Hey guys! Gerawallstar here, and I am here to review the 51st Walt Disney animated film called Winnie the Pooh. This film is the last hand-drawn film from Disney. Fun fact: Disney was originally going to make one hand-drawn movie every two years after the modest success of The Princess and the Frog. Unfortunately, Disney had this stupid strategy of releasing this film on the very same day as the final Harry Potter movie called Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows part II, making this film flop at the box office. After the box office failure of this film, Disney scrapped the idea of making more 2D films and eliminated hand-drawn animation all together. In my opinion, I like this movie. It’s a really good movie but not the best film of the revival era sadly.
Story:
The story has three stories bundled together starting with Pooh searching for Honey, the second being about a contest searching for Eeyore’s tail, and the last story about Pooh and his friends searching for the backson. The stories in this film are relatively good but the issues is that unlike the 1977 film where there are several stories, theres only three stories which isnt a lot for a Winnie the Pooh film. This problem is even more noticeable when you realized this film is only an hour long. That doesn’t mean that this ruins the overall story because there are some good moments in the story. For example: there are a few funny moments such as Roo requesting Piglet to go search for something and the funny moment where Pooh mistakes Rabbit for saying a knock knock joke when he talking about a knot. I also loved the scene where Tigger was trying to cheer Eeyore up. Its really entertaining. The message of the movie is really good. It teaches kids to be more considerate towards others than always yourself. The story is fine but could still use more work with a longer runtime and more stories. I give the story 6 stars.
Animation:
The animation is fantastic. As Disneys last hand-drawn film, the animation really holds up. It has that classic animation style reminiscent of the original Winnie the Pooh. The characters designs are solid. And the CGI effects of the honey look surprisingly great. The best part of the animation is the chalkboard sequence in one of the songs. My criticism with the animation is that it may be too good. Dont get me wrong, the animation is still amazing but it feel like it’s too polished to the point where it didnt really need to be updated. Christopher Robin’s eyes for instance should’ve stayed as it was in the original. The animation is still a piece of art, and it makes me wish that Disneys has done more of this animation. I give the animation nine stars.
Characters:
The characters are really enjoyable. I loved the titular character Winnie the Pooh. Hes naive but loveable. I loved his character development at the end of the film. Tigger is the same loveable energetic character we all grew up with. He is my favorite out of the characters in the franchise. The other characters such as Piglet, Owl, and Eeyore are also enjoyable. Rabbit has a different voice actor this time around named Tom Kenny, who was famous as his role of Spongebob Squarepants. I not only loved the Rabbit character but Tom Kenny brings out a wonderful performance as Rabbit. My problem with the characters are that there aren’t a lot of new characters. With the exception of a balloon, which I wont count. Oh and Kanga and Roo are sadly not in this movie a whole lot. The characters are good and the same ones we remember watching from the 70s film. I give the characters seven stars.
Songs:
The songs are memorable. Kirsten and Robert Lopez who would later write songs for Frozen wrote the songs for this movie. The songs do have that same quality songs that the Sherman Brothers have wrote. It makes you think that the songs in this movie were written by them. The opening song “Winnie the Pooh” sunged by Zooey Deschanel is great and catchy. However the original is better. “Its gonna be great” is memorable. “Everything is Honey” is fantastic especially because of the wonderful animation. “The Backson” is the best song of the movie and my personal favorite. The chalkboard style animation, and the funny suggestions of what the backson is what makes this song stand out. “The Winner Song” is somewhat annoying. These songs are memorable and have a distinct charm to the movie. I give the songs seven stars.
Verdict:
Winnie the Pooh(2011) is a good and faithful reboot to the original. Sure it may the weakest film of the revival and it doesnt have new characters, along with a hour long runtime ruining opportunities to make new stories. However it does make up for its flaws with beautiful hand-drawn animation, great characters are fun songs to listen to. Out of all the reboots, and live-action remakes nowadays, this film is one of the rare reboots that has heart. I give this movie seven stars out of ten. 7/10.
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