Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 American animated featurette based on stories from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 as a companion to the film, 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 Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (April 24, 1977). 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 Oscar was awarded posthumously to Walt Disney, who died more than two years before the film's initial release. It is also the first and only Winnie the Pooh production that has won an Academy Award. (Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, released 6 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 MPAA logo (unveiled in 1968) in the credits. The short appears as a bonus feature on the 2006 DVD of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.
Sources[]
The film's plot is primarily based on seven of A.A. Milne stories: "In Which Piglet Does a Very Grand Thing" (Chapter VIII from The House at Pooh Corner), "In Which Eeyore Finds the Wolery and Owl Moves into It" (Chapter IX from The House at Pooh Corner), "In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast" (Chapter II from The House at Pooh Corner), "In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump" (Chapter V from Winnie-the-Pooh: Winnie the Pooh's nightmare of Heffalumps and Woozles), "In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water" (Chapter IX of Winnie-the-Pooh), and "In Which Christopher Robin Gives Pooh a Party and We Say Goodbye" (Chapter X of Winnie-the-Pooh). In the 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[]
At the beginning of the story, Gopher tells Winnie the Pooh that it is "Winds-day" (a play on "Wednesday"), where upon Pooh decides to wish everyone "Happy Winds-day". He visits his friend, a young pink pig named Piglet, who wears a scarf around his neck on this day. Piglet is blown into the air, his scarf unravelling 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. But when they arrive at Owl's house, he informs them that the wind is due to "a gentle spring zephyr" rather than to a particular holiday. During the windstorm, Owl's house is knocked down, and Eeyore decides to find a new house for Owl.
That night, Pooh hears an unfamiliar noise coming from elsewhere in the Hundred Acre Wood. There is a knock on his door, then Tigger bounces inside in search of something to eat. After singing his signature song, he tries some honey, but dislikes it. Before leaving Pooh’s house, Tigger tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest and that they steal honey, Pooh's favorite food. Later, Pooh suffers from a nightmare in which Heffalumps and Woozles steal his honey while the song "Heffalumps and Woozles" plays.
Later that night, a storm floods the Hundred Acre Wood. Piglet, who is trapped in his home, writes a bottle-note for help, just before the waters carry him away, him riding a chair. Pooh, who is trapped in a honey pot, floats away from his home as well. The remaining beloved characters gather at Christopher Robin's house, and Christopher discovers and reads the message ("Help! P-P-P-Piglet [Me]!"). 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. However, as they plunge down the fall, Pooh inadvertently saves Piglet when he switches places with his honey pot to the chair. When they arrive together at Christopher Robin's house, he sees 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. But everybody, unfortunately, learns that the one Eeyore found is Piglet's house. They are shocked and dismayed and try to tell Eeyore that Piglet already lives there. However, Piglet decides to reluctantly give his home to Owl, to which a touched 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 – Winnie the Pooh
- Paul Winchell – Tigger
- John Fiedler – Piglet
- Jon Walmsley – Christopher Robin
- Clint Howard – Roo
- Barbara Luddy – Kanga
- Ralph Wright – Eeyore
- Hal Smith – Owl
- Junius Matthews – Rabbit
- Howard Morris – Gopher
- Sebastian Cabot – Narrator
- The Mellomen - Honeypot Singers
Songs[]
- "A Rather Blustery Day" by Sherman Brothers
- "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" by Sherman Brothers
- "Heffalumps and Woozles" by Sherman Brothers
- "Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down" by Sherman Brothers
- "Hip-Hip-Hooray!" by Sherman Brothers
Home video releases[]
- Main article: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (video)
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Production[]
After the mixed reception from the first Winnie the Pooh short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Walt Disney had greenlit a second Pooh short, though was barely involved due to his passing in 1966 only ten months after the release of the first short.
The company made sure to give Piglet and Tigger actual starring roles in the story rather than being reduced to cameos in the opening sequence.
Reception[]
Both American and British critics and audiences has received the shor positive mostly because of the return of Christopher Robin being depicted with a British accent along with giving Piglet and Tigger actual roles in the project instead of cameos.
Trivia[]
- According to a 1966 Disney News article previewing the film, the featurette's original working title was Winnie the Pooh and the Heffalumps.
- This is the film with the first appearances of Piglet and Tigger.
- This is the only featurette with a hallucination scene.
- This is the only featurette to feature the entire cast of characters.
- This is the first Winnie the Pooh film not to begin with Pooh's theme song.
- Stock footage from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is used.
- When The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh had further releases, this featurette version faded from existence, though it was made available as a bonus feature on the 2006 DVD release of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. It also, along with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, occasionally reran on ABC Family and Disney Jr..
- The events of this short are disregarded beginning with Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore.
- The poster art was reused for the poster for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, except the title of the movie is used and Tigger's sign says "Me, Tooh" instead of "All-Nooh".
- The Disneyland Records album of this featurette included a book with early designs for Piglet (with a much larger snout) and Tigger (basically a "Disneyfied" version of the E.H. Shephard illustrations of him).
- Wally Boag auditioned for Tigger after Walt thought that he would be perfect for the role. But the role was too zany for a film appropriate for children, so Paul Winchell took the job instead.
- There is a deleted scene that has Gopher warning Owl that there's a storm coming and tells him to dig a high hole. This is used in the LP album.
- Out of the three original Winnie the Pooh featurettes that would be compiled into the The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, this is the only one to have the opening orchestra re-recorded as well as the only one where the narrator would re-record the introduction to the book as opposed to its successor Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too which reused the same opening score and narration from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
- This is the second and last Winnie the Pooh featurette to have any involvement from Walt Disney.
Edits[]
The master of this short used on the 1989 NBC TV broadcast and on the 1990s UK home video releases uses slightly modified opening titles with slightly different text:
- The "Walt Disney Presents" text is omitted, instead beginning with the main title card "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day".
- The logos when saying based on the book by A. A. Milne's doesn't show the MPAA, RCA and the "All Rights Reserved" signs.
- When this particular master replaced the 1983/1986 master on home video starting in 1994, the original titles were used, along with the Buena Vista opening logo being restored for the first time.
- The 1990s UK home video releases used the altered titles, but the rest of the film is the 1983/1986 master.
External links[]
