178 replies to this topic

[Thom Wade]

You guys take your Pooh seriously...

[mrmando]

Well, at least Matt and I do.

[SDG]

I think we need Stef back.

[Overstreet]

I'm sure that my childhood - in which I experienced the Hundred Acre Wood in both its written and Disney forms simultaneously - affects my perception of things. I didn't come to notice the differences until I was old enough to make those kinds of judgments. By then, I was already fond of both, and one probably influenced the other. I can see the differences, but I guess the Disney versions don't disrupt my enjoyment of the texts, or vice versa. They overlap nicely for me, in spite of obvious differences.

Edited by Overstreet, 12 November 2010 - 03:43 PM.

[SDG]

For the purposes of this discussion, Jeffrey and I are the same person.

[Overstreet]

It's good strategy for you to cover the east coast while I cover the west, Steven.

[mrmando]

For the purposes of this discussion, I'm British. I invoke my English ancestor who arrived in the 1830s with a horsehair trunk, as well as my distant great-great-uncle from the Isle of Man.

[MattPage]

Buckeye Jones, on 12 November 2010 - 08:07 AM, said:

What do you think missed? The voice?

I think the voice is a part of it, I guess I expect Pooh to be British, partly because I am. But of course this is an American made film, so perhaps that#s being churlish.

SDG, on 12 November 2010 - 10:27 AM, said:

IMO, for honoring the voice of the source author, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh surpasses every other Disney adaptation ever made.

Of course, Many Adventures skeptics may easily reply "That's not saying much." But I think it says enough.

So when VotDT is upon us will you praise it (or whichever of the Narnia films is in your opinion least worst) with such similarly faint damns as well?

Peter T Chattaway, on 12 November 2010 - 10:52 AM, said:

MattPage wrote:
: . . . such a whimsical, quintessentially British work.

Well, Winnie himself is Canadian, "Winnie" being short for "Winnipeg" and all. So if Canadians are caught somewhere between Britain and America in their sensibilities, perhaps it's only right that the Winnie-the-Pooh films should be, too?

Isn't Winnie (the toy bear - Edward to give him his real name) only named after an actual bear called Winnipeg. In Edward's case I don't think Winnie is short for anything. Like my daughter, Nina, is named after her grandmother who was a Christina, but known as Nina. My daughter is just Nina.

mrmando, on 12 November 2010 - 01:06 PM, said:

Sigh ...

Quote

They haven't got Brains, any of them, only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think.

If you think Sterling Holloway is Pooh, that's because you've never heard Maurice Evans ...

Nor Lionel Jeffries, nor Alan Bennett for that matter. Holloway sounds like a constrictor that's got both a panther and a man cub stuck in his throat.

Overstreet, on 12 November 2010 - 03:43 PM, said:

I'm sure that my childhood - in which I experienced the Hundred Acre Wood in both its written and Disney forms simultaneously - affects my perception of things. I didn't come to notice the differences until I was old enough to make those kinds of judgments. By then, I was already fond of both, and one probably influenced the other. I can see the differences, but I guess the Disney versions don't disrupt my enjoyment of the texts, or vice versa. They overlap nicely for me, in spite of obvious differences.

I guess what's influenced me is the Jeffries readings which we played again and again in the car. I am, as a result, much more familiar with Pooh 2 than Pooh 1 as a result, and British fully reproduced read out Pooh more than the Disney film which I watched in the cinema but probably never saw again (as we didn't have a video till I was past that stage).


Matt

PS I should probably stop. Much as I like trying, and usually failing to prove myself right, I don't really like making others agree I'm right when it means they lose their love of something I don't love.

[mrmando]

Nothing against Sterling Holloway ... love most of his characters, particularly Roquefort, and I still cherish a recording of him reading some of Kipling's Just So Stories.

But it was Evans who got to me first with Pooh, just as it was Basil Rathbone who got to me first with Peter and the Wolf (to cite another Disney/Holloway piece that betrays its source material ... got news for you, kids: before Walt & Sterling showed up, the wolf really DID eat the duck!). Not really interested in any of the hundreds of other Peter and the Wolf recordings, with the possible exception of my man Michael Flanders (if I can ever find a copy).

Evans was noted for his Broadway portrayal of Romeo in 1935; years later he played Friar Laurence in an audio recording of the play, and used nearly the same voice he'd used for Winnie-the-Pooh!

[SDG]

MattPage, on 12 November 2010 - 05:24 PM, said:

Quote

Of course, Many Adventures skeptics may easily reply "That's not saying much." But I think it says enough.

So when VotDT is upon us will you praise it (or whichever of the Narnia films is in your opinion least worst) with such similarly faint damns as well?

Three films in a single franchise is hardly a comparable context to the hodgepodge of Disney adaptations over the years.

[Peter T Chattaway]

MattPage wrote:
: Isn't Winnie (the toy bear - Edward to give him his real name) only named after an actual bear called Winnipeg.

You'd be surprised the lengths we Canadians can go, in order to claim celebrities as our own.

Actually, no, maybe you WOULDN'T be surprised. They're the same lengths that Christians often go.

Overstreet wrote:
: It's good strategy for you to cover the east coast while I cover the west, Steven.

Ah, but the British Invasion can still come from the north! Have Powell & Pressburger taught us NOTHING!?

[Peter T Chattaway]

Just for the record, here's the Canadian Heritage Moment spot on Winnie-the-Pooh that played in theatres and/or on TV a while back:

[Persona]

SDG, on 12 November 2010 - 03:35 PM, said:

I think we need Stef back.

I think it's somewhat obvious you're doing fine without me, and that if I can turn the Ordet discussion into a discussion on Herbie Goes Bananas and not even know how to spell bananananas, well, no telling what I'd do to a thread dedicated to a stupid poo bear.

However, after watching some of the discussion, I may take the kids to this next summer. I'll watch your reviews. You have got to know that I love my kids when I'm willing to suffer through all these bad movies for them. And no, I haven't stepped on them (yet).

[SDG]

Stef, you misunderstand. I want you to wrestle Mrmando.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed that while the animal voices are all reasonable approximations of the established ones from the earlier cartoons, Christopher Robin suddenly has a decided English accent?

[Peter T Chattaway]

I'm just glad that Christopher Robin is a boy again.

And wait a minute, do you mean he never had an English accent BEFORE?

[Peter T Chattaway]

Hmmm. Bruce Reitherman (part one of The Many Adventures) was born in California (he also did the voice of Mowgli in The Jungle Book), but Jon Walmsley (part two of The Many Adventures) was born in Lancashire; there is no info on where Timothy Turner (part three of The Many Adventures) was born. There is similarly no information on Kim Christianson (1983's A Day for Eeyore), though it bears mentioning that Tom Attenborough (2000's The Tigger Movie) and Tom Wheatley (2003's Piglet's Big Movie) have lent their voices to Harry Potter video games. (Was there no Christopher Robin in 2005's Pooh's Heffalump Movie? I guess there might not have been... though it bears mentioning that Secrets & Lies co-star Brenda Blethyn was brought in to voice the mother heffalump.)

[Andrew]

Today's NY Times had an article mainly about Tangled, but had this sentence: "Next year the studio will release a new “Winnie the Pooh” movie, a hand-drawn affair that is more of an effort to prop up declining merchandise sales for that franchise than to carve new creative ground." Ugh...

[CrimsonLine]

I haven't read the article to see the context, but that sounds more like an interpretation by the reporter than a direct attribution of the intent of the filmmakers.

[Andrew]

I hope you're right, but I'm pretty cynical about Disney's level of cynicism.

[CrimsonLine]

Well, I'm cynical about your cynicism about Disney's cynicism! So there!