Back when I was in my late teens and early adulthood, I remember Winnie the Pooh being quite the cash cow for Disney. That was when the Disney catalog was a huge thing and I can vividly remember Pooh items taking up half the catalog while Mickey Mouse and gang inhabited the other half. Then the catalog was disbanded and marketing for the big Pixar films took over and I honestly forgot about Winnie the Pooh. Keep in mind that I’m not the target audience for such things and maybe Winnie the Pooh is still big on the Disney Channel, but when I received WINNIE THE POOH: A VERY MERRY POOH YEAR to review, it was like seeing a blast from my past. Although I’ve never been Pooh’s biggest fan, I was very interested to see his Christmas-themed feature length film.
WINNIE THE POOH: A VERY MERRY POOH YEAR is actually two short stories squished into one film, since a typical Pooh segment is only thirty minutes long. The first part of the film follows the gang of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit and Eeyore as they desperately try to get back a letter Christopher Robin sent to Santa Claus because Pooh forgot to put down what he wanted for Christmas. The second part is less Christmas-y and mostly focuses on friendship. In this part Rabbit decides he doesn’t want to be friends with the others, so they change their personalities for their New Year’s resolution so that Rabbit will accept them more. Of course, Rabbit sees how horrible that works out and all is resolved in the end, in true Disney fashion.
Although it’s probably not going to be one of those Christmas films that you’ll go back to year after year, WINNIE THE POOH: A VERY MERRY POOH YEAR will be great for parents to add to their collection for younger kiddos. With a runtime of 64 minutes (that felt like forever at times), I imagine it’s a perfect amount of time to let the kids wind down with a wholesome Christmas themed film during the holiday season. Parents will get bored with the storyline quickly, but in true Disney fashion the quality is great and it’s easy to get sucked into the scenery and the characters, which is great because you probably won’t get sucked into the story after the first viewing.
Having recently taken the plunge into parenthood, I’m happy to add WINNIE THE POOH: A VERY MERRY POOH YEAR to my collection of holiday films. Even though it will never make it into my yearly Christmas movie viewing extravaganza, I’ll be happy to pop it into the Blu-ray player if my kids ask for it, knowing that there’s a good message to be learned, even if the main character is as dumb as a pile of bricks at times.
Video: All Disney films have great video quality, this one is no exception.
Audio: Not a lot of big explosions or chase scenes, so surround sound is obviously not utilized, but the audio used is good.
Disney’s Song Selection (5:58): This is a short collection of Christmas songs sung by the gang, with the added option of playing the film with on-screen lyrics.
Enchanted Environment (24:01): A holiday screensaver that plays music, sound effects or both while a halfway animated segment plays in the background. This is not on a loop, so it won’t work for Christmas parties.
Disney Intermission: Anytime you pause the film you’ll get to see a kid-friendly intermission with games and activities. This is more entertaining than the film at times.
Digital Copy
