On 10 June, my youngest son, Lucas (30), passed away after an epileptic fit and cardiac arrest. Lucas was my angel and my worry child. He was mentally disabled and could not talk, but was, above all, beautiful, cheerful, sweet and left a deep impression on everyone who cared for him. Lucas and I loved watching films together, first a lot of animation films and later nature films. One of the films he loved and wanted to watch over and over again was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We watched that brilliant film more than 100 times. As a result, his brother Simon could retell entire dialogues from the film. Even when Lucas's interest in Walt Disney films waned, we continued to sing the Winnie the Pooh theme song during our walks. We also let the song be heard today at the service where we say goodbye to Lucas. Bye-bye, dear Pooh bear of mine.
Paul van Yperen
Dutch postcard by Interstat, Amsterdam. Image: A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard / Disney.
British postcard by Reflex Marketing, Wellingborough, no. PC 107. Illustration: Ernest H. Shepard / Methuen Children's Books, 1983. Postcard sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1989.
The anthology film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977) is Disney's 22nd animated feature, based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. The film is comprised of three previously released animated Disney featurettes: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). Extra material was used to link the three featurettes together to allow the stories to merge into each other. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves in 1977.
Finnish postcard. Image: Disney. Publicity still for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: Greetings from the Hundred Acre Wood!
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: The honey thief.
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: What a gourmand!
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: Winnie the Pooh.
The magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood
In Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), Winnie the Pooh and his friends have adventures in the magical world of the Hundred Acre Wood. The short film is based on the first two chapters of 'Winnie-the-Pooh' by A.A. Milne.
Winnie, Christopher Robin's silly old bear, attempts to get honey from a bee tree. After climbing the tree didn't work, Winnie borrows Christopher Robin's balloon, dunks himself in mud, and floats to the top of the honey tree incognito as a little black rain cloud.
After escaping the angry bees, Pooh decides to get honey the old-fashioned way: getting some from Rabbit, so after stuffing his face with all of Rabbit's honey, Pooh attempts to climb out of Rabbit's front door but becomes stuck!
No matter how hard everyone tries, they can't get him out, so Pooh is stuck for a week until he can lose the excess baggage. Then along comes Gopher, who agrees to help get Pooh out and almost feeds him more honey! But then one morning, Pooh is finally freed from the doorway and ends up in another sticky situation-quite literally!
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was the last short film produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on 15 December 1966, ten months after the film's release.
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: The brass band.
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris / LYNA, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: Winnie the Pooh.
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966).
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966).
British postcard by J. Arthur Dixon Ltd / Lotus Production, no. PCD/21286. Image: Walt Disney Productions, 1965. Publicity still for the short film Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1968), later incorporated in the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977). Caption: For deeds well done, Christopher Robin throws a party for heroes Pooh Bear and Piglet and their Hundred Acre Wood friends.
Rumbly in my tumbly
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966) is the first of the four Winnie the Pooh short films by the Disney studio, based on the A. A. Milne stories. Each character is introduced nicely in this charming short classic. The animation is excellent and the Sherman Brothers composed great songs such as 'Little Black Rain Cloud', 'Up, Down and Touch the Ground', 'Rumbly in My Tumbly' and 'Winnie the Pooh'.
Pooh's determination to get some honey remains amusing. Although he is a bear with very little brain, he's not the sort of bear to give up easily. The honey-loving bear tries various schemes to get his golden delight. It's funny how he often thinks of something, but no matter how hard he tries to think, the only thing that comes to his simple mind is honey.
And it's funny that he does physical exercises, but not for the reasons you could think. Do you think he does physical exercises to get thinner? You'd better think again! He does physical exercises to get hungry, as an excuse to eat honey. Each different character in the film has a unique trait. The donkey Eeyore shows the depressing side of human nature, always finding the downside of anything.
The other characters succeed in cheering him up. The owl is the 'educated' one who loves to hear himself talk. Tigger, happy-go-lucky tiger, bounces around exuberantly on his coil-spring tail, greeting everyone, and sometimes accidentally knocking them over. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) immediately became a popular phenomenon and led to more Pooh shorts, which later made up the feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, 1977).
A fourth, shorter scene was added to bring the film to a close, originally made during the production of Blustery Day. The sequence was based on the final chapter of 'The House at Pooh Corner', where Christopher Robin must leave the Hundred Acre Wood behind as he is starting school. In it, Christopher Robin and Pooh discuss what they liked doing together, and the boy asks his bear to promise to remember him and to keep some of the memories of their time together alive. Pooh agrees to do so, and the film closes with The Narrator (Sebastian Cabot) saying that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting for him whenever he returns.
Dutch postcard. Caption: Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.
French postcard by Cartoon Collection, Paris, Réf. 26289. Image: Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Caption: Party.
French postcard by Cartoon Collection, Paris, Réf. 24225. Image: Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Caption: Party.
French postcard by MD, Paris, no. D 460. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Caption: Winnie the Pooh, Tiger and Eeyore.
Hungarian postcard. Image: Disney. Caption: Merry Christmas!
French postcard by Sonis, no. C. 1716. Image: Disney, based on the Winnie the Pooh works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard.
Italian lenticular postcard by Dedit srl, no. 2803474. Image: Disney, based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. Lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or as for this postcard move as the image is viewed from different angles. Like today, the weather changes on the card from rain to sunshine and back. Sadly, we can't scan the effect.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
2 comments:
I am truly sorry for your loss. May God give you strength in the days ahead. This was an amazing tribute. Thank you for creating---and sharing---it.
Thank you, dear Maria.
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