The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series and late 1980’s Saturday morning cartoon produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The series is based on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh film (with the shorts included) and inspired by A.A. Milne's original Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
Overview[]
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh first aired in 1988 on Disney Channel. The show moved to ABC in the fall of that same year. After production was over in 1991, reruns continued to air on ABC until September 4, 1993. In 1996, when Disney took over ABC's One Saturday Morning programming, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was brought back in reruns, in which it aired until One Saturday Morning became ABC Kids in 2002. The Disney Channel began airing the series on October 3, 1994, and continued to air until September 1, 2006. The show also aired on Playhouse Disney from 1999 to 2006, as well as on Toon Disney from the channel's launch in 1998 until 2008. In the UK, the program aired from 2000 to 2011 on Playhouse Disney.
The show was airing on the Disney Channel in Czech Republic (in the Disney Junior block), Germany, India (also in the Disney Junior block), Russia, and Turkey, as well as on Disney Junior in Turkey and Poland.
In 1989, this show was paired with Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and titled Disney's Gummi Bears/Winnie the Pooh Hour.
In some countries outside of the US, notably Denmark, Poland, Russia, have aired this show on their versions of The Disney Afternoon (known as Disney Sjov in Denmark). It's one of the various shows not to air on the Disney Afternoon block in the US but has aired in Disney Afternoon blocks in other countries.
The complete series is available on Disney+, remastered in high-definition but retaining the program's original 4:3 aspect ratio. The high-definition remaster was previously made available in some non-U.S. markets prior to the Disney+ release. Some early episodes from Season 2 have moved to Season 1 as well.
Cast and characters[]
- Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings)
- Piglet (voiced by John Fiedler)
- Tigger (voiced by Paul Winchell in seasons 1 and 2 (except in "King of the Beasties" episode in season 1), 3 episodes of Season 3 and later returns in Christmas Too, and later Jim Cummings in the episode "King of the Beasties" in seasons 1, 3, (except in "Oh, Bottle", "What's the Score, Pooh?", and "Eeyi Eeyi Eeyore" episodes in season 3) and 4 (except in Christmas Too)
- Rabbit (voiced by Ken Sansom)
- Eeyore (voiced by Peter Cullen)
- Gopher (voiced by Michael Gough)
- Kanga (voiced by Patricia Parris)
- Roo (voiced by Nicholas Melody)
- Owl (voiced by Hal Smith)
- Christopher Robin (voiced by Tim Hoskins, later Edan Gross in Christmas Too in 1991)
New characters[]
In addition to the characters who had already been established in the above media (Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl, Piglet, Christopher Robin, and Gopher), the TV series introduces a plethora of new characters including Christopher Robin's mother – whose face was unseen (à la Nanny in Muppet Babies and Doc in the animated Fraggle Rock series), Owl's cousin Dexter (and his parents), Kessie the Bluebird, Junior Heffalump (and his parents), Skippy the Sheepdog, Stan Woozle and Heff Heffalump, and other characters.
In the television program, Christopher Robin speaks with a distinctly American accent, for the first time since the Pooh short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. In the more recent shorts, he had a British accent.
List of episodes[]
- Main article: The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode list
Reception[]
The series was met with generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. Many have claimed that the series perfectly created new stories for the Winnie the Pooh characters while keeping the style of the original Many Adventures film. Despite that the show was animated in several overseas studios, it’s been said to replicate the style of the original film quite well and utilize more frames than expected. One news article even described the series as “Television animation at its finest.”
Trivia[]
- Early seasons have the original intro with a synthesized theme song and later seasons have the intro with different clips and a calypso version of the theme song. The opening credits consisted of clips from various episodes.
- In reruns, a rare 1994 version of the intro also features Jim Cummings (the voice of Pooh and Tigger) singing the theme song.
- This is the last Winnie the Pooh media with the involvement of Hal Smith (who voiced Owl since the character's debut in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) before his eventual death in 1994.
- This marks the debut of Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom, Peter Cullen, and Michael Gough providing the voices of Pooh (and Tigger in some episodes), Rabbit, Eeyore, and Gopher respectively.
- This marks the final TV series to have Pooh and Tigger with separate voice actors until Playdate with Winnie the Pooh.
- As of 2024, Jim Cummings (and probably Peter Cullen) remains the only cast member from the series to still provide the voices of his characters (both Pooh and Tigger) for various Pooh-related media that followed (especially the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh and the 2018 live-action film Christopher Robin), considering most of the cast members either retired from their characters or have passed away, and, as a result, have new actors succeeding them.
- This is so far the only Pooh series where Christopher Robin is a regularly-recurring character. He was absent in the previous Pooh series, Welcome to Pooh Corner (though he was mentioned in the special Pooh's Great School Bus Adventure) and only made either small or rare appearances in The Book of Pooh and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.
- This is the first animated television series to be based on a Disney animated feature film. Though The Little Mermaid series would be the first to be based on a Disney animated feature film that isn’t a collection of shorts.
- Out of all the episodes in the series, only three were never released on VHS or DVD. The episodes are "Fast Friends", "To Bee or Not to Bee", and "Sorry, Wrong Slusher".
- The only four episodes of the series that were only released on VHS and DVD in other countries that were never released in North America are "Pooh Oughta Be in Pictures", "Me and My Shadow", "To Catch a Hiccup", and "Cleanliness is Next to Impossible".
- This is the second time Christopher Robin would be depicted with an American accent since the first Pooh short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
- In this series, the bees could speak words with high-pitched voices. In previous Winnie the Pooh projects, they could only make buzzing noises and laughs.
- This is the first Winnie the Pooh project to not have a narrator.
- Out of the five Winnie the Pooh television shows produced, this is the only Winnie the Pooh series that includes Gopher.
- This is the first time Christopher Robin wears a blue shirt in a Winnie the Pooh project opposing to his yellow one.
- This series marks the first time Tigger’s house is included in a Winnie the Pooh project as it was never shown in the original film (and shorts).
- This is the first of three times where Christopher Robin’s mother appears as a character in the Winnie the Pooh franchise.
- Two episodes Party Poohper and The Old Switcheroo were based on actual parts of the original A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh books, the latter would be retold in a flashback scene of Piglet’s Big Movie.
- The former was planned to be remade in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film, though it became a deleted scene.
Home media release[]
- Main article: The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh videography
Awards[]
Emmy Awards
- 1989 – Outstanding Animated Program (won)
- 1990 – Outstanding Animated Program (won, tied with Beetlejuice)
References[]
- ↑ unknown (November 26, 1987). "WINNIE AND FRIENDS WILL GET NEW SERIES".
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