Winnie-the-Pooh
Encyclopedia
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne
. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh
(1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner
(1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young
(1924) and many more in Now We Are Six
(1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard
.
The hyphens in the character's name were later dropped when The Walt Disney Company
adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Disney features
that became one of its most successful franchises.
The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, including Alexander Lenard
's Latin
translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the only Latin book ever to have been featured on the New York Times Best Seller List
.
In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway
, Hal Smith
and Jim Cummings
in English, Yevgeny Leonov
in Russian, and Shun Yashiro
and Sukekiyo Kameyama
in Japanese.
Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne
, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin
. Christopher's toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for Owl and Rabbit, as well as the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library
in New York.
Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear
which he often saw at London Zoo
, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn
in White River, Ontario
, Canada, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnie" after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
. "Winnie" was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as The Fort Garry Horse
regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young
.
In the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh
, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh":
, Sussex
, England. The forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
situated 30 miles (50 km) south of London. In 1925 Milne, a Londoner, bought a country home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield
. According to Christopher Milne, while his father continued to live in London "...the four of us—he, his wife, his son and his son's nanny—would pile into a large blue, chauffeur-driven Fiat and travel down every Saturday morning and back again every Monday afternoon. And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring and two months in the summer."
From the front lawn the family had a view across a meadow to a line of alders that fringed the River Medway
, beyond which the ground rose through more trees until finally "above them, in the faraway distance, crowning the view, was a bare hilltop. In the centre of this hilltop was a clump of pines." Most of his father's visits to the forest at this time were, he noted, family expeditions on foot "to make yet another attempt to count the pine trees on Gill's Lap or to search for the marsh gentian". Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made it "the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival".
Many locations in the stories can be linked to real places in and around the forest. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography: “Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical”. For example, the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood
" was in reality Five Hundred Acre Wood; Galleon's Leap was inspired by the prominent hilltop of Gill's Lap, while a clump of trees just north of Gill's Lap became Christopher Robin's The Enchanted Place because no-one had ever been able to count whether there were sixty-three or sixty-four trees in the circle.
The landscapes depicted in E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh books are directly inspired by the distinctive landscape of Ashdown Forest, with its high, open heathlands of heather, gorse, bracken and silver birch punctuated by hilltop clumps of pine trees. In many cases Shepard's illustrations can be matched to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence. Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other forest scenes are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum
in London.
The game of Poohsticks
was originally played by Christopher Milne on a footbridge across a tributary of the River Medway in Posingford Wood, close to Cotchford Farm. It is traditional to play the game there using sticks gathered in nearby woodland. When the footbridge required replacement in recent times the engineer designed a new structure based closely on the drawings by E. H. Shepard of the bridge in the original books, as the bridge did not originally appear as the artist drew it. An information board at the bridge describes how to play the game.
(6 November 1924) although his true first appearance was within the 13 February 1924 edition of Punch magazine which contained the same poem along with other stories by Milne and Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name on 24 December 1925, in a Christmas story commissioned and published by the London newspaper The Evening News
. It was illustrated by J. H. Dowd. The first collection of Pooh stories appeared in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. The Evening News Christmas story reappeared as the first chapter of the book, and at the very beginning it explained that Pooh was in fact Christopher Robin's Edward Bear, who had simply been renamed by the boy. The book was published in October 1926 by the publisher of Milne's earlier children's work, Methuen, in England, and E. P. Dutton
in the United States.
was published on 5 October 2009. The author, David Benedictus
, has developed, but not changed, Milne's characterisations. The illustrations, by Mark Burgess
, are in the style of Shepard.
purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording and other trade rights to the "Winnie-the-Pooh" works from Milne for a $1000 advance and 66% of Slesinger's income, creating the modern licensing industry. By November 1931, Pooh was a $50 million-a-year business. Slesinger marketed Pooh and his friends for more than 30 years, creating the first Pooh doll, record, board game, puzzle, US radio broadcast (NBC), animation, and motion picture film. In 1961, Disney acquired rights from Slesinger to produce articles of merchandise based on characters from its feature animation.
also introduced A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Game in 1933, again with Pooh in his red shirt. In the 1940s, Agnes Brush created the first plush dolls with Pooh in his red shirt. Shepard had drawn Pooh with a shirt as early as the first Winnie-The-Pooh book, which was subsequently coloured red in later coloured editions.
, continued developing the character herself. In 1961, she licensed rights to Walt Disney Productions
in exchange for royalties in the first of two agreements between Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and Disney. The same year, A. A. Milne's widow, Daphne Milne, also licensed certain rights, including motion picture rights, to Disney.
Since 1966, Disney has released numerous animated productions starring Winnie the Pooh and related characters. These have included theatrical featurette
s, television series, and direct-to-video
films, as well as the theatrical feature-length films The Tigger Movie
, Piglet's Big Movie
, Pooh's Heffalump Movie
, and Winnie the Pooh.
, Minnie Mouse
, Donald Duck
, Goofy
, and Pluto
combined.
In 1991, Stephen Slesinger, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Disney which alleged that Disney had breached their 1983 agreement by again failing to accurately report revenue from Winnie the Pooh sales. Under this agreement, Disney was to retain approximately 98% of gross worldwide revenues while the remaining 2% was to be paid to Slesinger. In addition, the suit alleged that Disney had failed to pay required royalties on all commercial exploitation of the product name. Though the Disney corporation was sanctioned by a judge for destroying forty boxes of evidential documents, the suit was later terminated by another judge when it was discovered that Slesinger's investigator had rummaged through Disney's garbage in order to retrieve the discarded evidence. Slesinger appealed the termination, and on 26 September 2007, a three-judge panel upheld the lawsuit dismissal.
After the Sonny Bono
Copyright Term Extension Act
of 1998, Clare Milne, Christopher Milne's daughter, attempted to terminate any future U.S. copyrights for Stephen Slesinger, Inc. After a series of legal hearings, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper
of the US District Court in California found in favour of Stephen Slesinger, Inc., as did the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
. On 26 June 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court
refused to hear the case, sustaining the ruling and ensuring the defeat of the suit.
On 19 February 2007 Disney lost a court case in Los Angeles which ruled their "misguided claims" to dispute the licensing agreements with Slesinger, Inc. were unjustified, but a federal ruling of 28 September 2009, again from Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, determined that the Slesinger family had granted all trademark and copyright rights to Disney, although Disney must pay royalties for all future use of the characters. Both parties have expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
released on vinyl LP:
In the 1970s and 1980s, Carol Channing recorded Winnie The Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner and The Winnie The Pooh Songbook, with music by Don Heckman. These were released on vinyl LP and audio cassette by Caedmon Records.
Unabridged recordings read by Peter Dennis
of the four Pooh books:
In the 1990s, the stories were dramatised for audio by David Benedictus
, with music composed, directed and played by John Gould. They were performed by a cast that included Stephen Fry
as Winnie-the-Pooh, Jane Horrocks
as Piglet, Geoffrey Palmer
as Eeyore and Judi Dench
as Kanga.
Full-length theatrical features
, three Winnie-the-Pooh, (transcribed in Russian as "Vinni Pukh") (Russian language
: Винни-Пух) stories were made into a celebrated trilogy of short films by Soyuzmultfilm
(directed by Fyodor Khitruk
) from 1969 to 1972.
Films use Boris Zakhoder
's translation of the book. Pooh was voiced by Yevgeny Leonov
. Unlike the Disney adaptations, the animators did not base their depictions of the characters on Shepard's illustrations, creating a different look. The Russian adaptations make extensive use of Milne's original text, and often bring out aspects of Milne's characters' personalities not used in the Disney adaptations.
, was presented on 3 October 1960, on NBC
Television's The Shirley Temple Show
. Pooh himself is voiced by Franz Fazakas.
Magical World of Winnie the Pooh
(Note: These are episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
)
Television shows
(*): Puppet/live-action show
Holiday TV specials
Direct-to-video shorts
Direct-to-video features
* These features integrate stories from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
and/or holiday specials with new footage.
used Milne's characters in The Tao of Pooh
and The Te of Piglet
to explain Taoism
. Similarly, Frederick Crews rewrote stories from Pooh's world in abstruse academic jargon in Postmodern Pooh and The Pooh Perplex to satirize the philosophical approaches. Pooh and the Philosophers by John T. Williams uses Winnie the Pooh as a backdrop to illustrate the works of philosophers including Descartes, Kant
, Plato
and Nietzsche.
Pooh has also left a legacy in popular culture. Winnie-the-Pooh is such a popular character in Poland that a Warsaw
street is named after him, "Ulica Kubusia Puchatka
." There is also a street named after him in Budapest (Micimackó utca).
In music, Kenny Loggins
wrote the song "House at Pooh Corner
", which was originally recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
. Loggins later rewrote the song as "Return to Pooh Corner
", featuring on the album of the same name in 1991. Also, in Italy, a pop band took their name from Winnie, and were titled Pooh
.
In the "sport" of Poohsticks
, competitors drop sticks into a stream from a bridge and then wait to see whose stick will cross the finish line first. Though it began as a game played by Pooh and his friends in the book The House at Pooh Corner
and later in the films, it has crossed over into the real world: a World Championship Poohsticks race takes place in Oxfordshire
each year.
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh (book)
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
(1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner 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, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
(1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children’s verse book When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
(1924) and many more in Now We Are Six
Now We Are Six
Now We Are Six is a book of thirty-five children's verses by A. A. Milne, with illustrations by E. H. Shepard. It was first published in 1927 including poems such as "King John's Christmas", "Binker" and "Pinkle Purr". Eleven of the poems in the collection are accompanied by illustrations featuring...
(1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard
E. H. Shepard
Ernest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He was known especially for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne....
.
The hyphens in the character's name were later dropped when The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Disney features
Winnie the Pooh (Disney)
Winnie the Pooh is an American Walt Disney Company franchise, based on animated fictional characters who have been featured as part of the Disney character line-up. The Winnie the Pooh franchise is based on A. A...
that became one of its most successful franchises.
The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, including Alexander Lenard
Alexander Lenard
Alexander Lenard was a Hungarian physician, writer, translator, painter, musician, poet and occasional language instructor. He was born in Budapest, Hungary and died in Dona Emma, Brazil. He is best known as the Latin translator of A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh...
's Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the only Latin book ever to have been featured on the New York Times Best Seller List
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
.
In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway
Sterling Holloway
Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...
, Hal Smith
Hal Smith (actor)
Harold John "Hal" Smith was an American character actor and voice actor. Smith is best known as Otis Campbell, the town drunk on The Andy Griffith Show, and was the voice of many characters on various animated cartoon shorts...
and Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
in English, Yevgeny Leonov
Yevgeny Leonov
Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov was a famous Russian/Soviet actor who played main parts in several of the most famous Soviet films. Called "one of Russia's best-loved actors", he also provided the voice for many Soviet cartoon characters, including Vinny Pukh .-Early life:While growing up in a typical...
in Russian, and Shun Yashiro
Shun Yashiro
was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tsuyama, Okayama. At the time of his death, he was affiliated with Theater Echo. Throughout his career, Yashiro was also known as , , and ....
and Sukekiyo Kameyama
Sukekiyo Kameyama
is a seiyū born on November 9, 1954 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He has played many supporting roles in Japanese television dramas. Kameyama is employed by the talent management firm Kiraboshi.-TV:*Anpanman...
in Japanese.
Origin
Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, appearing in his popular books of poetry and stories about Winnie-the-Pooh. He has subsequently appeared in Disney cartoons....
. Christopher's toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for Owl and Rabbit, as well as the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library Main Branch
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library, more widely known as the Main Branch or simply as "the New York Public Library," is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system and a prominent historic landmark in Midtown Manhattan. The branch, opened in 1911, is...
in New York.
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
which he often saw at London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn
Harry Colebourn
Harry Colebourn was a Canadian veterinarian and soldier with the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps best known for donating a bear cub named "Winnie" to the London Zoo. Winnie later inspired the creation of A.A...
in White River, Ontario
White River, Ontario
White River is a township located in Ontario, Canada, on the intersection of Highway 17 and Highway 631. It was originally set up as a rail town on the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885...
, Canada, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnie" after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. "Winnie" was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as The Fort Garry Horse
The Fort Garry Horse
The Fort Garry Horse is a Canadian Army Reserve Armoured Regiment based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is currently part of Land Force Western Area's 38 Canadian Brigade Group.- History :...
regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
.
In the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh (book)
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh":
Ashdown Forest: the setting for the stories
The Winnie-the-Pooh stories are set in Ashdown ForestAshdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of tranquil open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England. The forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
High Weald AONB
The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is situated in south-east England. Covering an area of , it extends across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in England and Wales...
situated 30 miles (50 km) south of London. In 1925 Milne, a Londoner, bought a country home a mile to the north of the forest at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield
Hartfield
Hartfield is a civil parish in East Sussex, England. Settlements within the parish include the village of Hartfield, Colemans Hatch, Hammerwood and Holtye, all lying on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest.-Geography:...
. According to Christopher Milne, while his father continued to live in London "...the four of us—he, his wife, his son and his son's nanny—would pile into a large blue, chauffeur-driven Fiat and travel down every Saturday morning and back again every Monday afternoon. And we would spend a whole glorious month there in the spring and two months in the summer."
From the front lawn the family had a view across a meadow to a line of alders that fringed the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
, beyond which the ground rose through more trees until finally "above them, in the faraway distance, crowning the view, was a bare hilltop. In the centre of this hilltop was a clump of pines." Most of his father's visits to the forest at this time were, he noted, family expeditions on foot "to make yet another attempt to count the pine trees on Gill's Lap or to search for the marsh gentian". Christopher added that, inspired by Ashdown Forest, his father had made it "the setting for two of his books, finishing the second little over three years after his arrival".
Many locations in the stories can be linked to real places in and around the forest. As Christopher Milne wrote in his autobiography: “Pooh’s forest and Ashdown Forest are identical”. For example, the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood
Hundred Acre Wood
The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne...
" was in reality Five Hundred Acre Wood; Galleon's Leap was inspired by the prominent hilltop of Gill's Lap, while a clump of trees just north of Gill's Lap became Christopher Robin's The Enchanted Place because no-one had ever been able to count whether there were sixty-three or sixty-four trees in the circle.
The landscapes depicted in E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh books are directly inspired by the distinctive landscape of Ashdown Forest, with its high, open heathlands of heather, gorse, bracken and silver birch punctuated by hilltop clumps of pine trees. In many cases Shepard's illustrations can be matched to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence. Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other forest scenes are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London.
The game of Poohsticks
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 and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side...
was originally played by Christopher Milne on a footbridge across a tributary of the River Medway in Posingford Wood, close to Cotchford Farm. It is traditional to play the game there using sticks gathered in nearby woodland. When the footbridge required replacement in recent times the engineer designed a new structure based closely on the drawings by E. H. Shepard of the bridge in the original books, as the bridge did not originally appear as the artist drew it. An information board at the bridge describes how to play the game.
First publication
There are three claimants, depending on the precise question posed. Christopher Robin's teddy bear, Edward, made his character début in a poem called "Teddy Bear" in Milne's book of children's verse When We Were Very YoungWhen We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
(6 November 1924) although his true first appearance was within the 13 February 1924 edition of Punch magazine which contained the same poem along with other stories by Milne and Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name on 24 December 1925, in a Christmas story commissioned and published by the London newspaper The Evening News
Evening News (London)
Evening News, formerly known as The Evening News, was an evening newspaper published in London from 1881 to 1980, reappearing briefly in 1987. It became highly popular under the control of the Harmsworth brothers. For a long time it maintained the largest daily sale of any evening newspaper in London...
. It was illustrated by J. H. Dowd. The first collection of Pooh stories appeared in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. The Evening News Christmas story reappeared as the first chapter of the book, and at the very beginning it explained that Pooh was in fact Christopher Robin's Edward Bear, who had simply been renamed by the boy. The book was published in October 1926 by the publisher of Milne's earlier children's work, Methuen, in England, and E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton Penguin and Dutton Children's Books.-History:Edward Payson Dutton founded...
in the United States.
Sequel
An authorised sequel Return to the Hundred Acre WoodReturn to the Hundred Acre Wood
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is a Winnie-the-Pooh novel published on 5 October 2009. Written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, it was the first such book since 1928 and introduced the character Lottie the Otter....
was published on 5 October 2009. The author, David Benedictus
David Benedictus
David Benedictus is an English-Jewish writer and theatre director, best known for his novels. His most recent work is the Winnie-the-Pooh novel Return to the Hundred Acre Wood . It was the first such book in 81 years...
, has developed, but not changed, Milne's characterisations. The illustrations, by Mark Burgess
Mark Burgess (children's author)
Mark Burgess is best-known as an English author and illustrator of children's literature. He has illustrated books by Tony Bradman and Martin Waddell...
, are in the style of Shepard.
Stephen Slesinger
On 6 January 1930, Stephen SlesingerStephen Slesinger
Stephen Slesinger , was an American radio/television/film producer, creator of comic strip characters and the father of the licensing industry...
purchased U.S. and Canadian merchandising, television, recording and other trade rights to the "Winnie-the-Pooh" works from Milne for a $1000 advance and 66% of Slesinger's income, creating the modern licensing industry. By November 1931, Pooh was a $50 million-a-year business. Slesinger marketed Pooh and his friends for more than 30 years, creating the first Pooh doll, record, board game, puzzle, US radio broadcast (NBC), animation, and motion picture film. In 1961, Disney acquired rights from Slesinger to produce articles of merchandise based on characters from its feature animation.
Red Shirt Pooh
The first time Pooh and his friends appeared in colour was 1932, when he was drawn by Slesinger in his now-familiar red shirt and featured on an RCA Victor picture record. Parker BrothersParker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
also introduced A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Game in 1933, again with Pooh in his red shirt. In the 1940s, Agnes Brush created the first plush dolls with Pooh in his red shirt. Shepard had drawn Pooh with a shirt as early as the first Winnie-The-Pooh book, which was subsequently coloured red in later coloured editions.
Disney
After Slesinger's death in 1953, his wife, Shirley Slesinger LasswellShirley Slesinger Lasswell
Shirley Slesinger Lasswell was an American brand marketing pioneer. She is best known for licensing the rights to Winnie The Pooh to the Walt Disney Company in 1961 and later suing the company in a dispute over royalties.-Early and personal life:Lasswell was born Shirley Ann Basso in Detroit,...
, continued developing the character herself. In 1961, she licensed rights to Walt Disney Productions
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
in exchange for royalties in the first of two agreements between Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and Disney. The same year, A. A. Milne's widow, Daphne Milne, also licensed certain rights, including motion picture rights, to Disney.
Since 1966, Disney has released numerous animated productions starring Winnie the Pooh and related characters. These have included theatrical featurette
Featurette
Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
s, television series, and direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
films, as well as the theatrical feature-length films The Tigger Movie
The Tigger Movie
The Tigger Movie is a 2000 animated comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Jun Falkenstein. Part of the Winnie-the-Pooh series, this film features Pooh's friend Tigger in his search for his family tree and other Tiggers like himself...
, Piglet's Big Movie
Piglet's Big Movie
Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. It is based upon the characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne...
, Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
, and Winnie the Pooh.
Merchandising revenue dispute
Pooh videos, soft toys, and other merchandise generate substantial annual revenues for Disney. The size of Pooh stuffed toys ranges from Beanie and miniature to human-sized. In addition to the stylised Disney Pooh, Disney markets Classic Pooh merchandise which more closely resembles E.H. Shepard’s illustrations. It is estimated that Winnie the Pooh features and merchandise generate as much revenue as Mickey MouseMickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
, Minnie Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...
, Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
, Goofy
Goofy
Goofy is a cartoon character created in 1932 at Walt Disney Productions. Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog, and typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck...
, and Pluto
Pluto (Disney)
Pluto, also called Pluto the Pup, is a cartoon character created in 1930 by Walt Disney Productions. He is a light brown , medium-sized, short-haired dog. Unlike Goofy, Pluto is not anthropomorphic beyond some characteristics such as facial expression...
combined.
In 1991, Stephen Slesinger, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Disney which alleged that Disney had breached their 1983 agreement by again failing to accurately report revenue from Winnie the Pooh sales. Under this agreement, Disney was to retain approximately 98% of gross worldwide revenues while the remaining 2% was to be paid to Slesinger. In addition, the suit alleged that Disney had failed to pay required royalties on all commercial exploitation of the product name. Though the Disney corporation was sanctioned by a judge for destroying forty boxes of evidential documents, the suit was later terminated by another judge when it was discovered that Slesinger's investigator had rummaged through Disney's garbage in order to retrieve the discarded evidence. Slesinger appealed the termination, and on 26 September 2007, a three-judge panel upheld the lawsuit dismissal.
After the Sonny Bono
Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...
Copyright Term Extension Act
Copyright Term Extension Act
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship...
of 1998, Clare Milne, Christopher Milne's daughter, attempted to terminate any future U.S. copyrights for Stephen Slesinger, Inc. After a series of legal hearings, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper
Florence-Marie Cooper
Florence-Marie Cooper was a United States federal judge.-Early life and education:Cooper was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and moved to San Francisco with her family in 1952. Cooper graduated from high school in 1958 and began working as a legal secretary...
of the US District Court in California found in favour of Stephen Slesinger, Inc., as did the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
. On 26 June 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
refused to hear the case, sustaining the ruling and ensuring the defeat of the suit.
On 19 February 2007 Disney lost a court case in Los Angeles which ruled their "misguided claims" to dispute the licensing agreements with Slesinger, Inc. were unjustified, but a federal ruling of 28 September 2009, again from Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, determined that the Slesinger family had granted all trademark and copyright rights to Disney, although Disney must pay royalties for all future use of the characters. Both parties have expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
Theatre
- Winnie-the-Pooh at the Guild Theater | Sue HastingsSue Hastings (puppet creator)Sue Hastings was an American Known for popularizing the anicent art of puppetry in the 1930s and 40s. She was a protege of Tony Sarg. She known for her large collection of marionettes, which she made with her team of assitants....
Marionettes, 1931 - "Bother! The Brain of PoohBother! The Brain of PoohBother! The Brain of Pooh is a one-man show created and performed by the English actor Peter Dennis with selections from the works of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. It premiered on October 14, 1976 at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge University. It premiered in America at the Lee Strasberg Theatre...
" | Peter DennisPeter DennisPeter Dennis was a Screen Actors Guild Award and Drama-Logue Award winning English film, television, theatre, and voice actor. His extensive career spanned both sides of the Atlantic with projects ranging from Sideways to The Avengers. He was perhaps best known for his more than three decades...
, 1986
Audio
Selected Pooh stories read by Maurice EvansMaurice Evans (actor)
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
released on vinyl LP:
- Winnie-the-Pooh (consisting of three tracks: "Introducing Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin"; Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place"; "Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle") 1956
- More Winnie-the-Pooh (consisting of three tracks: "Eeyore Loses a Tail"; "Piglet Meets a Heffalump"; "Eeyore Has a Birthday".)
In the 1970s and 1980s, Carol Channing recorded Winnie The Pooh, The House At Pooh Corner and The Winnie The Pooh Songbook, with music by Don Heckman. These were released on vinyl LP and audio cassette by Caedmon Records.
Unabridged recordings read by Peter Dennis
Peter Dennis
Peter Dennis was a Screen Actors Guild Award and Drama-Logue Award winning English film, television, theatre, and voice actor. His extensive career spanned both sides of the Atlantic with projects ranging from Sideways to The Avengers. He was perhaps best known for his more than three decades...
of the four Pooh books:
- When We Were Very Young
- Winnie-the-Pooh
- Now We Are Six
- The House at Pooh Corner
In the 1990s, the stories were dramatised for audio by David Benedictus
David Benedictus
David Benedictus is an English-Jewish writer and theatre director, best known for his novels. His most recent work is the Winnie-the-Pooh novel Return to the Hundred Acre Wood . It was the first such book in 81 years...
, with music composed, directed and played by John Gould. They were performed by a cast that included Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
as Winnie-the-Pooh, Jane Horrocks
Jane Horrocks
Barbara Jane Horrocks is an English voice, stage, screen and television actress, voice artist, musician, and singer. She is best known for her role as "Bubble" in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous as well as her distinctive voice....
as Piglet, Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...
as Eeyore and Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
as Kanga.
Radio
- Winnie-the-Pooh was broadcast by Donald CalthropDonald CalthropDonald Calthrop was an English stage and film actor. He starred as the title character in the hit musical The Boy in 1917. He then appeared in 63 films between 1916 and 1940, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.He was born in London and died in Eton from a heart attack.He was the...
over all BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
stations on Christmas Day, 1925
- Pooh made his US radio debut on 10 November 1932, when he was broadcast to 40,000 schools by The American School of the AirThe American School of the AirThe American School of the Air was a half-hour educational radio program presented by CBS as a public affairs teaching supplement over an 18-year period during the 1930s and 1940s. CBS followed the lead of the first School of the Air which began in 1929 at Ohio State University.Program policies for...
, the educational division of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Disney adaptation
Theatrical featurettes- 1966: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey TreeWinnie the Pooh and the Honey TreeWinnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 animated featurette released by The Walt Disney Company. Based on the first two chapters of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, it is the is the only Winnie the Pooh production released under the production of Walt Disney before his death later that...
- 1968: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery DayWinnie the Pooh and the Blustery DayWinnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was...
- 1974: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too
- 1981: Winnie the Pooh Discovers the SeasonsWinnie the Pooh Discovers the SeasonsWinnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons is an educational short film made by The Walt Disney Company, released on September 6, 1981.- Plot :...
- 1983: Winnie the Pooh and a Day for EeyoreWinnie the Pooh and a Day for EeyoreWinnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is a Disney Winnie the Pooh animated featurette, based on two chapters from the books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, originally released theatrically on March 11, 1983, before the 1983 re-issue of The Sword in the Stone...
Full-length theatrical features
- 1977: The Many Adventures of Winnie the PoohThe Many Adventures of Winnie the PoohThe Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the 22nd full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977....
(trilogy of the Honey Tree, Blustery Day, and Tigger Too) - 2000: The Tigger MovieThe Tigger MovieThe Tigger Movie is a 2000 animated comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Jun Falkenstein. Part of the Winnie-the-Pooh series, this film features Pooh's friend Tigger in his search for his family tree and other Tiggers like himself...
- 2003: Piglet's Big MoviePiglet's Big MoviePiglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. It is based upon the characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne...
- 2005: Pooh's Heffalump MoviePooh's Heffalump MoviePooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
- 2011: Winnie the Pooh
Soviet adaptation
In the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, three Winnie-the-Pooh, (transcribed in Russian as "Vinni Pukh") (Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Винни-Пух) stories were made into a celebrated trilogy of short films by Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union...
(directed by Fyodor Khitruk
Fyodor Khitruk
Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk is one of the most influential animators and animation directors in Russian animation.-Biography:Khitruk was born in Tver, Russian Empire and came to Moscow to study graphic design at the OGIS College for Applied Arts. He graduated in 1936 and started to work with...
) from 1969 to 1972.
- Винни-Пух (Winnie-the-Pooh, 1969) — based on chapter 1
- Винни-Пух идёт в гости (Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit, 1971) — based on chapter 2
- Винни-Пух и день забот (Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, 1972) — based on chapters 4 and 6.
Films use Boris Zakhoder
Boris Zakhoder
Boris Vladimirovich Zakhoder was a Soviet poet and children's writer. He is best known for his translations of Winnie-the-Pooh, Mary Poppins, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other children's classics.- Biography :...
's translation of the book. Pooh was voiced by Yevgeny Leonov
Yevgeny Leonov
Yevgeny Pavlovich Leonov was a famous Russian/Soviet actor who played main parts in several of the most famous Soviet films. Called "one of Russia's best-loved actors", he also provided the voice for many Soviet cartoon characters, including Vinny Pukh .-Early life:While growing up in a typical...
. Unlike the Disney adaptations, the animators did not base their depictions of the characters on Shepard's illustrations, creating a different look. The Russian adaptations make extensive use of Milne's original text, and often bring out aspects of Milne's characters' personalities not used in the Disney adaptations.
Television
A version of Winnie The Pooh, in which the animals were played by marionettes designed, made and operated by Bil And Cora BairdBil Baird
William Britton Baird , professional name Bil Baird, but often referred to as Bill Baird, was an American puppeteer of the mid- and late 20th century.One of his better known creations was Charlemane the lion...
, was presented on 3 October 1960, on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
Television's The Shirley Temple Show
Shirley Temple's Storybook
Shirley Temple's Storybook is an American children's anthology series hosted and narrated by Shirley Temple. The series features adaptations of fairy tales and other family-oriented stories performed by well-known actors, although one episode, an adaptation of The House of the Seven Gables, was...
. Pooh himself is voiced by Franz Fazakas.
Magical World of Winnie the Pooh
(Note: These are episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
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 that ran from 1988 to 1991, inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.-Overview:...
)
Television shows
- Welcome to Pooh CornerWelcome to Pooh CornerWelcome to Pooh Corner is a live-action/puppet television series that aired on Disney Channel, featuring the characters from the Winnie the Pooh universe portrayed by actors in human-sized puppet suits, except Roo, who was originally a traditional puppet...
(*) (Disney ChannelDisney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
, 1983–1986) - The New Adventures of Winnie the PoohThe New Adventures of Winnie the PoohThe New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television that ran from 1988 to 1991, inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.-Overview:...
(ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, 1988–1991) - The Book of PoohThe Book of PoohThe Book of Pooh is an American television series that aired on the Disney Channel. It is the third television series to feature the characters from the Disney franchise based on A. A...
(*) (Disney Channel (Playhouse DisneyPlayhouse DisneyPlayhouse Disney was Disney Channel's television block for programs aimed at entertaining preschool aged children, often airing as its own channel outside the United States. It was introduced in 1997 after Disney Channel's move to basic cable from premium cable, with a target audience of children...
), 2001–2002) - My Friends Tigger & PoohMy Friends Tigger & PoohMy Friends Tigger & Pooh is a computer animated television series, inspired by Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. The television series features Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, including two new characters: a brave 6-year-old red-headed girl named Darby and her dog Buster...
(Disney Channel (Playhouse Disney), 2007–2010)
(*): Puppet/live-action show
Holiday TV specials
- 1991: Winnie the Pooh and Christmas TooWinnie the Pooh and Christmas TooWinnie the Pooh and Christmas Too is a Christmas television special based on the Disney television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, originally broadcast on Saturday December 14, 1991, on ABC....
, included in A Very Merry Pooh Year - 1996: Boo to You Too! Winnie the PoohBoo to You Too! Winnie the PoohBoo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh is a Halloween television special based on the Disney television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, originally broadcast on October 25, 1996.-Synopsis:...
, included in Pooh's Heffalump Halloween MoviePooh's Heffalump Halloween MoviePooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie is a Winnie the Pooh movie which was released direct to video as the sequel to Pooh's Heffalump Movie. It features the segment, Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh.... - 1998: A Winnie the Pooh ThanksgivingA Winnie the Pooh ThanksgivingA Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving is a 1998 made-for-TV special featuring the voice talents of Jim Cummings, Paul Winchell, and John Fiedler. The movie shows Pooh and his friends learning the true meaning of Thanksgiving...
, included in Seasons of Giving - 1999: A Valentine for You
Direct-to-video shorts
- 1990: Winnie the Pooh’s ABC of Me
Direct-to-video features
- 1997: Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher RobinPooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher RobinPooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin is a 1997 direct-to-video film from Walt Disney's The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh. The film follows Pooh and his friends on a journey to find and rescue their friend Christopher Robin from the "Skull"...
- 1999: Seasons of Giving*
- 2002: A Very Merry Pooh Year*
- 2004: Springtime with Roo
- 2005: Pooh's Heffalump Halloween MoviePooh's Heffalump Halloween MoviePooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie is a Winnie the Pooh movie which was released direct to video as the sequel to Pooh's Heffalump Movie. It features the segment, Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh....
- 2007 Super Sleuth Christmas Movie
- 2009 Tigger, Pooh, And A Musical Too
- 2010 Super Duper Super Sleuths
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 that ran from 1988 to 1991, inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.-Overview:...
and/or holiday specials with new footage.
Legacy
Winnie the Pooh has inspired multiple texts to explain complex philosophical ideas. Benjamin HoffBenjamin Hoff
Benjamin Hoff is an author based in the United States. Two of his books on Taoism, The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, were on best seller lists. Hoff grew up in Sylvan, Oregon, where he acquired a fondness of the natural world that has been highly influential in his writing.Hoff obtained a...
used Milne's characters in The Tao of Pooh
The Tao of Pooh
The Tao of Pooh is a book written by Benjamin Hoff. The book is intended as an introduction to the eastern belief system of Taoism for westerners. It allegorically employs the fictional characters of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories to explain the basic principles of philosophical Taoism...
and The Te of Piglet
The Te of Piglet
Ten years after his 1982 work The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff was pressed to write a follow up of his Western inquiry into Taoism. He did this by writing The Te of Piglet, published in 1992...
to explain Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
. Similarly, Frederick Crews rewrote stories from Pooh's world in abstruse academic jargon in Postmodern Pooh and The Pooh Perplex to satirize the philosophical approaches. Pooh and the Philosophers by John T. Williams uses Winnie the Pooh as a backdrop to illustrate the works of philosophers including Descartes, Kant
KANT
KANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Nietzsche.
Pooh has also left a legacy in popular culture. Winnie-the-Pooh is such a popular character in Poland that a Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
street is named after him, "Ulica Kubusia Puchatka
Ulica Kubusia Puchatka
thumb|right|Winnie the Pooh StreetUlica Kubusia Puchatka is a street in central Warsaw, Poland named after Winnie-the-Pooh.-Source:*...
." There is also a street named after him in Budapest (Micimackó utca).
In music, Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
wrote the song "House at Pooh Corner
House at Pooh Corner (song)
"House at Pooh Corner" is the title of a song that was written by Kenny Loggins, based on the popular children's book of the same name. The song was first performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy and then performed by Loggins and Messina on their...
", which was originally recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country-folk-rock band that has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California in 1966. The group's membership has had at least a dozen changes over the years, including a period from 1976 to 1981 when the band performed and recorded...
. Loggins later rewrote the song as "Return to Pooh Corner
Return to Pooh Corner
Return to Pooh Corner is a children's music album by soft rock singer Kenny Loggins. Released in 1994, it features songs written by John Lennon, Rickie Lee Jones, Paul Simon, and Jimmy Webb, along with several other traditional children's songs. It was a successful album for Loggins, selling over...
", featuring on the album of the same name in 1991. Also, in Italy, a pop band took their name from Winnie, and were titled Pooh
Pooh (band)
Pooh is an Italian pop band formed in 1966. They are referred to in the plural as i Pooh .-Current lineup:*Roby Facchinetti , Vocals and keyboards from 1966...
.
In the "sport" of Poohsticks
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 and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side...
, competitors drop sticks into a stream from a bridge and then wait to see whose stick will cross the finish line first. Though it began as a game played by Pooh and his friends in the book The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner 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, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
and later in the films, it has crossed over into the real world: a World Championship Poohsticks race takes place in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
each year.
External links
- The original bear, with A. A. Milne and Christopher Robin, at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- The real locations, from the Ashdown Forest Conservators
- Winnie-the-Pooh at the New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...