One of my local theatres ended up doing a midnight screening after all!
I had high expectations for the following reasons - The Many Adventures Of Winnie-the-Pooh was the first DAC I saw in theatres during it's original theatrical release (as a young child). It's also, in most moods, my second or third favorite DAC. The characters and their adventures are beloved favorites for me. Also, the use of traditional animation for only the second time on a DAC since Home On the Range really had me excited.
I am happy to report that Winnie-the-Pooh lived up to all of my expectations! I LOVED it!
From the very opening shot of Christopher Robin's room, showing his beloved stuffed animals, and the narrator explaining that his stuffed animals were his favorites of all his toys, I was hooked! It was very clear from the beginning that this would be faithful to the tone, style, and gentle charms of the 22nd DAC, which for me is a Very Good Thing.
The familiar opening gave me goosebumps, not just due to the story itself and the faithfulness to the original film, but also when the realization hit me that I had come full circle from my first theatrical DAC, and that here, 34 years later, in an era when many proclaim that traditional animation is dead, in an era of "hip" pop culture references, and action-based CGI special effects - that Disney were triumphantly returning to such a gentle, charming story featuring the loveable hand-drawn Pooh characters, in a way that compliments the original film with no trace of the pop culture references or other identifiers that would date the film to 2011.
In other words, the filmmakers were going for timelessness, and in my opinion, they achieved it.
There is a lot of humor here, much of it based on the gentle charms and quirks of the various characters, and some nice gags as well, such as in some of the musical sequences. I loved the use of the book, its pages, and its text throughout the film - a nice, humorous, throwback to - and continuity with - the original film.
The songs were all catchy on the first listen, some standing out more than others. I was glad that some were sung on screen by the characters, just as in Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and the majority of DACs from before the time when DAC musicals seemed to fall out of favor with management.
From one listen, I would say I prefer the Sherman Brothers songs overall, but those are HUGE shoes to fill, and Lopez and Lopez are certainly solid songwriters (as evidenced by Finding Nemo: The Musical), and I really enjoyed the new songs.
The new Zooey Deschanel version of "Winnie the Pooh" was enjoyable and respectful to the original arrangement, while sounding fresh and new. I particularly liked
how Tigger gets mentioned in the current version!
It was also nice to hear a reprise of "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".
The score and musical arrangements seemed to capture the whimsy and charms of the Pooh world, and at times it nicely referenced some of the arrangements, melodies, and instrumentation of the original film.
Of the new songs, they were all catchy and enjoyable. "The Tummy Song" struck me as being very cute, accompanied with sounds of Pooh's rumbly tummy. "The Backson Song" accompanies a nice sequence where the characters imagine what the Backson is like, and visually this has a nice chalk-drawing look which to me is a perfect example of something that just works better in traditional animation. The sequence where Pooh, dressed as a cute bee, fantasizes about being surrounded with hunny, and its accompanying "Everything Is Honey" song are a lot of fun as well!
The film looks great, and the character animation is excellent, as one would expect given the talent that worked on the film. The voices are also done very well and in the few rare cases where one did not initially sound quite like I was used to, this was soon forgotten, as IMO the voice actors all did a great job of capturing the SPIRIT of these characters.
One character I would have liked to see make at least a small appearance is Gopher. I know book purists may disagree, but he was part of the gang in the original film, and I never tire of his "I'm not in the book" running gag. This is a relatively minor carp, however, and not intended to be seen as a complaint against a film I enjoyed immensely!
As far as the short runtime, this did not bother me one bit. My favorite DAC, Dumbo, is only 64 minutes and most of the Walt-era DACs don't run for much more than 70 minutes. I felt like the film was as long as it needed to be. It felt neither padded or rushed to me.
I already mentioned the humor and gentle charms of the film. It also has heart. I was touched by the ending. Not as much as the ending of the original,
but I'm glad that they didn't go for that whole melancholic "Christopher Robin is going away" angle again. The end leaves it open that Christopher and his animal friends will have many more adventures together, which is IMO how it should be! Thankfully, we are spared the whole Toy Story 3 "child is growing up and leaving his toys behind" thing, as even the original 1977 Pooh film ending had a more open-ended approach than TS3, which suggested that while Christopher would have to spend less time in the Pooh universe due to school, he would still be around.
So this gets a HUGE thumbs up from me! IMO, WDAS is on a real roll right now. I've been very impressed by everything they've done since Meet the Robinsons and blown away by everything from Bolt to Pooh. The return of musical films with heart is very welcome, as is the appearance from time to time of traditional animation.
It's too early to say where I would rank this film compared to the other DACs, but it is definitely Top Tier for me and one of my favorites of the past decade for sure (which has itself been a strong one, IMO, especially beginning with Bolt).
I also preferred it more than most of the Pixar films, and I'm a big fan of most of those. Winnie the Pooh is also my favorite of the animated films I've seen in 2011 so far (the others being Cars 2, Rio, Kung Fu Panda 2, Hoodwinked 2, Rango, and Gnomeo and Juliet). Hopefully the "Academy" won't give WDAS the shaft again!
One last thing - normally I love a near private screening because it means I'll be less likely to be distracted by cell phones and other rude behavior by other patrons. But since I want this film to be a big success, it made me sad that there were only 6 other people at the only midnight screening in my entire metropolitan area, yet the wait to buy tickets and popcorn was huge due to all the Potter people - who were out in large enough numbers to have their movie playing on multiple midnight screens at nearly every theatre complex in the area.
PS. Those who routinely leave before the credits are COMPLETELY over (which one should NEVER do, in my view), may want to rethink that approach for this film!
PPS. I LOVED The Ballad Of Nessie as well! It reminded me of much of what I like about the "Special", stand-alone Disney shorts from the 40's and 50's. It had a lot of heart and a great message, and I like how Nessie was cute and gentle like Ferdinand the Bull, the Reluctant Dragon, and Lambert the Sheepish Lion, rather than ferocious. The rhymes were clever as well, (with a humorous reference to legendary Disney animator Glen Keane). Hopefully, WDAS will do more shorts!
I'm glad you enjoyed them! 
) so I'll be dropped off at the movie theater sometime next week and will see the movie....
