There are so many different types of mediums a story can be told. Books, live-action movies, 2-D and 3-D animated shorts, and featured films are just a few ways an artist can choose to tell their story. Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh has been reimagined so many times. Some versions of the beloved original character hit the mark while others should use a different medium to tell the story most efficiently and concisely. The stories of Winnie-the-Pooh were originally poems collected and put into books by Author A.A.Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard. What is really effective with these illustrated stories is the layout itself. The typography maybe some boring san serif font but the arrangement of the text is just as important as what the text is actually staying with the illustrations. A great example is in chapter 1 of, The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. On page 5, there is an illustration of a tree and Pooh is about to climb it. The text reads “He climbed”, as Milne repeats this phrase writing it in one long vertical line next to the tree. The text itself is climbing the tree just like Pooh. I do not like to have a biased opinion but the original way tends to be the best in this case the book does the best job in telling the stories of Winnie-the-Pooh but the film versions are not as impactful.
Around 1966, the first short animated Winnie-the-Pooh feature was released. It is called Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Tree, animated by Disney’s animation team of Eric Larson and John Lounsbery and others. This 1966 animated version, is an adaptation of A.A.Milne’s first two chapters of Winnie-the-Pooh. The animation strays from the original illustrations but they have a similar feel. The book has sketchy drawings of Pooh and his friends whereas the drawings in the animated short feature feel more complete and have a lot less line work. The story is exactly the same as the book and even includes animations of the book pages with illustrations and text, only it is in the style of the animation. This version keeps the heart and simplicities of Milne’s book. This short is only 26 minutes which I would say is the same length of time as reading the first two chapters if not more condensed. The short is almost as effective as the book but the fact that they recognize the literal book in the story shows the audience that the storytelling within the book is the most influential.
Things get complicated as the characters in Winnie-the-Pooh become popular and when commercialism is more important than storytelling to Disney. Longer films like The Book of Pooh, Stories from the Heart in 2002, and Christopher Robin in 2018, tell similar stories to Milne’s poems and books. They all have the same idea that these young cute little stuffed animals have a mind of their own and great love and appreciation towards their owner Christopher Robin. It gets a little chaotic how these animators decided to tell this story. The Book of Pooh… is done with puppets, 3-D props, and animated backgrounds. The viewer no longer can use their imagination of how they think the story will look like and go. They are overwhelmed with these terrifying and no longer cute puppets. It is such an odd choice to use puppets to tell a story about stuffed animals because they are so close to each other but the textures of the puppets and 3-D props used, distract from the playful nature of stuffed animals. Christopher Robin the live-action film is mixed with 3-D animation. The characters look like they are puppets but it is all 3-D animation and fx. I have to say I like how the characters look more in this film. They look like stuffed animal versions of the illustrations done by Shepard in the books. They have a certain bounce and relaxed quality that the stiff puppets do not. Because these are longer films, and the fact that Christopher Robin is made not only for families but other viewers, the original stories from the books change. Kids including myself, a 19-year-old, have a harder time staying engaged with featured films that are trying to tell very simplistic and silly stories in a more stretched-out time frame. The book is really the best way for the children's audience to stay engaged and have the ability to use their imagination while reading and looking at the chapters within the book.
