With the new Winnie the Pooh move released in the UK today, Johnny Lincoln had the chance to review the movie for Disneybrit.com
Walt Disney Animation Studio’s returns to the Hundred Acre Wood with the first big-screen Pooh adventure after an absence of 35 years. Directed by Stephen Anderson (Meet the Robinsons) and produced by Peter Del Vecho (The Princess and the Frog) this all new movie attempts to reunite old audiences and introduce a whole new generation with the philosophical, and slightly ditzy Winnie the Pooh and his friends Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga, Roo and last but not least Eeyore.
Funny man John Cleese (Shrek Forever After) serves as the narrator for “Winnie the Pooh” and does a remarkable job of linking the story together, with a mixture of whit and sarcasm. The main crux of the story revolves around everyone’s favourite, if borderline depressive, donkey Eeyore losing his tail…this main story is accompanied up with two smaller side stories revolving around Winnie the Pooh needing Honey and saving Christopher Robin from an imaginary, if slightly scary, culprit named ‘Backsun’
The film is incredibly well animated, sticking true to the classic animation used in Winnie the Pooh movies in years past, rather than the more refined cgi effects used by Pixar and Walt Disney in more recent times. The story is very entertaining for children however parents may be a little disappointed with the lack of more adult humour usually found in children’s films these days which may come as a bit of a surprise considering this film is executive produced by John Lasseter of Disney Pixar fame.
As a fan of Winnie the Pooh it was nice to see that the voice cast included favourites who have voiced their characters previously, Jim Cummings (Gnomeo & Juliet) lends his voice once again to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger and Travis Oates (My Friends Tigger and Pooh) provides Piglets voice. I was however slightly disappointed with the musical overtone of the film however this does appeal to children who the film is ultimately aimed for.
My two son’s aged 2 and 4 both really enjoyed the film and I’d recommend the film to families with young children and to die hard Winnie the Pooh fans, however I do not believe that this film will appeal to those outside of the diehard Disney, family or Winnie the Pooh fans, there just was not enough to the film to enable me to give the film a rave review.
Overall for Adults I’d give the film a 2 out of five, for young children this can be extended to a 4 out of five and an overall 3 out of five.
Johnny Lincoln
Winnie the Pooh is released nationwide in the UK today and 15th July in the US