The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

1977 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions This article is about the 1977 film. For the TV series, see The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. For the Disney attraction, see The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction).

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Lounsbery Wolfgang Reitherman
Story by	Larry Clemmons Ralph Wright Vance Gerry Xavier Atencio Ken Anderson Julius Svendsen Ted Berman Eric Cleworth
Based on	Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne E. H. Shepard
Produced by	Walt Disney Wolfgang Reitherman
Starring	Sterling Holloway John Fiedler Junius Matthews Paul Winchell Ralph Wright Howard Morris Bruce Reitherman Jon Walmsley Timothy Turner
Edited by	Tom Acosta James Melton
Music by	Buddy Baker
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date	March 11, 1977 (1977-03-11)
Running time	74 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a 1977 American animated musical anthology fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It was first released on a double bill with The Littlest Horse Thieves on March 11, 1977.

Its characters have spawned a franchise of various sequels and television programs, clothing, books, toys, and an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland in addition to Pooh's Hunny Hunt in Tokyo Disneyland.

Plot

The film joins three previously released Winnie-the-Pooh animated featurettes based on the original A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard sources, with extra bridging material of Pooh interracting with the Narrator to introduce the three stories: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974).

A short scene was added to bring the film to a close; originally made during the production of Blustery Day (based on the presence of Jon Walmsley as Christopher Robin), and based on the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner, Christopher Robin must leave behind the Hundred Acre Wood to start school. The Narrator concludes that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting.

Later featurette

Six years after the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Disney commissioned a fourth featurette based on the stories. Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore premiered in theaters on March 11, 1983, but was not originally connected to the preceding films in any manner. It has since been added to home video releases of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Voice cast

Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh
Bruce Reitherman, Jon Walmsley and Timothy Turner as Christopher Robin
John Fiedler as Piglet
Ralph Wright as Eeyore
Clint Howard and Dori Whitaker as Roo
Barbara Luddy as Kanga
Paul Winchell as Tigger
Junius Matthews as Rabbit
Hal Smith as Owl
Howard Morris as Gopher
Sebastian Cabot as The Narrator

Production

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) was released during his lifetime and he was involved in the production of Blustery Day. It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize U.S. audiences with the characters. All three shorts, as well as future feature films, boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie the Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".

The character Gopher, which does not appear in the Milne stories, was created because Disney wanted an all-American character that could appeal to the children, and also add an element of comedy.

For the character Piglet, hand gestures and other movements were used by the animators to create expressiveness, since he (and Pooh) had the appearance of dolls or stuffed animals with relatively simple button eyes. The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh's rump being part of the "decor of his home" was not in the original book, but was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.

Release

Reception

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh holds a unanimous critic approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews, with an average of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads "Perhaps the most faithful of Disney's literary adaptations, this cute, charming collection of episodes captures the spirit of A.A. Milne's classic stories." Film critic Leonard Maltin called the original Pooh featurettes "gems"; he also noted that the artwork resembles the book illustrations and that the particular length of these featurettes meant that the filmmakers did not have to "compress or protract their script."

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
- Nominated Animation Film

Home media

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS, Betamax, CED videorecord, and laserdisc on August 15, 1981. In 1996, it was re-released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection series and included video footage of the making which was shown before the movie starts (as did the first UK VHS release in 1997). It was released on DVD for the first time on May 7, 2002 as a THX certified 25th Anniversary Edition, with digitally restored picture and sound. The individual shorts had also been released on their own on VHS in the 1990s.

The 25th-anniversary edition DVD includes, among other bonus features: "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece", which documents the history of the books and their initial film adaptations; the short Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983); and interviews with animators Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Burny Mattinson, as well as the Sherman Brothers, Paul Winchell, and others. Digital Media FX reviewer Shannon Muir stated that the audio and video quality of the film on this DVD was very high.

The "Friendship Edition" DVD was released on June 19, 2007. All of the special features from the previous "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD were recycled, with the only new addition being an episode of Playhouse Disney's computer-animated series My Friends Tigger & Pooh. The DVD re-release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of the film.

The Blu-ray version was released for the first time along with the third DVD release on August 27, 2013. The bonus features included a Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh segment, "Geniuses" and the only bonus feature that was kept from the previous DVD releases was the "Winnie the Pooh" theme song music video performed by Carly Simon.

Songs

All tracks are written by The Sherman Brothers

No.	Title	Performer(s)
1.	"Winnie the Pooh"	Disney Studio Chorus
2.	"Up, Down, Touch the Ground"	Sterling Holloway
3.	"Rumbly in My Tumbly"	Sterling Holloway
4.	"Little Black Rain Cloud"	Sterling Holloway & Bruce Reitherman
5.	"Mind Over Matter"	Disney Studio Chorus
6.	"A Rather Blustery Day"	Sterling Holloway
7.	"The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers"	Paul Winchell
8.	"Heffalumps and Woozles"	The Mellomen
9.	"The Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down"	Disney Studio Chorus
10.	"Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!"	Disney Studio Chorus

References

The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: The Story Behind The Masterpiece
Thomas, Frank; Ollie Johnston (1981). Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life. Abbeville Press. p. 448. ISBN 0-89659-232-4.
Davidson, Bill; Kathy Merlock Jackson (2006). Walt Disney: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. p. 128. ISBN 1-57806-712-X.
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New American Library. p. 76. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
"AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2016-08-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
"New Releases". Billboard. Vol. 93, no. 32. August 15, 1981. p. 58.
^ Conrad, Jeremy (February 28, 2002). "Disney DVD Update". IGN. Retrieved September 27, 2024.
Muir, Shannon. "DVD Review of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - 25th Anniversary Edition". Digital Media FX. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
"Upcoming Disney DVD Release Schedule - The Ultimate Guide to Disney DVD". www.ultimatedisney.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2007-01-13.
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh". 27 August 2013 – via Amazon.

External links

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Feature films

Released	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Pinocchio (1940) Fantasia (1940) Dumbo (1941) Bambi (1942) Saludos Amigos (1942) The Three Caballeros (1944) Make Mine Music (1946) Fun and Fancy Free (1947) Melody Time (1948) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) Cinderella (1950) Alice in Wonderland (1951) Peter Pan (1953) Lady and the Tramp (1955) Sleeping Beauty (1959) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) The Sword in the Stone (1963) The Jungle Book (1967) The Aristocats (1970) Robin Hood (1973) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) The Rescuers (1977) The Fox and the Hound (1981) The Black Cauldron (1985) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) Oliver & Company (1988) The Little Mermaid (1989) The Rescuers Down Under (1990) Beauty and the Beast (1991) Aladdin (1992) The Lion King (1994) Pocahontas (1995) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) Hercules (1997) Mulan (1998) Tarzan (1999) Fantasia 2000 (1999) Dinosaur (2000) The Emperor's New Groove (2000) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) Lilo & Stitch (2002) Treasure Planet (2002) Brother Bear (2003) Home on the Range (2004) Chicken Little (2005) Meet the Robinsons (2007) Bolt (2008) The Princess and the Frog (2009) Tangled (2010) Winnie the Pooh (2011) Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Frozen (2013) Big Hero 6 (2014) Zootopia (2016) Moana (2016) Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) Frozen 2 (2019) Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) Encanto (2021) Strange World (2022) Wish (2023) Moana 2 (2024)
Upcoming	Zootopia 2 (2025)
Cancelled	My Peoples
Associated productions	The Reluctant Dragon (1941) Victory Through Air Power (1943) Song of the South (1946) So Dear to My Heart (1948) Mary Poppins (1964) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) Pete's Dragon (1977) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Television productions

TV specials	Prep & Landing (2009) Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011)
TV series	Baymax! (2022) Zootopia+ (2022) Iwájú (2024)

People

Executives

Disney Legends
animators

Disney's Nine Old Men	Les Clark Marc Davis Ollie Johnston Milt Kahl Ward Kimball Eric Larson John Lounsbery Wolfgang Reitherman Frank Thomas

Related topics

History	Disney animators' strike 1982 animators' strike Disney Renaissance
Methods and technologies	Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life Twelve basic principles of animation Computer Animation Production System
Documentaries	Frank and Ollie (1995) The Sweatbox (2002) Dream On Silly Dreamer (2005) Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009) Walt & El Grupo (2009)
Miscellaneous	Alice Comedies Laugh-O-Gram Studio List of Walt Disney Animation Studios short films Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Mickey Mouse Silly Symphonies Donald Duck Pluto Goofy Academy Award Review Disneytoon Studios List of Disney theatrical animated features unproduced live-action adaptations List of Disney animated films based on fairy tales

v t e The Sherman Brothers
Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman
Motion pictures	The Parent Trap (1961) The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) Bon Voyage! (1962) A Symposium on Popular Songs (1962) In Search of the Castaways (1962) Big Red (1962) Moon Pilot (1962) Summer Magic (1963) The Sword in the Stone (1963) The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964) The Moon-Spinners (1964) Mary Poppins (1964) Those Calloways (1964) The Monkey's Uncle (1965) That Darn Cat! (1965) Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) Follow Me, Boys! (1966) The Happiest Millionaire (1967) The Jungle Book (1967) The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967) The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) The Aristocats (1970) Goldilocks (1971) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) Snoopy Come Home (1972) Charlotte's Web (1973) Tom Sawyer (1973) Huckleberry Finn (1974) Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) The Slipper and the Rose (1976) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) The Magic of Lassie (1978) Magic Journeys (1982) Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983) Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992) The Mighty Kong (1998) Seasons of Giving (1999) The Tigger Movie (2000)
Stage musicals and musical revues	Victory Canteen (1971) Over Here! (1974) Dawgs (1983) The Slipper and the Rose (1984) Busker Alley (1994) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002) On the Record (2004) Mary Poppins (2004) Merry-Go-Round workshop (2007) A Spoonful of Sherman (2014) Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation (2021) Bedknobs and Broomsticks (2021) The Jungle Book (TBA)
Theme park attractions	Golden Horseshoe Revue (1955) King Arthur Carrousel (1955) Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room (1963) It's a Small World (1966) Adventure Thru Inner Space (1967) Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (1967) Main Street Electrical Parade (1972) America Sings (1974) America on Parade (1975) CommuniCore (1982) Imagination! (1982) Magic Journeys (1982) The World Showcase March (1982) Japan (Epcot) (1982) Journey into Imagination (1983) Meet the World (1983) Innoventions (1998) Rocket Rods (1998) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1999) Disneyland Forever (2015)
Books	Walt's Time: from before to beyond (1998) Moose: Chapters from My Life (2013)
Related	The Jungle Book 2 (2003) soundtrack; musical references The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (2009) Saving Mr. Banks (2013) soundtrack; song re-recordings Tomorrowland (2015) soundtrack; musical references The Jungle Book (2016) soundtrack Christopher Robin (2018) soundtrack; w/ original songs by both brothers, and new songs by Richard) Mary Poppins Returns (2018) soundtrack; musical references

Disney theatrical animated features

Walt Disney
Animation Studios

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1940)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Saludos Amigos (1942)
The Three Caballeros (1944)
Make Mine Music (1946)
Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Melody Time (1948)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Cinderella (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Peter Pan (1953)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Aristocats (1970)
Robin Hood (1973)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
The Rescuers (1977)
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
The Black Cauldron (1985)
The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Oliver & Company (1988)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
The Lion King (1994)
Pocahontas (1995)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Hercules (1997)
Mulan (1998)
Tarzan (1999)
Fantasia 2000 (1999)
Dinosaur (2000)
The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Treasure Planet (2002)
Brother Bear (2003)
Home on the Range (2004)
Chicken Little (2005)
Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Bolt (2008)
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Tangled (2010)
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Frozen (2013)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
Zootopia (2016)
Moana (2016)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Frozen 2 (2019)
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Encanto (2021)
Strange World (2022)
Wish (2023)
Moana 2 (2024)

Upcoming	Zootopia 2 (2025)

Pixar Animation Studios

Toy Story (1995)
A Bug's Life (1998)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Finding Nemo (2003)
The Incredibles (2004)
Cars (2006)
Ratatouille (2007)
WALL-E (2008)
Up (2009)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Cars 2 (2011)
Brave (2012)
Monsters University (2013)
Inside Out (2015)
The Good Dinosaur (2015)
Finding Dory (2016)
Cars 3 (2017)
Coco (2017)
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Onward (2020)
Soul (2020)
Luca (2021)
Turning Red (2022)
Lightyear (2022)
Elemental (2023)
Inside Out 2 (2024)

Upcoming	Elio (2025) Hoppers (2026) Toy Story 5 (2026) Incredibles 3 (TBA)

Disneytoon Studios‡

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990)
A Goofy Movie (1995)
Return to Never Land (2002)
The Jungle Book 2 (2003)
Piglet's Big Movie (2003)
Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)
Bambi II (2006)
Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010)
Secret of the Wings (2012)
Planes (2013)
The Pirate Fairy (2014)
Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014)
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2015)

Disney Television Animation

Doug's 1st Movie (1999)
The Tigger Movie (2000)
Recess: School's Out (2001)
Teacher's Pet (2004)
Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension (2011)

20th Century Animation

Spies in Disguise (2019)
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)

Upcoming	Ice Age 6 (2026)

Other Disney units

Live-action films with
non-CGI animation

Related lists

‡ Includes coproductions with Disney Television Animation
Limited release
International release

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

Books

Milne books	When We Were Very Young (1924) Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) Now We Are Six (1927) The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
Other authors	Winnie ille Pu (1958) The Pooh Perplex (1963) The Tao of Pooh (1982) The Te of Piglet (1992) Pooh and the Philosophers (1995) Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (2009) Finding Winnie (2015) The Best Bear in All the World (2016) Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen (2016)

Characters

People

Disney franchise

Featurettes

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974)
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983)

Short films

Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons (1981)
Once Upon a Studio (2023)

Feature films

Theatrical	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) The Tigger Movie (2000) Piglet's Big Movie (2003) Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005) Winnie the Pooh (2011) Christopher Robin (2018)
Direct-to-video	Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997) Seasons of Giving (1999) The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart (2001) A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) Springtime with Roo (2004) Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005) Super Sleuth Christmas Movie (2007) Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too (2009)

Television
series

Welcome to Pooh Corner (1983–1984)
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988–1991)
- episodes
The Book of Pooh (2001–2003)
My Friends Tigger & Pooh (2007–2010)
- episodes

Television
specials

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990)
Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too (1991)
Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh (1996)
A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving (1998)
A Valentine for You (1999)

Video games

Winnie the Pooh in the Hundred Acre Wood (1986)
Disney's Animated Storybook
Ready to Read with Pooh (1997)
Disney Learning: Winnie the Pooh (1999)
Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood (2000)
Tigger's Honey Hunt (2000)
Party Time with Winnie the Pooh (2001)
Piglet's Big Game (2003)
Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure (2005)
Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby (2007)

Related	Kingdom Hearts series Kingdom Hearts (2002) Chain of Memories (2004) II (2005) Birth by Sleep (2010) III (2019) Disney Friends (2007) Disney Magic Kingdoms (2018) Disney Mirrorverse (2022)

Music

Attractions

Other

Other adaptations and media

Films

Soyuzmultfilm featurettes	Winnie-the-Pooh (1969) Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit (1971) Winnie-the-Pooh and a Busy Day (1972)
The Twisted Childhood Universe	Blood and Honey (2023) Blood and Honey 2 (2024)
Biographical	A Bear Named Winnie (2004) Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)

Music

Other

Category

Categories: