The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

(On DVD, September 2019) I come to the 1977 version of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh a bit late, having seen and enjoyed the 2011 Winnie the Pooh much earlier. As it happens, both movies share the same kind of gentle fun, strong characterization, meta-fictional devices, and fix-up nature. The 1977 film is more obvious as to its nature as a collection: All three segments had appeared separately as short films before being bundled together as a feature-length movie. Still, the tone is very consistent from one to the other, and the whole thing does feel of a piece. Of course, some familiarity and liking of A.A. Milne’s universe helps—it’s easy and darkly amusing to describe the characters of the Hundred Acre Wood in derogatory terms (a bear with a serious substance addiction, a tiger without personal boundaries, a donkey with clinical depression) but that’s missing the point by a hundred kilometres: it’s a charming family movie, gentle and fun and clever at the same time. As an adult, I’m perhaps more interested by the film’s metafictional tricks as the characters and narrator know that they’re in a book and sometimes take advantage of the fact. Still, the kids are likely to like the result without fuss: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is as likable as children’s stories come, and the film faithfully adapt its literary inspiration.