Winnie The Pooh

From the worst of the week, here is the first of the week's two best films.  And, yes, it's not much longer than a capsule review but that's what happens when you have seven films coming out in a week.

From Channel24 (Originally posted 12 May 2011)

What it's about

Winnie The Pooh is back with a very traditional hand-drawn animated film. This time Pooh is on his usual search for some honey but it's not long before he and the other residents of the 100 Acre Wood find themselves looking for a replacement for Eeyore's lost tail and for Christopher Robin who they mistakenly believe has been kidnapped.

What we thought

This, the latest in a long line of screen adaptations of AA Milne's classic Winnie The Pooh books, may be a bit too inconsequential and lightweight to go down as a true classic but it's a massively charming, old-fashioned little film that is sure to delight young children and their parents alike.

Without needing to fall back on post-modern, pop-culture references, Winnie The Pooh's humour feels both more timeless and far more gentle than most of today's kids fare and it's flat out funnier to boot. On the other hand, though this version of Winnie The Pooh deserves the criticisms it has received for not having the same melancholic attitude towards growing up that the best of Pooh (middle name “The”, of course) is known for, it's still massively sweet without being overly saccharine and is child-like rather than childish. It's also wonderfully bonkers as only Winnie The Pooh can be.

It's no classic but between its beautiful animation (its, if you excuse the pun, novel use of storybook storytelling is especially terrific), solid voice-acting, good jokes and oodles of charm – all over the span of a very snappy 69 minutes, including a wonderful short that precedes the main feature – Winnie The Pooh is a great film to take the kids to and one that you may well enjoy just as much yourself.