4.29.2008

The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh (1988)

Premiering September 10, 1988 on ABC, The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh was Disney’s fourth venture into television animation. Inspired by A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories, the cartoon is a continuation of the series of “Pooh” short films released from Disney from the 1960’s till the 1980’s.

For whatever reason, I never really thought much of this program. It kind of stands out in what Disney was putting out at the time. While other shows were reviving old characters with a modern twist, this series was more of an extension of the previous “Pooh” films and therefore involved a different type of storyline. I always thought of this show to be more preschool-ish than anything else, and that’s why it stands out in Disney’s list of animated television programs (excluding the list of shows intentionally aimed at preschoolers). While Pooh merchandise has always sold well for Disney, I never saw a big fandom surrounding this show. This is more than likely why I can’t find too much production information about it. Nonetheless, it was enjoyed by many kids for many years. Personally, I never really got into this program and didn’t watch it that often. Perhaps its storylines in the 100 Acre Wood set in a classic time just didn’t interest me. I haven’t watched the show in years and have more than likely grown out of it now. Despite this, the series boasted quality animation with original songs and scores.

The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh ran for 83 episodes, the last one airing on October 7, 1991. A Christmas special entitled Winnie The Pooh And Christmas Too based on the series aired on December 14, 1991. Oddly enough reruns of the show continued to air on Saturday mornings on ABC until the fall of 2002 – therefore The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh holds a record for being the longest Disney series to be broadcasted in reruns on the original network it premiered on, and no other Disney cartoon since then has come close to airing that long on its original network of debut. Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger also appeared in the 1990 drug prevention video Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue.

The last time Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends were seen in Canada was on Family Channel in the summer of 2007; at the time of its removal from the network it was the oldest Disney cartoon airing on the channel. No episodes are currently on Youtube and the series has no DVD releases as of yet. It goes without saying – the opening theme song (and the ending theme) from this show is flawlessly crafted to sing along with and will surly evoke childhood memories within seconds of listing to it. The singer kind of sounds the same from the DuckTales theme but I can’t say that for sure. These oldschool Disney themes are a mystery when it comes to who the singers are.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love all of the characters from the 100 Acre Wood. The messages in all the episodes are great for kids of all ages. God Bless the creaters. Their voices for the characters also make the show more realistic and exciting. Thank you