Film Review: Winnie The Pooh

Posted in Film, Reviews
By Sam Bathe on 11 Apr 2011

Pooh’s first outing on the silver screen for some time, Winnie The Pooh feels like it’s come out of nowhere, with very little build up to honey-hungry bear’s return, and to be honest, a lack of anticipation is probably a good thing.

Set in the classic Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh and the gang go in search of a new tail for Eyor, after he wakes up one morning to find it missing. Proposing everything from a balloon to a trash can lid, the crisis is averted when they at last find an able replacement; only a bigger problem soon emerges. With Pooh foraging for honey, he stumbles upon a note at Christopher Robin’s house saying he’s been kidnapped by a mystical creature called the Backson. Rounding up the troops, the bear leads a charge to rescue their friend, and hopefully find some honey on the way too.

If the story sounds a little light, quite frankly that’s because it is. Two brisk crusades, with a couple of songs in between, Winnie The Pooh was always going to be aimed at very young eyes, but even with the target audience in mind, it’s far too tame and dreadfully linear. There’s perhaps enough plot for two three-minute shorts, but here they’re stretched into a couple of 30-minute segments bolted together as one longer movie.

Not once does Winnie The Pooh attempt any sort of real development, the plot instead is remarkably simple and painfully linear. There’s no excitement, no intrigue and no spark or life to the whole production. Even at only one hour long, it feels bloated and grows tired long before the end.

The only ounce of creativity; at times the characters walk into an animated book and interact with the typography, but that’s far from enough to save the film, even with song nice songs sung by Zooey Deschanel.

1/5

Nothing in this film really stands out, it’s one big non-event, but that means at least it won’t ruin the memory of Pooh for older eyes, it’s far too bland to do that.

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