Winnie the Pooh Still Holds Up

Of all the character-driven shows and movies I’ve enjoyed (or in some cases endured) with my seven year old daughter over the years, my favorite has always been Winnie the Pooh. There’s just something about Pooh Bear and his friends that always makes me feel happy and if you pay attention, you might note that some of the humor is also rather clever!

We recently picked up The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: The Friendship Edition on DVD and though we’ve seen The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh many times before on videotape (I even remember it from when I was child), it was even better on DVD because The Friendship Edition has been digitally restored and remastered and comes with many fun and interesting bonus features such as:

• The Very First Episode Of The New Series MY FRIENDS TIGGER & POOH (finally with a female character besides Kanga!)
• “The Story Behind The Masterpiece” Featurette
• Winnie The Pooh Art Gallery
• “The 100 Acre Wood Challenge” Game
• Disney Storytime: “Pooh’s Shadow”
• “The Winnie The Pooh Theme Song” Performance By Carly Simon
• Sing Along Song: “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers”
• Pooh’s Pop-Up Fun Facts
• “A Day For Eeyore” Classic Short

The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh is actually three animated shorts, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974), edited together to form a film and the tales are narrated by Sebastian Cabot, who some of you might remember as Mr. French, the beloved butler from A Family Affair.

The three shorts still hold up and to me, are as charming as ever but with better sound and a nice clean look. I highly recommend this to anyone who has small children (that are allowed to watch TV, of course. I know some parents are opposed to it) because it’s truly wholesome, and for lack of a better term, heartwarming entertainment from an era where a kid’s movie was TRULY a kid’s movie.

And lucky readers that you are, Props and Pans is giving away a brand new copy of The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: The Friendship Edition on DVD next week! Check back on Monday for details.