Voices of Ken Sansom, Jimmy Bennett, Jim Cummings, and David Ogden Stiers
Directed by Elliot M. Bour and Saul Blinkoff
Music and Lyrics by various
We celebrate Easter with the citizens of the Hundred Acres Woods in the only entirely original Pooh holiday movie. Roo gets top billing, but resident bunny Rabbit is really the one in the spotlight. He learns an important lesson about spring and Easter, via a much-loved story that's usually more associated with Christmas than springtime. Let's start with little Roo (Bennett) as he explains to the narrator (Stiers) why he loves Easter so much and find out why Rabbit's more than a little out of sorts about spring this year...
The Story: No one is more excited about Easter than little Roo...which is why he's disappointed when he and his friends arrive at Rabbit's to find no Easter decorations. Rabbit declares it Spring Cleaning Day instead and orders the others to help clean his house. The others try to spruce up his quarters with Easter decorations, but he ends up furious with them for not doing what he told them to and chases them out.
Roo can't figure out why Rabbit's so upset. He used to love Easter. Tigger goes to talk to him, only for Rabbit to insist even harder that he won't allow anyone to celebrate Easter anymore. The narrator takes things into his own, well, hands when he shows what happened the year before when Rabbit tried too hard to make Roo's first Easter at the Hundred Acre Wood perfect. When even that doesn't make Rabbit relent, he finally reveals how his current behavior is upsetting Roo...and what will happen in the future if he continues trying to control his friends and how they celebrate the holidays.
The Animation: Mostly par for the course for the Winnie the Pooh franchise. It's nothing flashy, but all this franchise needs is for the characters to move well and at least somewhat resemble the ones in the books, which they do here. There are a few decent effects during the "future" segment as well.
The Song and Dance: This one gets points for originality. As mentioned, first of all, it's the only Pooh direct-to-media holiday film with no added filler from TV specials or The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Second, there's some surprisingly good performances here. This is Samson's best outing as fussy Rabbit outside of the Kessie shorts in New Adventures, Bennett's charming as Roo, and Stiers lends gravity and even a hint of menace as the narrator.
This also makes better use of Pooh and his friends being in a book than any Pooh media outside of the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film. They flash forwards and backwards in time via turning the pages in the book. Rabbit even gets stuck in the pages at one point.
Favorite Number: Tigger and Roo sing about how "We're Hunting Eggs Today" as they head to Rabbit's, only to find Rabbit has no intention of doing anything like that. "Sniffity Sniff" is Pooh's comic number as he tries to keep from sneezing while sweeping Rabbit's home, only to make a worse mess when he does let it out. Roo and Tigger are glad to share "Easter Day With You" when they help the others put up decorations at Rabbit's house. We see why Rabbit got upset the Easter before when he tries to get the others to play by his rules, because that's "The Way It Must Be Done."
What I Don't Like: Rabbit is such a jerk here, even by his standards, it gives this outing an unusually bitter tinge. The Christmas Carol theme in the second half, with the narrator playing ghost and showing Rabbit what will happen if he continues to alienate his friends, seems like an odd choice for this gentle series. Also, the focus is mainly on Rabbit and Roo, with Tigger bouncing in as well. We don't really get much of Pooh beyond his "Sniffity Sniff" number and complaining about Rabbit keeping his spring honey pot, and even less of Eeyore and Piglet. At least they're in the movie. Gopher, Owl, and Christopher Robin are missing, and aren't even mentioned.
The Big Finale: The Christmas Carol second half is too weird to make this a favorite of mine, but it does have some things of merit if you love Roo, Rabbit, or the other Pooh holiday films.
Home Media: Easy to find in all major formats. Disney Plus has it for streaming with a subscription.
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