough scratchiness seen in The Sword in the Stone, which made the frugality of that film more evident, worked a lot better for the simple style chosen for the Pooh featurettes. Their consistent style made for an easy transition, via "chapter" between each segment.
Doug Walker (a.k.a. Nostalgia Critic) best described the film as "laid-back". The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is not as grandoise as Disney's other more famous films, because it's not required to be. And it seemed appropriate for Disney's animators at the time, adjusting to Walt's diminished presence before finally having to go on without him. A new standard was set with The Aristocats where cutting corners became the new norm.
In a change of pace, we get one film where, in spite of the recycled/reused animation, we can relax and explore a small community of characters, like an old town.
Therein this pleasant tone and smaller story scope is a film that still manages to build as much fun and laughs as Disney's other films. The songs by the Sherman Brothers are nice to listen to. A highlight is the trippy Heffalumps and Woozles nightmare Pooh has in the Blustery Day segment. A few fourth-wall gags with the storybook and exchanges with the narrator are great, too.
This is for discussion on this 1977 classic. Any special memories, bits of trivia, etc. are welcome.
