Calling Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving a full-length adventure is a little bit of a lie. Ok, so it’s a huge lie, as it’s neither full-length nor adventuresome. The truth is, it’s a compilation of three previously televised stories set in the Hundred Acre Wood tied together with a truly awful song with lines like “every season brings a reason” and animation even more tragic in comparison. The characters in the segments look nothing like the characters in between, and I’m pretty sure Piglet’s face isn’t supposed to look like it got squashed.
The first episode, Groundpiglet’s Day, isn’t so bad. Tigger and friends all get confused and believe it is Groundhog’s Day (due to a mishap with Rabbit’s calendar and a gust of wind). Since they don’t know any groundhogs, they come up with the fabulous idea of shoving Piglet in a hole to see if he sees his shadow. He doesn’t, so it must be spring…until it snows the next day. Rabbit (that douchebag) blames Piglet, and poor little Piglet feels so bad he goes searching for a real groundhog to tell him when it will be spring. Rabbit figures out what happened, goes searching for Piglet, and they all live happily ever after or at least until Thanksgiving, when Rabbit messes everything up again.
After several pages are flipped (and the motion sickness kicks in) and more of that ridiculous song, comes A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving. All of the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood are set to have a very happy Thanksgiving dinner with Christopher Robin, until Rabbit prances in and tells them that they are messing the whole thing up. Are you sensing a pattern here? He sends his friends on a mission to prepare the best meal they can find, and of course Pooh and Piglet are sent off to find the turkey. However, since neither one of them knows what a turkey is, they actually capture Tigger and Eeyore. The whole event is rather comical, and children will really enjoy it, though adults may get exasperated with the shenanigans. Ultimately, the holiday gets ruined and everyone realizes that all that matters is spending the day with their loved ones.
Then comes Find Her, Keep Her. Rabbit rescues Kessie, an adorable little bird who was caught in a terrible storm. Now before you say, “Aww, maybe he isn’t such a jerk,” keep in mind the only reason he was outside was that he was trying to save his garden from the snow. It was a wrong place, wrong time kind of moment. Anyway, Rabbit rescues her, she grows up and it’s time for her to fly south for the winter. The trouble is, Rabbit won’t let her fly. She eventually goes anyway, and Rabbit gets over himself for long enough to wish her off.
As I watched this DVD, I came to the conclusion that a better title might be Winnie the Pooh: Rabbit is a Jerk and Learns Lots of Lessons (Complete with New Crudely Drawn Animation and Voices that Don't Match in Some Parts). Overall, while this isn’t as great as the original Winnie the Pooh show, it completely trumps The Tigger Movie and those crappy Heffalump movies. So if you have to choose one, I’d go with this.
DVD Bonus Features
This disc includes two episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which have never before been released on DVD. As I am a firm believer that every child should know the story of The Wishing Bear, I think the entire DVD is worth it just for this. However, if you’re not convinced, there is a beautiful collectible stocking that comes with the gift set. There are also two dreadfully boring games. "Decorate Your Own Christmas Tree" is pretty self-explanatory, although it might be more fun if the tree could be decorated with more than three ornaments at a time. "Coloring Fun with Piglet" might be fun for children, but it promotes conformity and will probably make the child a mindless drone. What kind of coloring activity tells you that the color you chose for something is wrong?
"Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving - 10th Anniversary Edition" is on sale September 29, 2009 and is rated G. Animation, Children & Family. Directed by Jun Falkenstein, Harry Arunds, Karl Geurs, Gary Katona, Ed Wexler. Written by Barbara Slade, Jimmy Danelli, Mark Zaslove, Carter Crocker, Larry Bernard, Doug Hutchinson. Starring Jim Cummings, John Fiedler, Paul Winchell, Peter Cullen, Brady Bluhm.
