The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh appears in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a good image but not one without issues.
As usual, the main complaints came from Disney’s semi-aggressive use of noise reduction. Their Powers That Be long ago decreed that their animated films should come free from grain, and that can turn into an issue.
However, the nature of animation makes this less problematic than would become the case for live-action flicks. The grain elimination of Adventures created some minor loss of detail but I still thought sharpness and delineation worked well for the most part.
The brief live-action opening credits turned unto the ugliest part of the disc. With mushy detail and oddly blobby “frozen grain” over the credits, this segment fared poorly. However, given that this part only lasted two minutes, it became a brief concern.
Jagged edges and moiré effects caused no issues, and I also noticed no signs of edge haloes. As for print flaws, they seemed almost absent from the film.
Colors consistently came across as rich and vibrant. The cartoons displayed nicely vibrant and accurate tones, and they displayed no signs of bleeding, noise or other concerns.
Black levels were deep and dense, while shadow detail looked clean and appropriately opaque. Even with the overuse of grain reduction, this became a pleasant presentation.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it worked fine for its age. For the most part, it presented “broad mono”, as the audio remained pretty heavily anchored in the center channel.
However, the track did start to expand as the cartoons became more modern. This meant “Honey” showed the weakest soundfield, while “Tigger” broadened things to a decent degree.
Music demonstrated adequate stereo spread throughout the shorts, while effects offered reasonable but unexceptional presence. Again, the later programs worked best, as they demonstrated some acceptable movement and spread.
The surrounds remained somewhat passive throughout the program. They never did more than provide general reinforcement of the front spectrum.
Audio quality appeared fine for its age, so speech seemed acceptably distinct and natural. The lines were somewhat flat and stiff, but they showed no signs of edginess and they always remained intelligible.
Music presented limited range but appeared reasonably bright and vivid. Effects also were somewhat thin, but they lacked distortion, and they also added some modest low-end response at times.
For example, the crash of Owl’s house demonstrated fair bass. In the end, Adventures offered a decent soundtrack that was adequate for the material.
How did the Blu-ray compare to those of the 2007 DVD? The lossless BD track felt slightly more vibrant compared to its lossy DVD counterpart, but the age of the material restricted improvements.
As for visuals, the Blu-ray offered a format-related boost. Honestly, I suspect that it used the same scan as the DVD, for I doubt Disney invested new effort into this affair. Still, the stronger capabilities of Blu-ray meant an uptick in quality.
The Blu-ray mixes old and new extras, and The Story Behind the Masterpiece brings a 25-minute, five-second program about the film. It provides fairly contemporary interviews with Director of the Walt Disney Archives Dave Smith, storyman X. Atencio, animators Ollie Johnston, Burny Mattinson and Frank Thomas, songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman, and voice actors Paul Winchell and John Walmsley.
While not a tremendously deep piece, “Story” offers a lot of good facts about the series’ origins, Walt’s plans for it, and a variety of aspects of the production.
From the songs to the animation to the casting, we learn quite a lot of good notes about the films. Overall, “Story” gives us a fun and informative look at Pooh.
Next we see Winnie the Pooh and a Day For Eeyore, a 25-minute, 23-second animated short from 1983. This short covers Eeyore’s birthday, which finds him especially depressed because no one remembers it.
Actually, I don’t think any of the other critters ever knew when Eeyore’s birthday occurred, but he’s even mopier than usual nonetheless. Pooh and the gang try to make the day special for Eeyore, and they succeed in that realm.
Unfortunately, this results in a very bland cartoon that doesn’t succeed well. The filmmakers execute the story in a flat and lifeless manner, and the animation appears surprisingly weak.
Colors suffer in particular, so at times, Pooh’s body parts change hue simultaneously, and Rabbit takes on an unpleasant shade of pea green. I appreciate the inclusion of Eeyore, but I didn’t much enjoy the short itself.
In a music video-style presentation, Carly Simon performs The Winnie the Pooh Theme Song. This clip combines shots from the movie with images of Simon as she lip-synchs the tune. She offers version of the number.
The Blu-ray also comes with some new features, and Pooh Play-Along offers a one-minute, 48-second segment. It basically encourages the kids to exercise along with Pooh and pals. “Play-Along” seems utterly inconsequential.
Five clips show up under Mini-Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. With a total running time of 11 minutes, 55 seconds, these offer short animated tales.
Narrated by John Cleese and sometimes accompanied by more Simon tunes, these offer minor entertainment value, though their quality varies, as some inevitably fare better than others. None seem especially memorable, unfortunately.
First used on the Blu-ray for 2011’s The Muppets, Disney Intermission delivers an unusual component. If you activate this feature, every time you pause the movie, you’ll see some short clips with Pooh and pals. It becomes an innocuous addition.
The disc opens with ads for The Little Mermaid, Planes and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
Sneak Peeks adds promos for Sophia the First, “Disney on Ice”, and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast. No trailer for Adventures appears here.
A second disc offers a DVD copy of Adventures. It includes one of the five “Mini-Adventures” and the Carly Simon version of the Pooh theme but it lacks any other extras.
This continues a maddening trend from Disney in which their Blu-rays drop features from pre-existing DVDs. Rather than simply toss in said pre-existing DVD and give fans those exclusive extras, the BDs come with different DVDs that also omit those old extras.
Why not just toss in the existing DVD so fans can enjoy all the existing extras in one package? Greed, I suspect, but it bugs me.
During a weak period for Disney animation, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh offered some of the best work from the studio. 45 years later, the program seems inconsistent but generally charming and winning. The Blu-ray provides generally good picture and audio along with minor bonus materials. Despite some misgivings, this becomes a mostly positive rendition of a largely enjoyable compilation.
To rate this film visit the 25th Anniversary Edition review of THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH