WINNIE THE POOH

Winnie The Pooh has always been one of my favourite Disney movies. There's an innocence and poignancy to the stories told and I've enjoyed all four theatrical movies and now comes the fifth. Also considered to be Disney's 51st theatrical release in their famous animation "Classics" collection. It's Disney's attempt to reboot the franchise and in today's misguided trend of CGI family flicks it is comforting to have a traditional hand drawn animation like this. Disney have taken this opportunity to right a few wrongs which were criticised in the original. For example Christopher Robin is given a British accent and they have completely omitted the character of Gopher who was never in the books and was only created to appeal to the American audience. And so you can clearly see a honest attempt to recapture something authentic for a new generation. My problem, however, is that a lot of the magic is lost and much of the innocence is forced. The movie begins exactly like the original 1977 version with a real life glimpse into Christopher Robin's bedroom. The book is opened and we're invited into the magical world of the Hundred Acre Woods... Pooh is introduced in a similar way and embarks on a similar adventure. Everything that happens along the way is new but it pretty much amounts to the same thing with less charm. I do admit that the music and songs are very cute with Zooey Deschanel singing most of them but ultimately this reboot plays it safe and disregards the sentimental subtext of growing up and letting go of childhood things. To me that is the ingredient that really made the original Winnie The Pooh an important movie. This could have been great and sadly it wasn't. Disregarding the end credits, the movie comes in at short 53 minute running time. Perhaps Disney will give it another crack and continue the story with more substance. John Lassiter was behind this and he's usually got a knack for a heartfelt story. This is cute, but thats all.

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