The 1997 direct-to-video movie, Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, is a strangely divisive film. Based on the incredibly beloved book characters and stories created from A. A. Milne, Disney found great success with Winnie the Pooh through their 1977 animated film and subsequently released sequels and tv shows, all of which usually received very strong reception from both critics and audiences. Out of this list, Pooh’s Grand Adventure is often helmed by the public as one of the best releases, but it’s also one of the few to get any form of negative reception as critics just tore this movie apart when it came out. Considering how charming these characters are and how meaningfully timeless the stories are, it feels kind of dirty to see one of their films being burned in such a way, but it also makes the discourse extremely fascinating as it forces viewers to give their own two cents and determine which side is more validated. On the last day of a golden summer, Winnie the Pooh (voiced again by Jim Cummings) is uninterested in the ‘’not-so-good” news his best friend Christopher Robin (voiced by Brady Bluhm) wants to tell him about, as he believes that they’ll never have anything to worry about as long as they stay together forever and ever. However, Pooh wakes up the next morning to discover that Christopher Robin is gone and a jar of honey with a note attached to it left on his doorstep. Being unable to read and with the note being stained with honey, Pooh takes the note to Owl (voiced Andre Stojka) who tells the Hundred Acre Woods gang that Christopher Robin has gone far away and is stuck in a dangerous place known as SCHOOL (which they believe to be SKULL). Fearing for their friend’s safety, Pooh and his friends; Piglet (voiced again by John Fiedler), Tigger (voiced again by Paul Winchell), Rabbit (voiced again by Ken Sansom) and Eeyore (voiced by Peter Cullen) decide to set off to SCHOOL and find Christopher Robin, travelling through all sorts of dangerous and spooky places while being tracked by a dangerous beast known as the Skullasaurus. Along the way, the group are faced with problems that target their insecurities, leaving Pooh to be the one to remind them of their true strengths and how they can overcome their issues, even if he doesn’t really know how to do that himself. Pooh’s Grand Adventure doesn’t carry the strengths of the original source material but isn’t at the level of poor that the critical census suggests it to be, making this seemingly polarizing movie appropriately uneven.

This was the first Winnie the Pooh Disney film to be made since their 1977 film, so the fact that this feature return wasn’t even in theatres placed the film in a bit of a weird spot. There were a few short specials produced as well as the Disney cartoon series, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which ran from 1988 – 1991, to bide people over, but it was clear from the advertising and even the film’s synopsis that this movie wanted to be more than just another special. It also has nothing to do with any of the A. A. Milne stories, only taking aspects and elements from other stories to create their own, which the future films would also do. On the surface, it feels like it gets the basics of what Winnie the Pooh is, with its cast of characters, song numbers, visual style, and even slow-paced atmosphere all feeling correct, but there’s an extra element of confidence in this one that arguably works against it. Winnie the Pooh is a rare property that actually becomes more insightful and meaningful the older someone becomes, as what originally looked like small cutesy tales about childhood play and imagination, takes on a whole new level of maturity and perspective with age with a strong and timeless environment, and atmosphere that says a lot without needing to go too far. This movie in every department from the score, the dialogue, the imagery and even the pacing, is desperately trying to recapture that quiet beauty these stories naturally manage to produce and fails in doing so because the content isn’t as thought-out or complex. The lessons are very traditional ‘’believe in yourself’’ morals, the manner in which it delivers them isn’t that unique, and its insistence on being ‘’deeper’ and ”full of wisdom” when it doesn’t have the backing for it, makes it feel like it’s reaching for the stars and plummeting down in failure. With that said, even if it misses the mark, it still manages to capture enough of the tone and spirit of Winnie the Pooh to not feel like a complete phony. Although the idea of traveling to ‘’dangerous locations’’ and being chased by an actual threat is very unlike this franchise, the ending does make it work much better and places it in a direction that is more befitting of the brand. The director for this film, Karl Geurs (who also co-produced and wrote the film) seemed to work on a lot of younger children-based content (namely a lot of Barney the Dinosaur movies) which he shares with the film’s other screenwriter, Carter Crocker. This would explain why some of the more adult and tranquil elements are lacking in this film and why it can feel slightly hollow, but their brief involvement with some of the Disney cartoons of the time at least allowed them a window into how the property operates. Because of this, there are at least a few moments where the writing, characters, animation, and song numbers feel pretty traditional, so it’s not entirely absent.

These characters have become a staple part of literary as well as animation history for how charming, timeless, and likeable they are, and it’s pretty hard to mess them up. Their personalities, designs and voices are so iconic, but yet so simple that as long as the bare minimum is met and they contain that same enjoyable child-like energy with memorable writing and endearing relationships, it should work out even if the subject matter or choice of narrative direction isn’t anything new or extremely thought out. This movie puts them in a pretty standard situation and the conflicts they have to overcome are pretty predictable and don’t have very complicated resolutions, but what made people connect with these characters so much was how mellowly they react to situations and how honest and caring they were when interacting with each other and that is still present here. Having them interact in a situation that feels a bit more ”adventurous’’ is definitely different, but it doesn’t feel too out of place, and it still retains the light and mostly non-threatening atmosphere as there’s no major conflict or even really a big climax. The voice talent is still really good, with a lot of the old voice actors returning to reprise their roles and they haven’t skipped a beat (there is something so wonderful and magical about Jim Cummings as Pooh). Some of the newer voices also work quite well alongside the veterans, as Peter Cullen is a surprisingly fitting Eeyore,  Andre Stojka makes a brief but strong first impression as Owl, Brady Bluhm does make the moments with him and Pooh very touching and sweet, and even David Warner as the narrator is definitely more serious and less involved in comparison to other narrators, but has the voice and tone to bring at least some gravity to what is about to occur.

The wonderful sketchy art style for these Disney Winnie the Pooh has always been wonderful, as it embraces its origins as a classic children’s book and created a very distinct identity which perfectly emulates the chill, quaint vibe of the franchise, so much so that its remained consistent among each new Disney release. With it being over twenty years since the last film, this movie clearly has an updated look but the specific look remains intake, with great popping colors, expressive characters that never feel over-animated, and lighting and camera angles that makes this feel like one of the more cinematic Winnie the Pooh properties (which is ironic given that it was exclusively on VHS). There are certain elements that feel alien to this franchise like abrupt cuts to black (which might’ve been included because it had a small budget and didn’t have enough animation to provide an in-between), but even with these oddities, you can feel the improvements, especially during the atmospheric moments with the rich lighting and warmly autumn color palette. The musical score wavers between working pretty nicely and acting as one of the biggest issues of the film. On the one hand, the songs are pretty good, and while not to the level of the songs from the original film, are hummable, have great lyrics, memorable tunes and ironically have smarter and stronger wordplay and wit than any of the actual dialogue. The two people responsible for writing the songs, Michael Abbot, and Sarah Weeks, had previously written various children’s books and made music for Sesame Street, which explains their ability to construct songs that kids can enjoy listening to, but are also smart and lyrically clever in a way that adults can appreciate them as well. While these songs do help the film have a lot more of that familiar personality, the musical score is pretty distracting and even a little annoying. This isn’t to say it’s poorly handled, as Carl Johnson does create a nice sounding piece that features all the nice playful elements that should come from this kind of atmosphere and tone, but the issue comes from how overplayed it is and how overtly whimsical it comes across. Almost every basic action is followed by an annoying musical hop, any big moment has loud music playing up the ‘’whacky nature’’ of things, and it gets to a point where it feels like it’s forcing these ideas down your throat rather than allowing them to just sit and digest (which is the exact opposite of how Winnie the Pooh should operate).

Pooh’s Grand Adventure is very favorable with casual viewers (who probably saw it when they were very young) and very unfavorable with critics (who have more than likely experienced the stories of Winnie the Pooh and weren’t impressed with this iteration) and in many respects, both are correct. It’s hard to agree with the complete level of disregard and tedium that most critics threw onto this movie as it is just a perfectly fine kid’s film, but that is probably where their problem stems from. Winnie the Pooh should never just be a fine movie, as these stories are much more adult, meaningful, and even spiritually therapeutic than many would’ve ever anticipated and the emotions and quotes are still remembered to this day just because of how subtle yet powerful some of them are. It’s a brand that will arguably last forever, so seeing it just given a passably average kids film with messages on par with any random kid’s property is a little disheartening. Winnie the Pooh has a kind of magic that just naturally shows itself off, and this movie tried to force that feeling without the same level of intelligence and failed in the process. You will still get a decent movie out of this, but for what Winnie the Pooh is known for giving, it is a bit of a bother it doesn’t reach bigger heights.

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