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 Julius Svendsen Vance Gerry
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 Film Distribution Company (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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 Company 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 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.

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

Pooh is on his way to his thoughtful spot. Today is a very windy day. As Pooh sits thinking, Gopher pops out of the ground and advises Pooh to get out of there. Pooh who misunderstood his warning goes across the Hundred Acre Wood to wish everyone a happy Winds-day. Pooh first goes to his friend Piglet, who gets tangled with his scarf in the air like a kite on a string. As Pooh struggles to keep a hold of the scarf he passes by Kanga and Roo, wishing them both a happy Winds-day; Eeyore, whose stick house Pooh breaks as he passes; and Rabbit, who Pooh inadvertently helps harvest the carrots in his vegetable garden as he slides by.

The blustery wind finally blows Pooh and Piglet over to Owl's treehouse, where he invites them in. Pooh wishes Owl a happy Winds-day, as he has everyone else, but Owl informs them that the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr" rather than to a particular holiday. The strong wind blows Owl's house back and forth causing it to shake and eventually the tree and the house topple over. Owl blames Pooh at first but Pooh says he didn't do it, Christopher Robin and Eeyore notice this and Eeyore volunteers to seek out a new house Owl.

As night falls, the wind is still blowing and Pooh is kept awake by growling and scratching noise and he opens his door for the visitor outside. An orange bouncing tiger named Tigger emerges from outside, rolling over Pooh and sitting on him. Tigger has come looking for something to eat and decides to try some of Pooh's honey. After a few tastes Tigger gets disgusted and decides that 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. Pooh, frightened by Tigger's tale, guards 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, a flooding rain begins to fall and Piglet is washed away from his home. He writes a bottle-note for help just before the waters carry him away sitting on a chair. Pooh wakes up in a huge puddle as the floodwaters start to rise and heads for higher ground with ten honey pots. However, as he is eating the honey out of one of them the rising waters carry him away. Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Rabbit, and Tigger all gather at Christopher Robin's house, which is situated on the highest ground. Roo finds Piglet's bottle, and Owl flies off to inform Piglet that help is on the way.

Owl reaches both Piglet and Pooh, but before he can inform them of the impending rescue a waterfall threatens to carry them all over the side. Pooh decides to switch places with Piglet, and luckily for him the waterfall washes him right into Christopher Robin's yard. Seeing what Pooh did to rescue Piglet, Christopher Robin decides to throw a party celebrating Pooh's heroic deed. During the party, Eeyore announces that he has found a new home for Owl. He leads everyone over to his discovery, which unbeknownst to everyone except Owl and Eeyore is Piglet's beech tree. Owl is impressed with the house, but before anyone can tell him who the home belongs to Piglet decides that Owl should have the house. Pooh decides to allow Piglet to move into his home and, impressed by his selflessness, asks Christopher Robin to make the hero party for two instead of one.

Home video

The film was released on VHS and Beta in 1986. It was re-released in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1997, and was also re-released again on July 11th, 2000 in the storybook classics collection. This short also shows up as a bonus feature on the 2006 DVD release of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.

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 and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus
2. "A Rather Blustery Day" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by Sterling Holloway
3. "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by Paul Whinchell
4. "Heffalumps and Woozles" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Mellomen
5. "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus
6. "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus

The film is the only Winnie the Pooh feature film to not feature the vocals of the original Winnie the Pooh theme song at any part of the film.

External links

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