Monday, 6 August 2012

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 film combining live-action and animation. It was released by The Walt Disney Company. Based on the first two chapters of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, it is the is the only Winnie the Pooh production released under Walt Disney's supervision before his death later that year. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Music and lyrics were written by the Sherman Brothers, (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman). Background music was provided by Buddy Baker. This featurette was shown before The Ugly Dachshund. The Estates of A. A. Milne including Christopher Robin Milne, were not happy with the ending of the film, especially the part when Pooh flies though the air, landing inside a bee tree.
Winnie-the-Pooh is in the Hundred Acre Wood doing his morning stoutness exercises, not to get in shape, but to make him hungry for more food. During his exercise, he bends over too far to cause the stitching in his bottom to accidentally rip. After repairing his torn bottom, he feels a rumbly in his tumbly, so visits his pantry, but only to find that his jar of honey is empty (save for a sticky part on the bottom). As he starts wondering where he can get more honey, he hears a bee fly by and decides to try to get honey from the beehive in a hollow of a nearby honey tree. He climbs the tree and reaches as high as he can, but the branch he is standing on breaks, and he falls into a gorse bush.

Not wanting to give up, Pooh decides to go to Christopher Robin's house, where he greets Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo. Pooh borrows a blue balloon from Christopher Robin to try to get the honey from the honey tree. He rolls himself in a black mud puddle to disguise himself as a little black rain cloud, and then uses the balloon to float up next to the tree hollow that houses the beehive. He tucks his hand into the hollow to get some honey to taste, also gulping some bees along with the honey, thus prompting him to spit out the bees. As the disguise begins to wear off, Pooh kicks one of the bees with his muddy foot, causing it to fall into the same mud puddle that Pooh has previously rolled in, but then the bee gets even with Pooh, and as the last of the disguise reveals Pooh to the bees, the one he kicked stings his bottom, causing him to swing forward and back again until his bottom is wedged into the hollow of the honey tree. As the bees laugh, Pooh concludes that he is dealing with the wrong kinds of bees as the tree begins to shake violently. The bees then eject him from the tree like a cork out of a bottle, causing the balloon to break from its string. Pooh holds onto the now untied balloon--from which the air is running out--for dear life as he flies through the air, chasing the bees in the process. When the balloon runs out of air, Pooh falls and is caught by Christopher Robin. The chase is now reversed; the angry bees go after Pooh and Christopher Robin, but they manage to hide from them in the mud puddle.

With honey still on his mind, Pooh Bear goes to Rabbit's house, hoping to find some honey there. Rabbit politely invites Pooh for lunch, despite being aware of Pooh's vast appetite. Pooh then proceeds to eat every last bit of honey available in Rabbit's house, thanks Rabbit and waddles off to leave. He climbs through Rabbit's front door, which is a hole, but because he has become so fat and full of honey, he gets stuck in the hole and unable to make it through. Rabbit tells Pooh that it all comes from eating too much, and Pooh, in response, tells Rabbit that it all comes from not having front doors big enough. Rabbit tries to free Pooh by pushing on his over-sized bottom, but the bear won't budge. In a panic, Rabbit runs off to fetch Christopher Robin for help. While Pooh waits, he is visited by Owl and Gopher. Owl tries to cheer Pooh up, but ends up making Pooh feel embarrassed by his tight predicament. Gopher offers to free Pooh using dynamite, but Pooh rejects the offer. Rabbit then comes back with Christopher Robin. The two try to pull Pooh Bear out, but he won't budge an inch. Christopher Robin then suggests pushing him back in, but Rabbit protests, shoving a chair up against Pooh's bottom to prevent him from going back into Rabbit's house. Eventually, Christopher Robin decides that Pooh will just have to wait to get thin again. Rabbit is forced to make the best of a bad situation and tries various methods of disguising the bear's bottom, including painting a moose face on it and using his legs to hold up a shelf. Kanga and Roo stop by and give him a bouquet of honeysuckle flowers, which causes him to sneeze, thus sending the shelf (and the objects on it) flying. Rabbit then reduces to using Pooh's bottom as a chair, with his legs as arm rests and the main bulk as a cushion.

One night, Gopher returns to see Pooh, carrying his lunchbox with him. Pooh wonders what's inside the lunchbox. When he learns that Gopher has a pot of honey, Pooh asks him for a little taste of it, but Rabbit, who has overheard their conversation, runs out, and reminds Pooh that he can't eat anything until he is thin again as he confiscates the honey pot. As Gopher accuses Rabbit for confiscating the honey, Rabbit runs back out with a sign reading "Don't Feed The Bear", which he hammers onto the ground.

Many days later, Rabbit leans on Pooh's bottom and discovers that Pooh has budged ever so slightly, sending him dashing off to find Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin, Kanga, Eeyore, Owl, Roo and Gopher start pulling on Pooh from outside the house while Rabbit frantically pushes Pooh from inside, but the bear still won't move. Fed up with all the delay, Rabbit takes several steps backwards and charges into Pooh. With a loud "pop!" he is ejected out of Rabbit's front door like a bullet from a gun, knocking everyone else down as a result, as he goes flying through the air. He crashes headfirst in the hollow of the honey tree, getting himself stuck again and frightening the bees away. The gang runs after him, and Christopher Robin tells Pooh that they will help him get out again, but Pooh tells them to take their time; he is quite content to remain stuck as he is with his bottom outside and his top inside, happily eating the honey.

Voice cast

Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh
Junius Matthews as Rabbit
Bruce Reitherman as Christopher Robin
Hal Smith as Owl
Howard Morris as Gopher
Clint Howard as Roo
Barbara Luddy as Kanga
Ralph Wright as Eeyore
James MacDonald as The Bees (uncredited)
Dal McKennon as The Bees (uncredited)
Ginny Tyler as The Bees (uncredited)
Narrated by Sebastian Cabot
Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman
Produced by Walt Disney
Written by A.A. Milne
Ralph Wright
Ken Anderson
Larry Clemmons
Narrated by Sebastian Cabot
Starring Sterling Holloway
Junius Matthews
Bruce Reitherman
Hal Smith
Howard Morris
Music by Robert & Richard Sherman
Buddy Baker
Studio Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)

February 4, 1966

Running time 26 minutes
Country United States
Language English

0 comments:

Post a Comment