Movie Review: Winnie the Pooh Is Back on the Big Screen

by Kia Morgan Smith on July 16th, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Movie Review—On Friday, the beloved Winnie the Pooh bear, Tigger, and their clumsy crew pounced back on the big screen nationwide in the new Winnie the Pooh movie.

I give this delightful tale an A+. the movie is not exactly the same slow-paced Pooh stories from the original A.A. Milne books and I applaud that. This movie takes you on a journey to find Eeyore’s missing tail with Pooh and all of the original characters like Christopher Robin, Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo, Piglet and Owl. There’s singing and dancing and searching for a “Backson”! The stuffed characters bumble several attempts to find Christopher Robin who they believe has been kidnapped by a monster called the “Backson” and Pooh’s tummy rumbles throughout as he searches for some golden honey.

Recently when speaking with the directors of the movie Don Hall and Stephen Anderson, they said they took six stories from the original A.A. Milne Pooh books and weaved them into one narrative. And I love the end result. The movie moves a lot faster with fast-paced songs, and eye-popping animations which brought the story to life by incorporating, well, the actual story. The narrator, voiced by John Clease, is as much a part of the story as Pooh and the words from the storybook literally leaps off the pages too. That’s a very cute new-age touch to an old-school tale. Pooh is about 85 years old, you know. At one point, the words from the page even helped Pooh and his friends get out of a tough situation.

But it’s the characters in the story that makes this sweet tale come alive. Pooh is just himself, laid back, a little lazy (he didn’t want to even get out of bed in the beginning) and looking to hit the jackpot by finding a honeypot. This is a very charming story for the young and young at heart.

Kids will find it amusing to watch little old Piglet muster up the courage to help his friends. Rabbit is fussy as ever but leads the pack and puts together a plan to get Christopher Robin back. Owl is the know-it-all who leads the group a little off course and Kanga is the loving mom who tries to give her motherly support to all her friends and not just her kid, Roo. And Eeyore is as dismal as usual. He’s not happy at all about the whole ordeal. But then again, he’s never happy, right? His tail goes through quite a few very funny transformations too.

I have to mention, Jim Cummings, did an excellent job as the voice of Pooh and Tigger. And for all the Spongebob fans, please know that the voice of Rabbit is none other than Tom Kenny, Mr. Spongebob Squarepants himself!

This movie is short and sweet and 70 minutes feels just right. Especially when you’ve got little kids who get restless in movie seats which are usually uncomfortable for them to sit in. But make sure you stay through all the credits to the very end, there’s a nice surprise. But even more of a surprise is the fact that you may laugh and chuckle through this movie way more than your kids.

Who is your favorite Winnie the Pooh character?

Kia Morgan Smith, author of the delightful children’s book, Goony Goo-Goo and Ga-Ga Too, is a passionate and dedicated educator and former award-winning education reporter from Philadelphia. She has five kids and balances life like nobody’s business—all of which she chronicles on her blog,CincoMom. An if she's not blogging or writing she's running her non-profit organization Atlanta Diaper Relief. She lives with her husband and their family in Atlanta.