Purely Joyful Movie!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This 20-minute, Grammy award nominated, animated short film from almost 50 years ago was actually the first appearance of the honey addicted bear Winnie the Pooh on the screen. The director is German Wolfgang Reitherman. You could basically divide it into two parts. In the first half Pooh Bear realizes that he has no more honey left. So he goes to get some, but obviously taking honey means getting in trouble with bees. And that's exactly what happens. After he and his pal Christopher Robin are chased by a huge quantity of bees, he gives up and thinks about other ways to get honey. Thankfully, his rabbit buddy still has some and so he visits him and eats it all up. Unfortunately, afterward, Pooh is too fat to get out of the rabbit hole and he is stuck. Christopher Robin knows no solution either, so Pooh Bear has to wait till he loses enough weight to get out on his own again. Of course, he still wants to eat honey while he is stuck. I have to say this was not a horrible short film by any means, but it's still too little material for over 20 minutes in my opinion. This was the first Pooh Bear film, was even made before the Soviet adaptation, but it's certainly not the best. Not recommended.

Wonderful classic tells the story of Winnie the Pooh's honey craving and the lengths he will go to in order to get some. It's a fun story with the memorable image of Pooh stuck in the door to Rabbit's house that everybody is familiar with. The characters, as always, are lovable and memorable. In addition to Pooh and Rabbit, there's Kanga, Eeyore, Owl, Roo, Gopher, and, of course, Christopher Robin. Piglet and Tigger would appear in the next Pooh short from Disney. The animation is excellent and there's some great songs by the Sherman Brothers. Let's not forget Sebastian Cabot's terrific narration. It's a great cartoon and would appear later in "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," which is where I first saw it.

Like the other three Pooh shorts that made up the feature film of the Many Adventures released in 1977 and on video in the 80s, the Honey Tree short was one of those works I've watched countless times. It does have its 'valuable lesson' for the kids, but it's also just very silly, cute entertainment that ranges from jokes so absurd they work for some adults ("You messed up my moose" is a line I still quote today, the Gopher material is also rather off-key for a children's short), to the suspenseful moments that, for lack of a better description, capture kid's imaginations. And the whole structure of it being a book-as-animated short give it an inventiveness that don't come with other adaptations of books to Disney animation. Here, Rabbit becomes irate and near impatient as Pooh gets stuck in his rabbit-hole after consuming more honey than needed. Pooh then is stuck for a week until he can loose the excess baggage, where a very climactic and momentous pull of Pooh is lead in song and action. All of this is very clever, and even for little kids its got nothing at all complicated about it- even if all the points and little jokes aren't caught the thrust of the storytelling and joyous nature even in the safer moments are near-perfect. And unlike what apparently is meant for current pre-K programming today (Teletubbies aren't on anymore at least), the whole mood is very pure without being pandering. There's no overt vulgarity, and the over-the-top moments don't get old ("Don't feed the bear" is another quotable phrase). Highly recommended.

This was the very first adventure based on the famous children's books from Walt Disney animations, when I was younger this used to be very good. Winnie the Pooh, the bear with little brain, lives in the Hundred Acre Wood with many friends including, Rabbit, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo, Owl and Christopher Robin. No sign of Tigger or Piglet though. Anyway, in this Pooh runs out of honey and notices a honey tree. He is trying everything he can to get some honey from the tree. But he instead gets it from Rabbit and ends up stuck in his front door. Kids will obviously love this cartoon for the cute and cuddly Pooh bear, and a very good story. Winnie the Pooh was number 55 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Woeth watching!