Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
VHS cover
Directed by	Wolfgang Reitherman
Produced by	Walt Disney
Written by	Larry Clemmons Ralph Wright
Based on	characters created by A.A. Milne
Narrated by	Sebastian Cabot
Starring	Sterling Holloway John Fiedler Paul Winchell Hal Smith Jon Walmsley Ralph Wright
Music by	Songs: Robert & Richard Sherman Score: Buddy Baker
Studio	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution Co, Inc.
Release date(s)	December 20, 1968 (1968-12-20)
Running time	25 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh shorts. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the 1968 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. The Academy Award was awarded posthumously to Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer more than two years before the film's initial release. It is also the only Winnie the Pooh production that won an Academy Award. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, which was released six years later in 1974, was nominated for the same Academy Award, but lost to Closed Mondays.

It is also the first Disney film to feature the current MPAA logo in the credits, which was unveiled in that year. The short also appears as a bonus short with the 1997 direct-to-video film Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. The animated featurette also served as the inspiration for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride in Walt Disney World in which the rider experiences several scenes from the cartoon, including Pooh's Heffalump and Woozle dream.

Sources

The film's plot is based primarily on three A. A. Milne stories: "In which Tigger comes to the forest and has breakfast" (Chapter II of The House at Pooh Corner), "In which Piglet does a very grand thing" (Chapter VIII of The House at Pooh Corner), and "In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water" (Chapter IX of Winnie-the-Pooh), with elements taken from "In which Piglet meets a Heffalump" (Chapter V of Winnie-the-Pooh: Pooh's nightmare). In A. A. Milne's original story, Pooh shows more initiative during the flood, finding his way to Christopher Robin by riding on one of his floating honey pots, which he names The Floating Bear, then having the inspiration of using Christopher Robin's umbrella to carry them both to Piglet's house.

Plot

The story takes place when the east wind trades places with the west wind, stirring things up a bit all through the Hundred Acre Woods. At the beginning of this story, while Winnie-the-Pooh is at his "thoughtful spot" trying to think of something, Gopher pops out of the ground and tells him that it is "Winds-day" (a play on "Wednesday"), whereupon Pooh decides to wish everybody "Happy Winds-day." He visits his friend Piglet, who wears a scarf around his neck on this day. Piglet is blown into the air, his scarf unraveling all the while, and Pooh grabs hold of him. As they fly like a kite through the air over the other characters' heads, Pooh wishes Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Rabbit, and Owl a happy Winds-day. However, once they arrive at Owl's treehouse, he informs them that the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr" rather than to a particular holiday. During the windstorm, Owl's house is knocked down, so Eeyore volunteers to house-hunt for Owl. That night, Pooh hears an unfamiliar noise coming from elsewhere in the Hundred Acre Wood. Someone knocks on Pooh’s door, then Tigger bounces inside in search of something to eat. He tries some honey but gets disgusted and decides, "Yuck! Tiggers don't like honey!". Before leaving Pooh's house, Tigger tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest that steal honey. After which, he says goodbye and bounces off. Pooh, frightened by Tigger's tale, takes it upon himself to guard his honey, but eventually falls fast asleep. As he is sleeping, he has a nightmare about Heffalumps and Woozles stealing his honey and chasing him around.

Later that night, a storm floods the Hundred Acre Woods, and Piglet becomes trapped in his home. He writes a bottle-note for help just before the waters carry him away riding a chair. While eating his breakfast, Pooh is trapped in a honey pot and floats away from his home as well. The remaining characters gather at Christopher Robin's house, due to it being on ground that's too high for the water to reach, and Christopher reads Piglet's message. He then sends Owl to inform Piglet of a rescue plan in the works, but just after he delivers the news, Piglet and Pooh are mixed up in a waterfall which switches Piglet to the honey pot and Pooh to the chair. When they arrive together at Christopher Robin's house, he mistakenly thinks that Pooh rescued Piglet, and throws a hero party for Pooh. During the party, Eeyore announces that he has found a new home for Owl. When he leads the gang to Piglet's house, the others are shocked and try to tell Eeyore that Piglet already lives there. However, Piglet reluctantly decides to give his home to Owl, and Pooh offers to let Piglet live with him. Pooh suggests to Christopher Robin that the hero party should become a two-hero party because of Piglet's generosity. He agrees, and the characters celebrate both Pooh’s and Piglet's good deeds that day.

Voice cast

• Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh
• Paul Winchell as Tigger
• John Fiedler as Piglet
• Clint Howard as Roo
• Barbara Luddy as Kanga
• Ralph Wright as Eeyore
• Hal Smith as Owl
• Junius Matthews as Rabbit
• Jon Walmsley as Christopher Robin
• Howard Morris as Gopher
• Narrated by Sebastian Cabot

Songs

1. "Winnie the Pooh" by Richard & Robert Sherman
2. "A Rather Blustery Day" by Richard & Robert Sherman
3. "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" by Richard & Robert Sherman
4. "Heffalumps and Woozles" by Richard & Robert Sherman
5. "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down" by Richard & Robert Sherman
6. "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!" by Richard & Robert Sherman

External links

• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day at the Internet Movie Database