Winnie the Pooh (2011)

[estefan]

Yeah, most of the time it seems like Beavis and Butt-Head are running Disney's marketing department.

It's a ridiculously stupid idea to pit any film against Harry Potter, which is a series that's popular with every demographic. March is a more appropriate time period, not only because Spring perfectly represents Winnie the Pooh, but in recent years, it has proven a profitable time for family films. Just look at how well Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon have done.

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if John Lasseter hits the marketing department upside the head and tells them to change the release, especially since it's getting released two weeks after Cars 2 and I doubt he wants both of his franchises he has a responsibility towards making successful competing against each other.

[Ben]

Unless, y'know...the intention is to say "well, we gave 2D a try with both a classic fairytale and one of our most popular franchise characters, and it didn't work".

[Vernadyn]

I've only seen the original movie (with the three shorts) and the Many Adventures videos and enjoying them; of the latter, I especially remember the ones where they visited the Land of Milk and Honey and Tigger's birthday in the wishing well, among others. I never saw or had any interest in any of the others, although I do remember when my family used to visit the Disney store and the "Sharing and Caring with Winnie the Pooh" song would be repeated ad nauseum on the TV monitors. Time will tell if I see this new one, though it will probably end up being on DVD/Blu-ray.

Somewhat related: I remember when I first saw Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men and when John Fiedler started talking. His character was a little bit like Piglet, too.

[Macaluso]

I have created a petition to encourage Disney to included Lumpy in the new Pooh film.

Please sign the petition and pass it along to all related websites you know of and any Lumpy fans you know.

Thanks!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-Lumpy

Man. And I thought the uproar over the Repunzal title change was pointless.

[Whippet Angel]

Deadline.com indicates Winnie the Pooh has been moved from March 2011 to July 15, 2011. The same day Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II opens in theaters.

ARG!!! Why, why, WHY????????

I'm actually starting to think that they're purposely trying to sabotage themselves, as Ben suggested...

[EricJ]

No, it's the myth of Counterprogramming, an ancient and outdated but continuing superstition which has yielded more disaster and destruction in Hollywood than any other force known to man...

(Y'see, little kids just wouldn't go to see Harry Potter, just like they wouldn't have gone to see Avatar, either.)

[EHH123]

I found these interesting drawings of Eeyore. These were done for an auction to raise money for an animator suffering from leukemia and drawn by Randy Haycock, supervising animator of Naveen from "Princess and the Frog" and now doing everyone's favorite gloomy donkey for next year's movie.

Also, it seems that imdb was right about Nik Ranieri being the supervising animator on Rabbit and Gopher.

[EricJ]

Yay!--Eeyore's back in the story! (After being unceremoniously dumped from the marketing in '05 to make room for Lumpy....That's okayyy, nobody ever notices him in the movies anywayyyy. )

What further proof do you need that the new 2-D's going Back 2 Old Skool?

[Ben]

None so more than the film's potential title:

http://animatedviews.com/2010/new-pooh-title/

[EHH123]

No offense Ben, but I think you are stretching his quote a bit.

In other news...
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... ision.html

And for the first time I saw some color images of Winnie the Pooh. The background and color styling are solid. A staffer who's working on it thinks the feature is beautiful, charming and that the story works well. Since I've heard no dissenting opinions, I'll go with it here.

[EHH123]

Sorry for the double post, but I have a new update. From here: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... mouse.html

Last thing: One of the Disney crew members did me a kindness by unspooling two animated song sequences of the upcoming Winnie the Pooh, one featuring WP frolicking inside a dream sequence. The other was a sprightly number boarded and choreographed by Eric Goldberg in a fresh and very imaginative way. The songs were serviceable, the visuals and animation super fine.

Based on what I've seen, I think the Pooh picture will be well-received when it comes out and make a nice amount of cash. (I'm told that it's on schedule on still holding to its $35 million budget. Rough animation will be completed in September.)

[Bill1978]

I'm still struggling with the concept that this new Pooh movie will be considered part of the Disney Classic Canon.

Usually I'm hanging out for info on the upcoming Disney slate of animation, but for some reason I just can't muster up any enthusiasm for this project.

Maybe because I feel it's just a continuation of The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie and The Huffalump Movie and not the 51st Disney Classic.

[Ben]

Bill, you've got to forget those TV movies!

This is the sequel to The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, as if the Pooh franchising never happened. Now, it's true that I am disappointed that the Shermans are not penning the songs (as far as I know) and that, if you go with the Many Adventures sequel line, then The Tigger Movie, which with the Sherman songs will always feel "more" of a Pooh movie than anything else, doesn't fit into the cycle.

I do see the value in making this picture, though. Not only does it keep traditional morale up there, but just as The Rescuers Down Under meant they could make a good looking film for cheap(er), the same goes here. With all the characters and design set out, there's a heap saved there, which means it's all really about story and animation...no bad thing.

And, if it means that a new Disney Pooh picture can come out and reclaim the characters from their many TV outings (including the D/TV movies), and bring back a solid return on the investment (c'mon, at $35m it's going to make a profit) and make traditional animation look very viable again.

That the songs are described as "servicable" isn't that much of a solid thumbs up so far, but I have hope that the Xerox approach will be recalled well, and that this will feel more "Pooh" than most of the other features, even if The Tigger Movie did, I felt, a very good job of doing the Xerox thing and keeping the musical tone correct.

Now, if they only do call it The Further Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, the continuation aspect will be even more clear!

[Darkblade]

Didnt they try to get the sherman brothers back for this in the first place?

[Ben]

I didn't hear about that. It would be a shame if that was the case and it didn't happen. The Shermans are still active, as the songs in the expanded Chitty Chitty Bang Bang show: that's a heck of a good score.

I know Robert is not at all well these days, but Richard is still sprightly and it would have been pure magic to have their involvement, even through the use of older, discarded or reworked songs. I'm still hoping for the original theme tune to be included though, as it just wouldn't seem right without it (and not a Carly Simon version either!)