Voices of Jim Cummings, Paul Winchell, John Fielder, and Ken Sansom
Directed by Harry Arends, Jun Falkenstein, and Kari Geurs
Music and Lyrics by The Sherman Brothers and Michael and Patty Silversher
This is the first of three direct-to-video "movies" made up of episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, new material, and the Pooh holiday specials of the mid-90's. It's also one of the last projects the Sherman Brothers were involved in to date. How does Pooh's first holiday collection look nowadays? Let's start with Tigger as he's hoping for skiing weather and find out...
The Story: This is an anthology, so we have three stories.
Groundpiglet's Day: The pages of Rabbit's calendar have blown away, making Rabbit believe it's now Groundhog's Day. He and the others recruit Piglet to find out if they'll be having six more weeks of winter, or if spring is here. Piglet accidentally doesn't see his shadow, making the others believe spring is coming. Rabbit blows up at Piglet when he finds out otherwise, but eventually goes after him to make amends.
A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving: The citizens of the Hundred Acre Woods is ready to gather for their own Thanksgiving feast, with lots of honey and haycorns...until Rabbit butts in. No no, says the yellow bunny, that's not how a traditional Thanksgiving's done. With Piglet and Pooh recruited to catch the turkey and Eeyore and Tigger to find cranberries, this dinner's on a course for disaster, until Pooh remembers the real reason for the holiday.
Find Her, Keep Her: Rabbit explains how he rescued Kessie, a baby bird whom he found lost in a snowstorm, and raised her as his own child. It's hard for him to let go when she wants to fly south for the winter, but he comes to realize how important it is for her.
The Animation: Par for the course for the Pooh franchise and Disney TV and direct-to-home media animation of the 80's and 90's...and that's really how it should be. This is one franchise that doesn't really need fancy animation, just characters that look and move well enough and at least somewhat resemble the ones in the books.
The Song and Dance: The last two segments alone make this worth seeing for Pooh fans. "Thanksgiving" is the third of four times in the Pooh franchise someone calls off a holiday to avoid hurting feelings or a lot of trouble...and cause even more problems anyway. Piglet and Pooh's attempt to find the turkey is funny and Tigger and Eeyore have a great number while looking for "cranberries," but I think Gopher's explosive attempt at pumpkin pie is by far the funniest bit in that short.
"Find Her, Keep Her" is one of the best New Adventures episodes. It's hilarious and adorable to see how Rabbit goes from finding Kessie a nuisance to bringing her up as his own daughter...and utterly heartbreaking when he realizes that her learning to fly means she no longer needs his protection. It's so good, it almost makes up for the story having no real connection to the Christmas season.
Favorite Number: The gentle Sherman Brothers title tune plays between shorts, connecting them with its sweet lyrics representing each season depicted in the segment. The remaining songs are all from the Thanksgiving special. Pooh announces "Hooray, Hooray" as he brings his honey pot to the big Thanksgiving feast and he sings of how happy he is for good friends and good food. Tigger says "Berrily We Roll Along" as he and Eeyore attempt to gather cranberries, only keep finding blueberries instead. The entire Hundred Acre Woods manage to get together for their own type of holiday meal in "Our Thanksgiving Day."
What I Don't Like: What the heck is "Groundspiglet's Day" doing here? First of all, other than a few good gags towards the end when Rabbit mistakes a pile of snow for Piglet, it's the least-interesting short in the batch. The jokey tone doesn't match the sentimental Thanksgiving special or the dramatic "Find Her" and doesn't work with the holiday theme, either. Not to mention, Rabbit comes off as even more of a jerk than in the other two segments, especially to Piglet.
And yes, there's the fact that the holiday theme of this film is tenuous at best. It's also obvious that different actors were used for the new Christmas sequences bookending "Find Her" - most of them sound totally different than the original cast.
The Big Finale: Charming Thanksgiving viewing for families with young kids or major Pooh fans who don't mind the twice-told origins and so-so opening short.
Home Media: Very out of print on DVD. Your best bet is streaming or looking for the DVD used.
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