A Winnie the Pooh Double Feature!

2:43 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "christopher robin found dead in miami"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been meaning to blog about Monsters at Work, but I'm having some technical difficulties. As for Ducktales, I'm gonna hold off on that for a while... I still haven't finished the reboot series for reasons, and getting my thoughts on the Disney Afternoon and Disney Duck Comics out in the open before I talk about Ducktales and its reboot (which will be one post by the by).

So let's jump right into another show that is gonna be a 2-for-1 special!

Other than being of the same franchise, I think it's worthwhile to talk about these two shows because they're of similar quality to me, albeit for different reasons.

New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is the also the first show of the Disney Watch that I have a personal childhood history with. That being I had a Pooh phase as a very young child (think around age 3), and soon would have nothing to do with the creature for loser babies. But I'm an adult now, and I'm secure in my maturity to have an adult opinion on Pooh. Though honestly, that opinion is usually... Meh.

The first thing you will notice about NuPooh, as one may call it, is that it's a very American show. The original book is very 20's-30's Britain, which yeah. It was written then and there. Disney updates NuPooh to be more 80's-90's America, and personally, speaking as a Dumb American, I think this is to the show's benefit. First, and most importantly... 

8:18 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "gopher i think is my favorite one"
10:50 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "GOPHER. the best character. he whistles and i imagine it is because he is saying fuck"

Gopher... While he was originally created as a way to Americanize the Disney film adaptation, he appears in the show and he's an absolute delight whenever I see him. He's just a guy.

Second, the first episode shows us Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger in a very modern American setting, which we don't usually see with Pooh media. That setting is a movie theater.

2:45 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "seeing winnie the pooh in a movie theater feels jarring"

 Christopher Robin takes his funny little stuffed animals to see a film called "Birdzilla" and while they wait for the film to start, the three have some antics in the theater, discovering the world through these new eyes, and immediately, my brain goes to that genre of shows that involve a silly little creature and their human best friend having cool adventures and wacky shenanigans in the "human" world. Think Keroro Gunso, Onegai My Melody, Sonic X, this sort of genre.

Alas... 

3:01 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "tbh i think more of the appeal of this show is pooh living in the human world"
3:51 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "very ep after the first has been about the hundred acre wood and i don't CARE i want pooh to explore 80s america"

Past this half of an episode (the other half involves everyone making a movie together), we don't leave the Hundred Acre Wood, Christopher Robin's house, or some imagination-sparked setting like a cowboy town. Of the 13 episodes I watched, the only one outside this setting as well involved Rabbit getting sold at a toy store.

But setting doesn't make a show! What about characters?

3:51 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "also rabbit is a little fucking insane. why does he laugh like that."
10:06 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "i hate rabbit so much i dont think im watching past 13 eps"
8:18 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "i really liked the rabbit ep even tho i hate him"

Not promising... Maybe Tigger, everyone's favorite, will make me feel differently...

2:53 PM · Nov 10, 2020 "the fact that tigger makes cat noises.... i think he's a lil bit of a cat boy"
10:17 PM · Nov 15, 2020 "i hate tigger he is a bad influence"
6:19 PM · Nov 28, 2020 "criminal"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well the funny cat boy joke didn't last long... At least there's Gopher... But did I like anyone else?

10:30 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "im starting to like pooh more but onl when they are 1) in the real world, or 2) face to face with mean asshole characters."
10:48 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "i think it's funny to see edgy characters in pooh because everyone is so nice acting in the main cast but they kinda suck..."

So really what gave Pooh an edge was its villain characters. It was really fun to see villain characters outdo the Pooh characters, who, were flawed, but those flaws never really came across in an entertaining way. It's a shame because I know there's a lot of Pooh media out there that does it well. From what little I've seen of my friend's Kingdom Hearts runthroughs and the newest Pooh movie. These guys are usually likeable. Just... Not here.

Even though the setting is disappointing and the best characters are the worst point of the show, it's still an entertaining watch for what it's worth. For every bad thing I mentioned, I feel like there's a good thing to make up for it. Annoying character? Here's a good moral for your kids! You don't like the setting? At least Gopher is there! Is the show getting too sweet for you. Look at this screencap.

 

There's a bit more I want to talk about here, but let's save it.

Overall Rating for New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: C Tier

20-ish Years, A Third Dimension, and A Slapped Cap Later 

10:53 PM · Mar 12, 2021 "GOPHER ISNT EVEN IN THIS ONE"

My Friends Tigger and Pooh..... is a slog. It's a slog for a lot of reasons that I don't know if I want to get into yet. We'll just write it off because it's a baby show.

But let's talk about the baby shows. A good rule of thumb is that shows that were originals of the Playhouse Disney era had themes, while shows that were originals of the Disney Junior era had lore.

Think about every Disney Junior show. We have Doc McStuffins who goes from a toy doctor to a toy doctor who travels to another dimension to run the dimension's hospital. Sofia the First goes from the story of a princess with a magical amulet to a girl who is chosen to be the storykeeper and helping people get their happy end. The Lion Guard's third season involves the titular Lion Guard on a journey to the Tree of Life. I cannot think of a single series from this era that didn't get more complex, save one season shows like The Rocketeer, or currently ongoing shows like Mira Royal Detective

Let's take some Playhouse Disney shows. Higglytown Heroes is a pretty concrete one. It teaches kids about all kinds of people in one's hometown that make it a better place to live. Little Einsteins is about teaching kids art and music. PB&J Otter and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse are both about problem solving, with the former being more social and abstract and the latter being more concrete and resourceful.

My Friends Tigger and Pooh falls cleanly into the Playhouse category, being a show about figuring out context clues.

All this to say, my tweets about this show make a clear picture of my thoughts

7:50 PM · Mar 13, 2021 "i like that there isn't a weird cruelty about the characters but at the same time, im kind of sick of it because that's how baby shows will be... everyone gets saccharinized... sometimes there is one grouch tho"
8:00 PM · Mar 13, 2021 "i like how everyone just holds piglet tho."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:34 AM · Mar 14, 2021 "My ENEMIES tigger and pooh"
11:35 AM · Mar 14, 2021 "None of the new characters in the Pooh cartoon are charming and I still think rabbit is an enemy of the state"
11:50 AM · Mar 14, 2021 "worth noting: even though the roles of rabbit and tigger are the same in new adventures and my friends, rabbit does not laugh like an insane person anymore, and tigger does not make cat noises. i'm a little disappointed by this."

My Friends Tigger and Pooh is kinder and friendlier than New Adventures, but this ultimately comes at the cost of making all of its characters soft and indistinguishable in personality. While I did not like the characterizations in New Adventures, at least they made me feel something!

Overall Rating for My Friends Tigger and Pooh: D Tier

Hmm... Am I forgetting something? Oh. Right.

Let's discuss the heffalump in the room.

10:50 PM · Nov 30, 2020 "the social dichotomy of heffalumps and woozles vs furry woodland creatures... it's clumsy."

In NuPooh, there's a lot of episodes that feature heffalumps and woozles, since, naturally, that's a part of the book. While in the movie they seem like these wild creatures, they're more normal in the show, and we sort of get this divide between them and the other furry woodland creatures. It's clear that the heffalumps and woozles are seen lacking manners at best and sinister at worst, and our main cast shows fear towards them.

However, in the time since NuPooh came out, Pooh's Heffalump Movie was released. This movie was all about accepting heffalumps because they're just like us, which honestly is great. And it introduced us to Lumpy, The Funny Little Drowning Victorian Child Heffalump. This is of note because Lumpy shows up constantly in My Friends Tigger and Pooh, showing that heffalumps are now widely accepted by the furry woodland creatures... However... woozles are not. On a few occasions people have made clear their fear of woozles. Which... I dunno. It just goes against the morals we've been setting up... Do we need to make Pooh's Woozle Movie to learn this lesson a second time?

It's also worth pointing out that Lumpy is seen by the Disney wiki as Roo's sidekick. Dang... :-(