Winnie the Pooh (2011 film)


Winnie the Pooh is a 2011 American animated musical comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 51st Disney animated feature film, the film was inspired by A. A. Milne's stories of the same name and is part of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, and the fifth theatrical Winnie the Pooh film released. As of 2020, it is Disney's latest traditionally animated film.
Jim Cummings and Travis Oates reprise their voice roles as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, while newcomers Tom Kenny, Craig Ferguson, Bud Luckey and Kristen Anderson-Lopez provide the voices of Rabbit, Owl, Eeyore and Kanga, respectively. In the film, the aforementioned residents of the Hundred Acre Wood embark on a quest to save Christopher Robin from an imaginary culprit while Pooh deals with a hunger for honey. The film is directed by Stephen Anderson and Don Hall, adapted from Milne's books by a story team led by Burny Mattinson, produced by Peter Del Vecho, Clark Spencer, John Lasseter and Craig Sost, and narrated by John Cleese.
Production began in September 2009 with John Lasseter announcing that they wanted to create a film that would "transcend generations." The film features six songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, as well as a rendition of the Sherman Brothers' "Winnie the Pooh" theme song by actress/musician Zooey Deschanel. The film was released on April 6, 2011 in Europe and on July 15, 2011 in the United States. It received largely positive reviews from critics but was commercially unsuccessful, having grossed $50.1 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
The film is dedicated to Dan Read, who had worked on Disney animated films including The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little, and died on May 25, 2010. It was also the first and only Disney film role of Huell Howser, who voices the Backson in the epilogue.

Plot

wakes up one day to find that he is out of honey. While out searching for more, Pooh discovers that Eeyore has lost his tail. Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga and Roo come to the rescue while Tigger has his bouncing fun. Christopher Robin decides to hold a contest to see who can find a replacement for Eeyore's tail. The prize for the winner is a fresh pot of honey. After several failed attempts for what would replace Eeyore's tail, Kanga suggests that they use a scarf, which unravels.
The next day, Pooh goes to visit Christopher Robin and finds a note that says "Gon Out Bizy Back Soon". Pooh is unable to read the note, so he asks for Owl's help. Owl's poor reading comprehension skills lead Pooh and his friends to believe that Christopher Robin has been abducted by a ruthless and mischievous monster they call the "Backson". Rabbit plans to trap the Backson in a pit, which they think he will fall into after following a trail of items leading to it. Meanwhile, Tigger, who wants a sidekick to help him defeat the Backson, recruits a reluctant Eeyore to be a second Tigger. He dresses up like the Backson and tries to teach Eeyore how to fight. Eeyore manages to escape from Tigger and hides underwater where he discovers an anchor.
After a failed attempt to get honey from a bee hive, Pooh's imagination combined with his hunger get the better of him, and he ends up accidentally eating some mud and falling into the pit meant for the Backson. Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Piglet and Eeyore try to get him out, but fall in themselves. Piglet, who did not fall in, attempts to get Pooh and friends out of the trap, but runs into Tigger, who is still in his Backson outfit, and mistakes him for the actual monster. Piglet escapes from Tigger on a red balloon, which knocks some of the storybook's letters into the pit.
After the chase, Tigger and Piglet fall into the trap as well where Eeyore reminds Tigger that he, being "the only one," is "the most wonderful thing about Tiggers." Eventually, Pooh figures out how to use the fallen letters to form a ladder and his friends are able to escape the pit. They soon find Christopher Robin, and tell him about the Backson, but he clarifies by saying that he meant to be "back soon." The honey pot prize is given to the red balloon from earlier, much to Pooh's dismay.
Later, Pooh visits Owl only to find that Owl is the one that has taken Eeyore's tail, not realizing that it belongs to Eeyore. Owl has been using Eeyore's tail as a bell-pull for his door. Pooh chooses to leave and return the tail to Eeyore, instead of sharing a pot of honey with Owl. Christopher Robin is proud of Pooh's selflessness and rewards him with a large pot of honey.
In a post-credits scene, the Backson is revealed to really exist, but is actually very nice and gentle. He finds the items left for him, including the chalk drawing of himself to which he calls it a "scary looking fella." Assuming the items belong to "him," he starts picking them up but ends up falling into the pit.

Voice cast

first approached Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall in November 2008 about making a new Winnie the Pooh film for theaters, with the two becoming enthusiastic at the idea and accepting the project. In 2009, Lasseter, Anderson and Hall viewed the classic Winnie the Pooh feature shorts and films to figure out how to make the title character culturally relevant. Anderson is best known for his effort on Meet the Robinsons, Journey Beneath the Sea, Brother Bear, The Emperor's New Groove and Bolt. Hall also has veteran status at Walt Disney Animation Studios, significantly contributing to The Princess and the Frog, Meet the Robinsons, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, The Emperor's New Groove and Tarzan.
Following a trip to Ashdown Forest in Sussex, South East England to explore the location of A. A. Milne's original stories, the filmmakers enlisted Burny Mattinson, a Disney veteran who worked as the key animator on the 1974 short Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, to serve as lead storyboard artist for the film, with Anderson and Hall directing. Mattinson's five-minute pitch for the sequence where Eeyore loses his tail is credited with convincing Disney executives to make the film a feature-length work instead of a featurette. Regarding the decision to use hand-drawn animation in lieu of computer-generated imagery, Anderson stated that "f this were a fully CG-animated and rendered and lit Pooh, it just wouldn’t feel right. We would be doing the characters a real disservice." Many of the animation staff from The Princess and the Frog were brought in to work on Winnie the Pooh, as the two films involved traditional animation. The production would also use the same software utilized for Princess and the Frog, Toon Boom Animation's Harmony, to digitally ink and paint the drawings.
Originally, the film was supposed to feature five stories from the A. A. Milne books, but the final cut ended up drawing inspiration from three stories. Executive producer John Lasseter had also announced that Rabbit's friends and relatives would be in the film, but their scene was ultimately deleted.

Release

The film was released on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 in Belgium; April 11 in Germany; and on April 15 in the United Kingdom It was released on July 15, 2011 in the United States.

Short films

The film was preceded by the animated short The Ballad of Nessie, which was about a friendly Loch Ness Monster named Nessie and how she and her best friend MacQuack, the rubber duck, came to live in the moor they now call home. In some international screenings, the episode "Cubby's Goldfish" from the Disney Junior series Jake and the Never Land Pirates also appeared.

Home media

The film was first released on DVD only on August 22, 2011 in the UK, where it does not fall under the numbered Animated Classic branding. In the US, it was released as number 51 in the Animated Classics range on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on October 25, 2011. The releases included animated shorts The Ballad of Nessie and Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: "Pooh's Balloon," as well as deleted scenes.

Reception

Critical response

Winnie the Pooh received generally positive reviews, with many critics praising its animation, voice acting, screenplay and musical numbers, while also criticizing the very short film length. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of 128 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.23/10. Its consensus states "Short, nostalgic, and gently whimsical, Winnie the Pooh offers young audiences—and their parents—a sweetly traditional family treat." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 74 based on 26 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film an "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Gary Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times says the film "proves a fitting tribute to one of the last century's most enduring children's tales." A. O. Scott of The New York Times praised the film for being able to charm children and parents alike. Roger Ebert, giving it 3 stars out of 4, wrote in his review, "In a time of shock-value 3-D animation and special effects, the look of the film is gentle and pleasing. It was hand-animated, I'm told, and the backgrounds use a subtle and reassuring watercolor style. It's a nightmare-proof experience for even the youngest viewers."
While Platform Online stated that Winnie the Poohs "hand-drawn animation is such a welcome relief," it found the film's run-time length to be more of an issue, which it stated "At just 70 minutes, even aiming at kids this could have been longer – Pixar have been pushing films well over 90 minutes for years now, and it's clear the children can handle it. Just as you really get into the film it's over, and you're left wanting more."

Box office

Despite favorable reviews, Winnie the Pooh underperformed at the American box office due to opening on the same weekend as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. It earned $7.9 million in its opening weekend from 2,405 single-screen locations, averaging about $3,267 per venue, and ranking sixth for the weekend. The film closed on September 22, 2011, with a final domestic gross of $26.7 million, with the opening weekend making up 29.44% of the final gross. Among its overseas grosses, Winnie the Pooh had its largest gross in Japan with $4.13 million; the country has had a long-standing affection for the character of Winnie the Pooh. Other international grosses include $1.33 million in Germany, $1.29 million in Poland, $1.18 million in the UK and $1.14 million in Russia. Overall, it made $23.4 million overseas, bringing its worldwide gross to $50.1 million, making it a box office disappointment considering its $30 million budget.

Accolades

Soundtrack

Hoping to find the right songwriters for their film, Winnie the Pooh directors Anderson and Hall sent visuals to five songwriting teams. The duo instantly fell in love with the demos returned by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who had previously worked with executive producer Lasseter and Disney music executive Chris Montan on the theme park musical version of Finding Nemo. The first song which the songwriting candidates were asked to write was the one which became "Everything Is Honey," in which Pooh undergoes a wild hallucination in his desperate hunger for honey. The Lopezes' inspiration for writing their successful demo was their desperate lack of sleep at the time because of the restlessness of their then-newborn younger daughter, Annie. The Lopezes wrote seven songs for the film, including "The Tummy Song," "A Very Important Thing to Do," "Everything Is Honey," "The Winner Song," "The Backson Song," "Pooh's Finale," and "It's Gonna Be Great." "The Backson Song" was also inspired, again, by the Lopezes' ongoing issues with their younger daughter's difficulty with sleeping through the night, as well as the fact that Disney's request for the song came in while they were on "the vacation from hell" on Fire Island and they had to borrow a piano at a local church to compose it. In the song, Kanga mentions that one thing that Backsons do is "wake up babies at one and three." Zooey Deschanel performed three songs for the film, including a take on the Winnie the Pooh theme song, "A Very Important Thing to Do" and an original end-credit song "So Long," which was written by Deschanel and performed with She & Him bandmate M. Ward.
The film was scored by Henry Jackman, with additional music by Christopher Willis.
In the trailer, the song "Somewhere Only We Know" by English alternative rock band Keane was used instead of the music written by Jackman. The song by Keane is not included on the soundtrack.
The song "So Long" was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2012 ceremony. The film's acclaimed track "The Backson Song," along with "So Long," were part of the pre-nominees for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Henry Jackman for the Best Original Score category list. However, none of them received the nominations.
Although Winnie the Pooh did not do as well as hoped because it opened against the last film of the Harry Potter series, it was while working on the film that Disney executives started to really notice the Lopezes' "instinct for storytelling with music." In turn, they did not have to audition for their next Disney project; instead, Disney pitched Frozen to them.

Other versions

released five versions, for the song "Welcome to my world" featuring Edyta Bartosiewicz for the Polish version, Witaj w moim świecie , :ro:Anca Sigartău|Anca Sigartău for the Romanian version, Bun Venit în Lumea mea , Zséda for the Hungarian version, Az én világom , Evgenia Vlasova for the Ukrainian version, Мій світ , and :bg:Белослава|Beloslava for the Bulgarian version, Добре дошъл в моя свят .

Stage adaptation

A musical theatre adaptation, titled Disney's Winnie the Pooh KIDS, uses additional music from Will Van Dyke and additional lyrics and scenes by Cheryl Davies.