Winnie The Pooh: Springtime with Roo

Voiced by David Ogden Stiers, Peter Cullen, Jimmy Bennett and others Directed by Saul Blinkoff and Elliot Bour
Screenplay by Tom Rogers
Seen at the Walt Disney Studio Theater, Burbank, Calif.

Margy
Jeremy and I were invited to attend the premiere for Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo by one of its directors, our friend Saul Blinkoff. I'm happy to report that I would have enjoyed the movie even if the director wasn't our friend. Springtime with Roo is one of the more enjoyable children's animated features that I've seen in a long time, with plenty for the adults to enjoy, too. The story begins with Roo, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore all on their way to Rabbit's house for the Easter egg hunt. When they arrive, they are amazed when Rabbit announces that it's "Spring Cleaning Day" and refuses to acknowledge Easter. With a little bit of help from the narrator (the wonderful David Ogden Stiers) and Charles Dickens, all of the friends learn valuable lessons about being considerate of your friends' feelings and how holidays are much more fun when you share them with friends. I especially liked that the story makes good use of the storybook (having characters jump in and out of the text), showing kids that you can always go back and read earlier chapters over again to remind yourself what happened in the past. At a little over an hour, Springtime with Roo is the perfect length for young children (and adults) to enjoy. A

Jeremy
While it may be hard to be objective when reviewing the work of a friend (which I am in this case), it is not at all hard to enjoy Winnie the Pooh: Springtime With Roo, a delightful new direct-to-video feature from Disney. In this Easter variation on A Christmas Carol, Roo and the Winnie the Pooh gang go to Rabbit's house for the annual Easter egg hunt, only to find that Rabbit has effectively canceled Easter and replaced it with "Spring Cleaning Day" (if Rabbit was Jewish, I'm sure he would have made it a fast day, too). It turns out that Rabbit has a bit of a Type A personality, which drove the rest of the Pooh gang away the previous year. Having perceived it as a personal slight, Rabbit vows never to conduct Easter festivities again. Only when he is shown that he runs the risk of a lonely and empty life does Rabbit temper his stubbornness with love -- The Long, Dark Night of Rabbit's Soul, if you will. You may think I'm kidding, but there is definitely plenty of pathos to go around in this movie. While definitely aimed at children, it brings its message home with compelling portrayals of sadness and alienation that are genuinely affecting. This kind of depth brings the film to an entirely higher plane than one might ordinarily expect from a direct-to-video feature. I also found the humor very entertaining on an adult level on top of that which was obviously meant for the kids. Springtime With Roo does one better than even Aladdin, in my opinion, because while some of the yuks in this movie may be a bit ironic in nature (as is the current trend), they'll still be funny in 20 years, even if you don't know who Britney Spears is. Aladdin's one major flaw was tying its humor too specifically to pop culture references. Tigger's brief song about onomatopoeia is funny in any time and at any age. Lastly, this movie had great complexity for a film for very young children, with flashbacks and flash-forwards as well as an extremely self-aware storytelling method that I liked very much. I found the character of Rabbit also to have more dimension than the simple caricature of his literary and cinematic forbears Ebenezer Scrooge and Mr. Potter, and that kind of complexity made this feature that much more interesting. (One never imagines George Bailey and Mr. Potter at the same table until the very end of It's A Wonderful Life.) The bottom line is that this is a solid movie that has humor, depth and complexity going for it, and a great message about love and friendship to boot -- a definite winner that is eminently suitable for children (and adults) of any age. Many thanks to our friend Saul Blinkoff, who co-directed this feature with his partner Elliot Bour, and invited us to a special advance screening; it made for a very enjoyable afternoon. A

Close this window

©2004 Margy and Jeremy Horowitz