Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore ** (1983, vocals by Hal Smith, Ralph Wright, Laurie Main, John Fiedler, Will Ryan) – Classic Movie Review 8198

Producer-director Rick Reinert’s 25-minute 1983 animated featurette Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is the cuddly fifth cartoon short – the fourth and final of Disney’s original theatrical featurettes  – in the Walt Disney series. In a film story by Peter Young, Steve Hulett and Tony L Marino, adapted from the Pooh books by writer A A Milne, the cute bear Winnie the Pooh holds a happy birthday party for sad tail-less donkey Eeyore.

It is based on two chapters from the books Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. The plot is based mainly on Milne’s stories ‘In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in’ (Chapter VI from The House at Pooh Corner), and ‘In which Eeyore has a birthday and gets two presents’ (Chapter VI of Winnie the Pooh).

Hal Smith re-creates Sterling Holloway’s tones as Pooh as Holloway had elected not to continue the role of Pooh. Laurie Main takes over the role of The Narrator after the death of Sebastian Cabot. Smith and Main started their roles in the 1981 educational film Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons. Kim Christianson becomes the fourth different actor to voice Christopher Robin in as many featurettes, after Bruce Reitherman, Jon Walmsley and Timothy Turner.

Other vocals are by Ralph Wright (Eeyore), Paul Winchell (Tigger), John Fiedler (Piglet), Will Ryan (Rabbit), Kim Christianson (Christopher Robin), Dick Billingsley (Roo) and Julie McWhirter (Kanga).

Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is the winner of US educational awards, and it is entertaining, but it is a shade down on its predecessors.

It was released in cinemas on 25 March 1983 to support Disney’s 1983 re-issue of The Sword in the Stone.

Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is produced by Rick Reinert Productions, which had produced the eight-minute educational Disney short Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons in 1981. Not counting Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is the fourth and final of Disney’s original theatrical featurettes adapted from the Pooh books and the first Disney animated film since the 1938 Silly Symphonies short Merbabies to be produced outside Disney.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8198

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