Disney haven’t treated Winnie The Pooh all that well over the last decade or so. Supporting roles in The Tigger Movie and Piglet’s First Movie, alongside a series of not-particularly-good direct to video efforts, have left the silly-willy-nilly old bear somewhat battered and bruised of late. Now however, Disney are making an effort to breathe new life into the franchise, by returning it to Disney’s feature animation division (rather than their Disney Toon Studios, direct-to-video unit), and aiming from the outset for a theatrical release.
The new film, helpfully called Winnie The Pooh, is a great little movie. With a barely feature length running time of 69 minutes it absolutely flies by, while managing to tell it’s (admittedly simple) story in a satisfying fashion.
That running time is actually a nice analogy for the production process on the film, which was completed in a matter of months by the same team that worked on last year’s Princess and the Frog. Given the fast turnaround of the project it could be forgiven for having a few rough edges: a missed story beat, or a bad voice performance, or some less than perfect animation, but it doesn’t.
There are things that don’t quite work: Christopher Robin’s high-pitched English accent jars with the soft American accents of Pooh and his pals, and Zooey Deschanel’s vocals on the soundtrack, particularly her version of the Pooh theme are a little too sweet and cloying, but these are the criticisms of a grumpy twenty-something whose job it is to pick holes in films. No one else would, or should care about such minor issues in a hugely enjoyable film.
[Rating:4/5]
