The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
Disney’s new Winnie the Pooh movie has been given a release date of July 15th, 2011. The film marks the second traditionally animated film made by Walt Disney Feature Animation since John Lasseter took over and brought the technique back into use, the first being The Princess and the Frog. They’ve gone back to A. A. Milne’s work and found five stories that have never been put to the screen and combined them into a single feature length script. In a nice nod to the past, Burny Mattinson is the project’s lead storyboard artist. He worked as an animator on the three Winnie the Pooh shorts made in the ’60s and ’70s before being compiled into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He would also go on to contribute to the stories for the likes of The Great Mouse Detective, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, among others. Stephen Anderson (Meet the Robinsons) and Don Hall are directing.
The movie’s intended to not be as kiddy as other recent appearances by the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. This is WDFA’s big 2011 release with much of the same crew as The Princess and the Frog, including animating heavyweights like Andreaa Dejas and Mark Henn. It’s also another musical, with those components being written by the team that did the Broadway play Avenue Q. The voice cast is known to include Jim Cummings (Pooh, Tigger), Tom Kenny (Rabbit) and Craig Ferguson (Owl).
I’m hoping to not only get a fun film but one that helps keep traditional animation alive on the big screen.
