Less childlike and more childish the latest installment in the franchise is an overall abysmal and highly disappointing turn for the characters and the stories created by A.A Milne and popularized in the United States by Walt Disney.
Attempting to return to the form presented by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh the film is more a series of animated shorts compiled into one film. Among them are the story of Eeyore (voice of Bud Luckey) losing his tail and Winnie The Pooh, Tigger (both voiced by Jim Cummings), Owl (voiced by Craig Ferguson), Rabbit (voiced by Tom Kenny), Piglet (voiced by Travis Oates), Kanga (voiced by Kristen Anderson-Lopez) and Roo (voiced by Wyatt Dean Hall) all begin a contest to find a new one. While misinterpreting a note from Christopher Robin (Jack Boulter), Owl convinces everyone that he has been kidnapped by a horrible creature known as the Backson (Back soon) and Pooh attempts to find honey.
There are several songs in the film (written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez) and every single one of them fails to live up to the wonderful songs written by Robert and Richard Sherman for the previous shorts. There is a lack of charm and constant laziness in the new songs that causes them to be unmemorable. Repeating "honey" thirteen times does not make a good song and the complete shortage of talent in Zooey Deschanel is apparent in her singing of at least one of the songs.
One thing I have always loved about the characters that were originally created by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H Shepard was how honest and open they were with each other. They never tried to pull anything over on one another. In this film that is gone. The script, developed by no less than ten individuals, is so chock full of somewhat sinister actions (such as "toss in the pig") and lying that the individuals perpetually border on unlikeable. Perhaps I am lamenting for an era of animation and a style of storytelling that is gone or maybe I haven't given many programs the chances they deserve. Whatever the reason, I was severely disappointed in what I have been given by Disney in their attempts to update the characters to fit into a world of cynicism.
If I was to say anything good about the film it would be the voice work by Jim Cummings. He is the only member of the cast whose performances I didn't hate. His near pitch-perfect imitation of the late Sterling Holloway is so spot on that you would swear it was the same person. Of course he has had years to practice but he, nonetheless remains true to his characters unlike the rest of the cast.
★
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