Winnie the Pooh (2011)

Film: Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Stars: Jim Cummings, Bud Luckey, Craig Ferguson, Jack Boulter, Travis Oates, Tom Kenny, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, John Cleese
Directors: Stephen J. Anderson & Don Hall
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

You'll be forgiven for wondering what the hell is happening on this blog this week, because A) we have a review every day-consistency! and B) the reviews feel a bit...eclectic.  Yes, as I might have mentioned either here or on social media, I'm cleaning out my drafts folder for all of the films I am behind on in terms of reviews, and in the process, am coming up with some odd movies that I have recently seen, but haven't had a chance to review.  This should hopefully mean that, as I've picked up the pace of films that I've been watching, that we should have a steady course of film reviews & content for a while now (we'll also be doing more in-depth articles about Oscar races and politics, so don't worry if those feel light this week, but I want to really focus on film reviews this week before I start adding in other elements).  Winnie the Pooh is one of the most recent Disney-animated features (a list I'm trying to get through, one of many lists that have that claim this summer), and is our seemingly random movie today.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film isn't quite as episodic as some past adventures that Disney has produced from Winnie the Pooh, but it's close.  The film's larger narrative is about Pooh's eternal quest to find more honey, which he is constantly running out of (oh bother).  In the meantime, we have a few mini quests, including a contest to find a new tale for Eeyore (he has lost the old one) and a hunt for the Backson, a creature that comes less from reality and more Owl's inability to read (what actually happens is that Christopher Robin has written "Gon Out Bizy Back Soon," meaning "Gone Out Busy Back Soon").  This is the main thrust of the plot, but like most adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood, it's also about friendship, love, and an eclectic group of characters brought together (weirdly they skip an appearance from the only character that Disney created rather than AA Milne, Gopher).

The movie is lovely, if a bit dry.  I think most of your tolerance for the film will depend greatly on how willing you are to fall into the nostalgia of Winnie the Pooh.  I loved Pooh as a child, and quite frankly love him as an adult.  I've grown an appreciation for some of Disney's other iconic characters, but Pooh & his gang didn't need an appreciation of film history to get where I could look at them with wonder-that was already there for these characters (I have several of the Pooh figurines in my hobby room).  The movie is beautifully drawn, and features enough whimsy that it's easy to appreciate, and also it's so classy (and bereft of "new" animated characters like Olaf or Wreck-It-Ralph) that you also get why it got a collective shrug from the public.

Because despite solid reviews and a constant fascination with Pooh & his friends from children, it disappointed at the box office (only making $50 million, a pittance for an animated movie), and didn't get an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.  This is really unusual, because Disney-Pixar has dominated that category since its inception, to the point where it's easier to count who wasn't nominated than who was.  Since 2001, only two years (2005 & 2011) have had no Disney-Pixar features nominated (though 2005's Howl's Moving Castle was distributed by Disney, and 2011's Chico & Rita was distributed by Disney in some parts of Europe, though not in North America).  The Disney films released in those years were Valiant (Rotten Tomatoes score of 31%), Chicken Little (37%), Mars Needs Moms (37%), and Cars 2 (39%), all critical bombs; Winnie the Pooh, on the other hand, scored a 91%, thus making it the most critically-celebrated Disney-Pixar production ever to miss with this category of the Oscars.