The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a 1977 American animated buddy musical comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It is the 22nd Disney animated feature film and was first released on March 11, 1977 on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves.

Its characters have spawned an industry of sequels, television programs, clothing, books, and toys, and also inspired an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland. A much more elaborate attraction, also based on the film, opened in Tokyo Disneyland as "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".

Plot
The story opens with Winnie the Pooh going through his morning exercises during which he accidentally rips the stitching on his bottom. After repairing his torn rump he goes to his pantry for some breakfast, only to discover he is out of honey. He hears a bee fly by and decides to climb a nearby honey tree, but as he reaches the beehive, a branch he is sitting on breaks, causing him to fall and land in a gorse bush. Needing help, Pooh decides to go to Christopher Robin's house to get a balloon from him. His plan is to cover himself in mud to disguise himself as a rain cloud and use the balloon to float up to the hive. As Pooh gets at the honey, and as his muddy disguise is compromised, the bees fight back against him, and the scuffle ends with the balloon losing its string, sending Pooh flying through the air until it runs out of air. After Pooh falls to the ground, getting caught by Christopher Robin, the bees proceed to chase the two down, and they barely manage to escape them by jumping into the mud puddle.

With honey still on his mind, Pooh heads to Rabbit's house in hopes of getting some. The reluctant Rabbit invites Pooh in, despite realizing the bear's vast appetite, and Pooh proceeds to eat him out of all his honey. Pooh ends up becoming very rotund, and as he tries to exit Rabbit's house, he finds himself stuck and unable to fit through his front door. After a worried Rabbit tries to free Pooh by pushing his over-sized bottom, he runs off to get Christoper Robin for help, Owl flies by and examines Pooh's predicament. The two are met by Gopher, who suggests that he blast Pooh out with dynamite for pay. Rabbit returns with Christopher Robin, and they unsuccessfully try to pull Pooh out. With Rabbit refusing to push him back in, Christopher Robin decides that Pooh will just have to wait until he gets thin again. Rabbit decides to make the best of the bad situation and tries various ways to disguise the bears bottom.

One night, while Pooh is asleep, Gopher appears once again, taking a break from his "swing shift" to eat lunch. One of the things Gopher is snacking on is a jar of honey, and Rabbit manages to prevent Pooh from having some and wards Gopher off. Some time later, Rabbit wakes up and discovers that Pooh's fat bottom has slightly shrunken, meaning it is now possible to get him out. He gets Christopher Robin, who gathers Kanga, Eeyore, Owl, Roo, and Gopher, and they all pull on Pooh from outside the house while Rabbit pushes him from inside. Finally, Rabbit charges into Pooh, which sends him flying out of the front door, through the sky, and into the honey tree, which scares away the bees inside. The gang arrives at the scene, and Christopher Robin promises Pooh that they will help him get out again. However, Pooh tells them to take their time, for now he has an ample supply of honey to eat.

many days later, Winnie the Pooh is on his way to his thoughtful spot. Today is a very windy day. But as Pooh sits thinking, Gopher pops out of the ground and advises Pooh to leave the spot because of it being "Winds-day". Pooh having misunderstood his warning goes across the Hundred Acre Wood to wish everyone a happy Winds-day. Pooh first goes to his friend Piglet who lives in a beech tree. Piglet initially came out to rake leaves but the wind proves too strong for him to handle. Piglet is nearly blown away but Pooh quickly hangs on to him by his scarf, like a kite on a string. As Pooh struggles to keep a hold of the scarf he passes by Kanga and Roo, wishing them both a happy Winds-day; Eeyore, whose stick house Pooh breaks as he passes; and finally Rabbit, who Pooh inadvertently helps harvest the carrots in his vegetable garden as he slides by.

The blustery wind finally blows Pooh and Piglet over to Owl's treehouse, where he invites them in. Pooh wishes Owl a happy Winds-day, as he has everyone else, but Owl informs them that the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr" rather than to a particular holiday. While Owl begins telling Pooh and Piglet stories of adventures his relatives had, the strong wind rocks his house back and forth causing it to sway and eventually the tree and house both collapse. Owl blames Pooh at first but Pooh says he did not do it. Christopher Robin and the others come and examine the wrecked house and since it cannot be repaired, Eeyore volunteers to seek out a new house for Owl, who proceeds to tell the others more stories of his relatives for quite some time; talking from page 41 to page 62.

Meanwhile, on page 62, as night falls, the wind is still blowing and Pooh is kept awake by growling and scratching noise and he opens his door for the visitor outside. An orange bouncing tiger named Tigger emerges from outside, rolling over Pooh and sitting on him. Tigger introduces himself with his signature song ("The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers") and informs Pooh that he has come looking for something to eat. He then decides to try some of Pooh's honey but after some tastes he gets disgusted and decides that "Tiggers don't like honey". Before leaving Pooh's house, Tigger tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest that steal honey. Pooh, frightened by Tigger's tale, stays up to guard his honey, but eventually falls fast asleep. As he is sleeping, he has a nightmare about Heffalumps and Woozles stealing his honey and chasing him around until he wakes up during a flood-inducing rainfall.

Later, Piglet is washed away from his home. He writes a bottle-note for help just before the waters carry him off, sitting on a chair. Pooh manages to reach higher ground with only ten honey pots. However, as he is eating some of the honey the rising waters carry him away. Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Tigger all gather at Christopher Robin's house, which is situated on the highest ground, while Eeyore continues house hunting for Owl. Roo finds Piglet's bottle, and Owl flies off to tell Piglet that help is on the way.

Owl manages to reach Piglet and Pooh, but before he can inform them of the impending rescue (and telling them another one of his boring stories) a waterfall threatens to carry them all over the side. Pooh switches places with Piglet as they take the plunge, and luckily for them the waterfall washes them right into Christopher Robin's yard. Thinking that Pooh had rescued Piglet, Christopher Robin decides to throw a party celebrating Pooh's heroic deed. During the party, Eeyore announces that he has found a new home for Owl. He leads everyone over to his discovery, which, known to everyone except for Owl and Eeyore, is Piglet's beech tree. Owl is very impressed with the house, but before anyone can tell him who the home belongs to, Piglet decides that Owl should have the house. Pooh decides to allow Piglet to move into his home and, is very impressed by his selflessness, asks Christopher Robin to make the hero party for two instead of one.

During the fall, Tigger has been bouncing on anyone he comes across for fun, especially Rabbit when he is gardening, which angers Rabbit, so he calls a meeting with Pooh and Piglet and formulates a plan to prevent Tigger from bouncing: abandon Tigger in the woods, and find him the next day so hopefully Tigger will stop bouncing on his friends unexpectedly. Initially the plan seems to work, but when Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet cannot find their way home, Pooh makes a suggestion about following a sandpit in order to find their way out of the forest. In an attempt to prove Pooh wrong, Rabbit wanders away. Pooh and Piglet then fall asleep, but are woken by Pooh's empty stomach. He explains to Piglet that his honeypots have been calling to his tummy from home and that he couldn't hear them over Rabbit's voice. Pooh and Piglet find their way out of the forest, but are immediately bounced by Tigger. Piglet, realizing that the plan failed, mentions Rabbit's plan, and Tigger goes into the forest to find him. Rabbit walks through the forest by himself, and is scared by numerous noises such as a caterpillar eating a leaf and frogs croaking. Rabbit tries to run away in a panic, only to be tackled by Tigger. Rabbit is humiliated that his plan to lose Tigger had failed. Tigger explains to him that "Tiggers never get lost", and takes Rabbit home.

In the next chapter, wintertime comes and Roo wants to go play. Kanga cannot be with him so she calls on Tigger to look after Roo as long as he comes back in time for Roo's nap. Tigger gladly accepts. Along the way through the woods, Tigger and Roo see Rabbit skating on the ice. Tigger tries to teach Roo how to ice skate by doing it himself, but unfortunately, he loses his balance and collides with Rabbit while trying to regain it. In moments Tigger slides into a snowbank and Rabbit crashes into his house. Tigger then decides that he does not like ice skating. Later on, while bouncing around the woods with Roo on his back, Tigger accidentally jumps to the top of a very tall tree and is afraid to climb back down. He gets even more scared when Roo uses his tail as a swing, making Tigger think he's "rocking the forest".

Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet are investigating strange animal tracks that are actually Tigger and Roo's. Suddenly, they hear Tigger howling, for help and quickly hide. At first, Pooh mistakes Tigger's howl for the sound of a "Jagular"; but after seeing that it is actually Tigger and Roo in the tree, he and Piglet come to the rescue. Shortly afterward, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and Kanga arrive and the gang uses Christopher's coat as a net for Tigger and Roo to land in once they jump from the tree. Roo successfully jumps down, but Tigger, who is still too frightened to move, makes up several excuses to not come down. Rabbit then decides that the group will just have to leave Tigger in the tree forever, on which Tigger promises never to bounce again if he ever is released from his predicament. At that moment, the narrator chimes in for help. Tigger begs him to "narrate" him down from the tree, and he tilts the book sideways, allowing Tigger to step onto the text of the page. Tigger starts to feel better that he made it this far but before he can do otherwise, the narrator tilts the book back the other way, causing Tigger to fall into the snow.

Happy, Tigger attempts to bounce but Rabbit stops him reminding Tigger of the promise he made. Devastated, Tigger realizes he cannot bounce anymore and slowly walks away and Rabbit feels better that there will be peace, but everyone else does not and felt sad to see Tigger depressed and remind Rabbit of the joy Tigger brought when he was bouncing. Then Rabbit shows sympathy for Tigger and takes back the promise they had agreed on; he is then given a friendly tackle by an overly-excited Tigger. Tigger invites everyone to bounce with him and even teaches Rabbit how to do it. For the first time, Rabbit is happy to be bouncing, as is everyone else as Tigger sings his signature song once more.

And also a fourth, shorter featurette was added to bring the film to a close. The sequence was based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner, where Christopher Robin must leave the Hundred Acre Wood behind as he is starting school. In it, Christopher Robin and Pooh discuss what they liked doing together and the boy asks his bear to promise to remember him and to keep some of the memories of their time together alive. Pooh agrees to do so, and the film closes with The Narrator saying that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting for him whenever he returns.

Later featurette
Six years after the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Disney commissioned a fourth featurette based on the stories. Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore premiered in theaters on March 11, 1983, but was never connected to the preceding films in any manner.

Voice cast

 * Winnie the Pooh, voiced by Sterling Holloway
 * Christopher Robin, voiced by Bruce Reitherman, later Jon Walmsley and Timothy Turner
 * Piglet, voiced by John Fiedler
 * Eeyore, voiced by Ralph Wright
 * Roo, voiced by Clint Howard, later Dori Whitaker
 * Kanga, voiced by Barbara Luddy
 * Tigger, voiced by Paul Winchell
 * Rabbit, voiced by Junius Matthews
 * Owl, voiced by Hal Smith
 * Gopher, voiced by Howard Morris
 * Narrated by Sebastian Cabot

Production
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize US audiences with the characters. All three shorts as well as future feature films boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".

For the character Piglet, hand gestures and other movements were used by the animators to create expressiveness, since he (and Pooh) had the appearance of dolls or stuffed animals with relatively simple button eyes. The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh's being part of the "decor of his home" was not in the original book, but was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.

Reception
Film critic Leonard Maltin called the original Pooh featurettes "gems"; he also noted that the artwork resembles the book illustrations, and that the particular length of these featurettes meant that the filmmakers didn't have to "compress or protract their script." The film holds a 92% "fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Ruth Hill Viguers, however, when writing in A Critical History of Children’s Literature during the 1960s, mentioned Disney’s Winnie the Pooh along with several other Disney adaptations as having “destroyed the integrity of the original books”.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
 * Nominated Animation Film

Home video
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS, Betamax, CED videorecord, and laserdisc in the early 1980s. In 1996, it was re-released on VHS as part of the Masterpiece Collection and included video footage of the making which was shown before the movie starts. It was released on DVD for the first time in 2002 as a 25th Anniversary Edition, with digitally restored picture and sound. The individual shorts had also been released on their own on VHS in the 1990s.

The 25th anniversary edition DVD includes, among other bonus features, "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece", which documents the history of the books and their initial film adaptations. It also features interviews with animators Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Burny Mattinson, as well as the Sherman brothers, Paul Winchell, and others. Digital Media FX reviewer Shannon Muir stated that the audio and video quality of the film on this DVD was very high.

The "Friendship Edition" DVD was re-released on June 19, 2007. All of the special features from the previous "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD were recycled; the only new addition being an episode of Playhouse Disney's computer-animated series My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The DVD re-release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of the film.

The Blu-ray version was released for the first time on August 27, 2013 along with the 3rd DVD release. The bonus features included a Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh segment, "Geniuses" and the only bonus feature that was kept from the previous DVD releases was the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song music video performed by Carly Simon.

in 2019, Green-Ray Disc version was released for the first time as it was part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection. there are the Bog Five Bonus Features, the only feature that was not combined in this film is Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. there also a Music Video by Zooey Deschanel, the deleted character called "Triangle the Triceratops", a never before seen deleted scene when Piglet built a house at Pooh Corner for Eeyore, and last but never least, the Theatrical Trailer.

Winnie the Pooh Storybook Classics was released on VHS worldwide in 1994. The featurettes include, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (February 4, 1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (December 20, 1968), Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (December 20, 1974) and Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (March 11, 1983). This VHS was last released in 2000.

Songs

 * "Winnie the Pooh"
 * "Up, Down and Touch the Ground"
 * "Rumbly in My Tumbly"
 * "Little Black Rain Cloud"
 * "Mind Over Matter"
 * "A Rather Blustery Day"
 * "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"
 * "Heffalumps and Woozles"
 * "When the Rain Rain Rain Came Down"
 * "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!"

Sequel
Walt Disney Pictures released a sequel, Winnie the Pooh, on April 15, 2011 in the United Kingdom, and on July 15, 2011 in the United States.