''Springtime with Roo'' (also known as ''Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo'') is a 2004 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film produced by

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

and DisneyToon Studios, and animated by

Toon City Animation Toon City is a Filipino animation studio located in Manila. Its primary contractor is The Walt Disney Company and its DisneyToon Studios division, which produces animated TV series and direct-to-video films. They have also done a few commercial ...

Manila, Philippines Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

. The film features characters from

Disney 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 ...

's ''

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 ...

'' franchise, based on the original characters from the

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

treasured books. The story is loosely based on

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' classic 1843 novella ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''. Unlike the previous ''Winnie the Pooh'' direct-to-video films ''

A Very Merry Pooh Year ''A Very Merry Pooh Year'' (also known as ''Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year'') is a 2002 American direct-to-video Christmas animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Animation (France), S.A and the series finale of ''The New Adventures ...

'' and ''

Seasons of Giving ''Seasons of Giving'' (also known as ''Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving'') is a 1999 American direct-to-video animated musical film which included ''A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving'', and two episodes from ''The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' ...

'', ''Springtime with Roo'' does not reuse any episodes from ''

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ''The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'' is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by authors A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, ''The New Adventures'' was the fi ...

''.

Plot

Springtime has sprung in the

Hundred Acre Wood The Hundred Acre Wood (also spelled as 100 Aker Wood, Hundred-Acre Wood, and 100 Acre Wood; also known as simply "The Wood") is a part of the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's s ...

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 ...

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- ...

Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Winn ...

, Piglet and

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 ...

head to

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 ...

's house to celebrate

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

, only to find that Rabbit has organized a "

Spring Cleaning Spring cleaning is the practice of thoroughly cleaning a house in the springtime. The practice of spring cleaning is especially prevalent in climates with a cold winter. In many cultures, annual cleaning occurs at the end of the year, which may b ...

" Day instead. He orders the gang to clean his house while he tidies up his garden. Initially dejected, the gang, not wanting to let Rabbit down, proceed to carry out Rabbit's orders. While dusting, Pooh sneezes violently, cluttering the house. A large trunk falls out of Rabbit's closet, revealing Easter eggs, decorations, and his

Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny (also called the Easter Rabbit or Easter Hare) is a folkloric figure and symbol of Easter, depicted as a rabbit—sometimes dressed with clothes—bringing Easter eggs. Originating among German Lutherans, the "Easter Hare" orig ...

top hat. They also find their favorite Easter things: Pooh's honey pot, Piglet's Easter basket, Eeyore's rabbit ears, and Tigger's striped Easter egg. Assuming that Rabbit had forgotten about Easter, the gang decide to surprise Rabbit by decorating the house, only for this to backfire as an enraged Rabbit literally throws them out of his house for not obeying his orders, trampling his hat in the process. While Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore return home, Roo wanders off. Tigger finds him and Roo asks if they will ever celebrate Easter again, prompting Tigger to go back to Rabbit's house to talk to him. Hopeful that Tigger will be able to convince Rabbit and determined to cheer his friends up, Roo returns home and tells his mother, Kanga, what happened, before venturing off to find the others. While they wait for Tigger to return, they practice hunting for Easter eggs by hunting for rocks. Meanwhile, Tigger returns to Rabbit's house and tells Rabbit about how upset Roo was that they did not have an Easter egg hunt. Rabbit, however, is still far too angry that the gang messed up his Spring Cleaning Day to care and tells Tigger he'll never allow another Easter celebration ever again. Tigger and the narrator tell Rabbit that he used to love Easter but Rabbit denies it. To prove it, Tigger takes him back through the book to last year's Easter celebration, when Kanga and Roo moved to the Hundred Acre Wood. In the flashback, the gang prepares for Easter, painting eggs and making decorations. As it is Roo's first Easter in the Hundred Acre Wood, Rabbit wants everything to be as organized and orderly as possible to the point that he treats Easter as a professional occasion rather than a fun holiday. The others grow tired of Rabbit's bossiness and, under Tigger's suggestion, sneak off with the Easter eggs. Rabbit goes after them and finds them having the egg hunt without him, with the gang agreeing that Tigger is "the best Easter Bunny ever," upsetting Rabbit. Outside the book, Rabbit admits to Tigger that he did once look forward to being the Easter Bunny, but his exclusion the previous year made him feel unwanted. Tigger says it was not his or the others' intention to leave him out, but Rabbit, still upset about the past, continues to deny Easter in the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger returns to the present and tells the others the bad news, while also explaining the reason for Rabbit's hot-temper. This causes everyone to feel remorseful for unwillingly taking away Rabbit's favorite Easter role. Rabbit also returns to the present, but the narrator purposely stops on the wrong page, at Roo's house, where Rabbit sees Roo wishing that he could make things up to Rabbit. Still unconvinced, Rabbit returns home and puts all the Easter things in the trunk before going to sleep. Frustrated with Rabbit's stubborn behavior, the narrator (after scaring Rabbit awake with a ghost-like voice) transports Rabbit forward in time to the "unwritten pages of the book" – the Hundred Acre Wood’s future where it is Spring Cleaning Day and everything is organized exactly as Rabbit wants. Initially delighted, Rabbit asks where his friends are, thinking that they are late, but the narrator says they all moved away because of his selfishness and bossiness. Refusing to believe this, Rabbit tries to find them but realizes that the narrator wasn't kidding when he discovers that his friends' homes are empty and abandoned; the narrator claims the reason why was because Rabbit didn't treat them like friends and only cared about himself, which Rabbit at first denies. Finally realizing how his bad behavior affected his friends and not wanting to be alone for the rest of his life, Rabbit runs back to his house intent on having Easter in order to atone for his mistakes, only to find out to his horror that his friends' things have gone with them. Rabbit then wakes up the next morning and finds himself back in the present, overjoyed to see the Easter supplies are still there and that he still has a chance to change the future. Now "giddy as a jackrabbit", Rabbit immediately begins to plan the grandest Easter the Hundred Acre Wood has ever had. At the same time, Roo, unaware that Rabbit has changed, comes up with an idea in hopes of cheering Rabbit up. He picks up Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger with a wheelbarrow, but loses control of it and crashes into his house. While they are busy working, Rabbit arrives, pretending to still be angry, but their fears fade when he surprises them with their Easter decorations, along with a cotton tail for Eeyore. Rabbit shows them the celebration he has prepared and reveals his change of heart, which everyone is very happy to see, especially Roo, who returns Rabbit his now-repaired Easter Bunny hat, giving Rabbit back his favorite Easter role. The spirit of Easter is now restored, and Roo pops out of the book and says, "B.B.F.N., Bye-bye for now!", ending the film.

Voice cast

Jimmy Bennett James Michael Bennett (born February 9, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as a child actor in '' Daddy Day Care'', ''Hostage'', '' The Amityville Horror'', ''Poseidon'', '' Evan Almighty'', ''Orphan'', ''Shorts'', and as yo ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

David Ogden Stiers David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in ''The Magic Show'', in which he appeared for four ...

as The Narrator *

Kath Soucie Kath or KATH may refer to: * Kath (city), the historical capital of Khwarezm * Kath (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * KATH-TV, the NBC TV station in Juneau, Alaska * KATH (AM) KATH (910 kHz) is an ...

as Kanga *

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 **

Jeff Bennett Jeffrey Glenn Bennett (born October 2, 1962) is an American voice actor who voiced Johnny Bravo in the Johnny Bravo, eponymous television series, Dexter's Dad in ''Dexter's Laboratory'', Brooklyn in ''Gargoyles (TV series), Gargoyles'' and List o ...

as Piglet's singing voice *

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''Transformers'' animated series, reprising the role many times since 2007. He has also voiced many other c ...

Production

The film was produced by Disneytoon Studios and

Toon City Toon City is a Filipino animation studio located in Manila. Its primary contractor is The Walt Disney Company and its DisneyToon Studios division, which produces animated TV series and direct-to-video films. They have also done a few commercial ...

, a start up animation company founded by former Disney Feature Animation Florida employees.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and VHS on March 9, 2004. It included the teaser trailer for ''

Pooh's Heffalump Movie ''Pooh's Heffalump Movie'' (also known as ''The Heffalump Movie'' in the working title) is a 2005 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by the Japanese office of Disneytoon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. ...

'' and the two episodes from ''

'' (''Honey for a Bunny'' and ''Trap as Trap Can''). It was later re-released on Blu-ray combo pack on March 11, 2014, as a ''Hippity-Hoppity Roo'' edition. This marks the 10th anniversary of the film.

Songs

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Springtime with Roo Winnie-the-Pooh films 2004 animated films 2004 films 2004 direct-to-video films 2000s adventure comedy films 2000s American animated films 2000s musical comedy films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American children's animated musical films American films with live action and animation Direct-to-video sequel films Winnie the Pooh (franchise) Disney direct-to-video animated films DisneyToon Studios animated films Easter Bunny in film Films based on A Christmas Carol Films scored by Mark Watters Walt Disney Pictures films 2004 directorial debut films 2004 comedy films 2000s children's animated films American musical comedy-drama films 2000s English-language films