Winnie the Pooh

There’s a lot of weirdness in here. And there’s a fine line between eccentric and moronic. This movie is like what Winnie-the-Pooh would have been like if Milne had had ADD. A key part of the original's appeal was its essential Englishness; that makes it odd how many of the characters here are voiced by Americans. Further, the old stories’ gentle nature was a huge part of what made them special; the tale here often veers towards slapstick (though it at least never devolves to meanness). And while the tale itself is clearly inspired by a couple of incidents in the original books, it is largely one chapter that has been stretched into a feature length picture. (Or almost so; the running time barely breaks an hour.) Put together, you have an effort here that seems to have come from people who simply don’t understand the source material. That’s not to say this film is all bad; there are some clever moments sprinkled throughout, including witty lyrics in the numerous if slightly intrusive songs. (The tunes were penned by the Lopezes, who would really strike gold a few years later with Frozen.) Also notable and admirable is the artwork (particularly the backgrounds), which faithfully renders Shepard’s vision from the originals. It makes sense that a studio would want to mine their properties as much as they could for new original content—but it’s never a given that the derivative works will burnish the legacy of the classic work. It really would be better to just let the old stories remain the perennial classics and not try to gild that lily. Focus on making the next great original thing, rather than beating an old horse--or bear--to death. Which is a top-level way of saying, watch this one if you like, and get what enjoyment you can from it, but don’t expect it to be a match for what the true version is.