Product Review

The homogenized Disney version of Pooh Bear is so firmly established by now that it has virtually supplanted the classic A.A. Milne/Ernest Shephard renditions of the Hundred Acre Wood characters, introduced in a series of British children's books first published in the 1920s. This initial installment won director Wolfgang Reitherman (The Jungle Book) a 1966 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, and at the time the prize seemed a bad joke, a self-administered pat on the back for deflavorized commercial kid-culture. The Disneyfication of the planet has progressed to the point that this early, gentle, tuneful outing looks pretty benign, almost a beloved artifact in its own right. The sickly songs by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman (Mary Poppins) qualify as camp classics. The inimitable growly tones of Sterling Holloway, as Pooh, are a definite asset, although the melancholy donkey Eeyore (voice by Ralph Wright, who also wrote the screenplay) is probably the most successful page-to-screen translation, lugubrious and droll at the same time. --David Chute