''Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore'' is a 1983 American animated
featurette
In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film.
Medium-length film ...
based on the sixth chapter of both books ''
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
'' and ''
The House at Pooh Corner
''The House at Pooh Corner'' (1928) is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger.
Plot
The title comes from a sto ...
'' by
A.A. Milne. Produced by
Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and distributed by
Buena Vista Distribution
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It ha ...
, the short initially received limited release on March 11, 1983, before expanding to a wide release on March 25 as part of a double feature with the 1983 re-issue of ''
The Sword in the Stone'' (1963), which it accompanied in most countries except
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
where it accompanied a reissue of ''
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
''Bedknobs and Broomsticks'' is a 1971 American live-action animated musical fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Bill Walsh for Walt Disney Productions. It is loosely based upon the books '' The Magic Bedknob; or, How to B ...
'' (1971). Directed by
Rick Reinert
Frederick George Reinert Jr. (September 14, 1925 – November 5, 2018), known professionally as Rick Reinert, was an American animator and the founder of the defunct studio Rick Reinert Productions. In addition to his work on two ''Winnie-the- ...
, the featurette featured the voices of
Hal Smith,
John Fiedler
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
,
Will Ryan
William Frank Ryan (May 21, 1949 – November 19, 2021) was an American voice actor, musician and singer. He provided the voice of Petrie in the 1988 animated film ''The Land Before Time''.
He was also known for his voice work as Eugene Meltsner ...
,
Ralph Wright
Ralph Waldo Wright (May 17, 1908 – December 31, 1983) was a Disney animator and story/storyboard writer who provided the gloomy, sullen voice of Eeyore from the popular ''Winnie the Pooh'' franchise.
Biography
Wright came to the studio in t ...
, and
Paul Winchell
Paul Winchell (''né'' Wilchinsky; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, humanitarian, inventor and ventriloquist whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted ''The Paul Winchell S ...
.
Additionally, the animation was produced by Rick Reinert Productions, which went uncredited. It would be the first Disney animated film since the 1938 ''
Silly Symphonies
''Silly Symphony'' is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally inte ...
'' short ''
Merbabies
''Merbabies'' is a ''Silly Symphonies'' animated Disney short film. It was released on December 9, 1938. It is a collaboration between Walt Disney and Harman and Ising, the latter studio having donated artists to Disney to work on the production of ...
'' to be produced by an outside studio.
The company had also previously produced the educational Disney short ''
Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons
''Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons'' is a short film made by Walt Disney Productions' educational media division, released on September 6, 1981.
Plot
Christopher Robin presents Pooh with an interesting new gift—a calendar. Pooh has neve ...
'' in 1981.
''Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore'' was the fourth and final animated featurette in the ''
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
'' film series and one of Disney's original theatrical featurettes adapted from the
Pooh books by
A.A. Milne.
Plot
The film begins with the invention of a racing game called
Poohsticks
Poohsticks is a game first mentioned in ''The House at Pooh Corner'', a Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne. It is a simple game which may be played on any bridge over running water; each player drops a stick on the upstream side of a bridge an ...
in which
Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
takes a walk to a wooden bridge over a river where he likes to do nothing in particular. On this day, though, he finds a fir cone and picks it up. Pooh thinks up a rhyme to go with the fir cone, but he accidentally trips on a tree root and drops it in the river. Noticing that the flow of the river takes the cone under the bridge, Pooh invents a racing game out of it. As the game uses sticks instead of cones, he calls it "Poohsticks".
Later that day Pooh,
Piglet,
Rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
and
Roo
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book ''Winnie-the-Pooh''. He is a young kangaroo (known as a joey) and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy an ...
are playing Poohsticks, then see
Eeyore
Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-P ...
floating in the river. After somehow rescuing him with a rock, he tells them that he fell in due to being bounced from behind. Piglet assumes it was
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional character, fictional character, an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic Stuffed toy, stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection ''The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie- ...
who bounced Eeyore into the river. When Tigger arrives on the scene, he claims that his bounce was actually a cough, leading to an argument between him and Eeyore, but with some outside help from
the narrator
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
, Winnie the Pooh and his friends find out that he had indeed deliberately bounced Eeyore on page 245. Tigger says it was all a joke, but nobody else feels that way. Tigger disgustedly says that they have no sense of humor, and bounces away.
But as Eeyore seems particularly depressed this day, Pooh follows him to his Gloomy Spot and asks what the problem is. Eeyore says that it is his birthday, and nobody has taken any notice to celebrate it. Pooh decides to give him a jar of honey, but does not get far before he has a hunger attack and ends up eating the honey. He decides to ask
Owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
for advice. Owl suggests that he writes to Eeyore on the pot so that Eeyore could use it to put things in. Owl ends up writing a misspelled greeting (''hipy papy bthuthdth thuthda bthuthdy'' means A Very Happy Birthday, With Love from Pooh) on the pot and flies off to tell
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney a ...
about the birthday. Piglet, who heard about Eeyore's birthday from Pooh, planned to give a red balloon to Eeyore, but when Owl greets him from the sky, Piglet forgets to look where he is going, until he bumps into a tree and the balloon is sent bouncing off course, taking Piglet with it until it stops and the balloon bursts soon after.
Piglet is very sad that his gift for Eeyore is ruined, but he presents it to him anyway, and only a minute later, Pooh brings the empty pot. Eeyore is gladdened, as he puts the busted balloon into the pot and removes it again (he also claimed that red is his favorite color). Pooh and his friends then pitch in and plan a surprise party for their friend.
During the party, Tigger arrives and bounces Rabbit out of his chair, after Owl had a conversation talk. Roo welcomes him to the festivities as Rabbit draws himself up from being bounced on by Tigger, incensed. Rabbit wants Tigger to leave because of the way he treated Eeyore earlier, Roo wants Tigger to stay, and Christopher Robin's solution is for everyone to go to the bridge and play Poohsticks to settle this, which Pooh asked him. Eeyore, a first-time player, wins the most games, but Tigger wins nothing at all, causing him to conclude that "Tiggers don't like Poohsticks". However,
Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit decide to go home, because they had to go to bed, but Tigger walks sadly away from the bridge, because he did not win at all. Eeyore shares his secret for winning, which is to "let his stick drop in a twitchy sort of way." They then both go home and Christopher Robin, Pooh and Piglet all decide that "Tigger's all right, really" and "everyone's all right, really".
Voice cast
*
Ralph Wright
Ralph Waldo Wright (May 17, 1908 – December 31, 1983) was a Disney animator and story/storyboard writer who provided the gloomy, sullen voice of Eeyore from the popular ''Winnie the Pooh'' franchise.
Biography
Wright came to the studio in t ...
as
Eeyore
Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-P ...
*
Hal Smith as
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard.
The first collection of stories about the character w ...
and
Owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
*
Laurie Main
Laurence George "Laurie" Main (29 November 1922 – 8 February 2012) was an Australian actor best known for hosting and narrating the children's series ''Welcome to Pooh Corner'', which aired on The Disney Channel during the 1980s.
Born in ...
as Mr. Narrator
*
Will Ryan
William Frank Ryan (May 21, 1949 – November 19, 2021) was an American voice actor, musician and singer. He provided the voice of Petrie in the 1988 animated film ''The Land Before Time''.
He was also known for his voice work as Eugene Meltsner ...
as
Rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
* Dick Billingsley as
Roo
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book ''Winnie-the-Pooh''. He is a young kangaroo (known as a joey) and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy an ...
*
John Fiedler
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
as
Piglet
*
Kim Christianson as
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney a ...
*
Julie McWhirter Dees as
Kanga
*
Paul Winchell
Paul Winchell (''né'' Wilchinsky; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, humanitarian, inventor and ventriloquist whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted ''The Paul Winchell S ...
as
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional character, fictional character, an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic Stuffed toy, stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection ''The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie- ...
Only Hal Smith, Ralph Wright, John Fiedler, and Paul Winchell returned in the roles they had originated. Hal Smith additionally replaced
Sterling Holloway
Sterling Price Holloway Jr. (January 4, 1905 – November 22, 1992) was an American actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He did voice acting for The Walt Disney Company, playing Mr. Stork in ''Dumbo'', Ad ...
as Pooh. Kim Christianson became the fourth actor to portray Christopher Robin in as many featurettes, after Bruce Reitherman, Jon Walmsley, and Timothy Turner. Dick Billingsley assumed the role of Roo, succeeding Dori Whitaker and Clint Howard. Julie McWhirter Dees replaced the late
Barbara Luddy
Barbara Luddy (May 25, 1908 – April 1, 1979) was an American actress best known for her voiceover work for Walt Disney Studios in the 1950s and 1970s.
Biography
Born in Great Falls, Montana, Luddy was the daughter of Will and Molly Luddy of ...
as Kanga. Some later rereleases of this movie feature a cast list which differs from the original (
Jim Cummings
James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Since beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in almost 400 roles. Cummings has frequently worked with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., including as th ...
as Pooh,
Ken Sansom
Frank Kenneth Sansom (April 2, 1927 – October 8, 2012) was an American actor. Among his best known roles, Sansom voiced Rabbit in animated television series, television specials, and films for Disney's ''Winnie the Pooh'' franchise from 1988 t ...
as Rabbit,
Tress MacNeille
Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series ''Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwrench ...
as Kanga, Trevyn Savage as Christopher Robin and Aaron Spann as Roo, respectively). However, if there is a version of this movie which features this more contemporary cast, it has yet to be released to the public, as the version featuring these credits uses the same audio track from the original release.
Home media
The first home video release for ''Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore'' was ''Winnie the Pooh and Friends'', released on
VHS in 1984, followed by other releases of this film, including the 1989 ''Walt Disney Mini-Classics'' release and the 1994 ''Storybook Classics'' release. It has since been included as a bonus feature on VHS,
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
releases of ''
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
''The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'' is a 1977 American animated musical anthology comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It is the 22nd Disney animated feature film and was first rel ...
'', with the Blu-ray edition presenting the short in
high definition.
Winnie the Pooh featurettes
* ''
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
''Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' is a 1966 animated featurette based on the first two chapters of ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions, and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution on February ...
'' (1966)
* ''
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
''Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day'' is a 1968 American animation, animated featurette based on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth chapters of ''Winnie-the-Pooh (book), Winnie-the-Pooh'' and the second, eighth, and ninth chapters from ''The Ho ...
'' (1968)
* ''
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too
''Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too'' is a 1974 animated featurette based on the third chapter of ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' and the fourth and seventh chapters of ''The House at Pooh Corner'' by A. A. Milne. The featurette was directed by John Lounsbery, p ...
'' (1974)
* ''Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore'' (1983)
References
External links
*
{{Sherman Brothers
1980s English-language films
1983 short films
1983 comedy films
1980s children's animated films
1980s Disney animated short films
Winnie-the-Pooh featurettes
1983 animated films
Films about donkeys
Winnie the Pooh (franchise)
American animated featurettes
Animated films set in England
Short films with live action and animation
Films about toys