"Growing Up With Winnie the Pooh"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) NOT RATED Studio: Disney Back to DVD Review Home |
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Before I had children of my own, I never appreciated Winnie the Pooh. After all, I always saw the gang in the Hundred Acre Wood to be a bubbling pot of dysfunction. Everyone has their problems. Pooh is a glutton, Rabbit is bossy, Piglet has no self-esteem, Tigger has ADHD and Eeyore... well, Eeyore is in dire need of Prozac.
The classic short films and the new full-length features tend to have the characters be a little more functional, but the old episodes of “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” that ran on television in the 1980s have all the characters at their worst.
However, once I had children, I realized value of Pooh and his friends. My kids love the cartoon. They love the characters. And it’s nice to see a compelling cartoon with fun characters that is basically nice without overdoing it.
Don’t get me wrong. I like slapstick violence as much as the next guy, and I love watching old “Tom & Jerry” cartoons with my son. But “Winnie the Pooh” can be nice as well. It’s sweet. And while I generally hate sweet, I like Pooh Bear now.
The new series “Growing Up with Winnie the Pooh” contains two volumes: “Friends Forever” and “A Great Day of Discovery.” Each disc collects episodes of the television show that teach feelings and emotions, problem solving and creativity.
“Friends Forever” specifically teaches about encouragement, working together, concern and solving problems. “A Great Day of Discovery” highlights respect, good behavior, consideration and imagination.
The DVDs are nothing more than a collection of these episodes strung together with some narration and interstitial animation. They’re nothing special, but it’s a nice way to pick up several episodes of Winnie the Pooh in one buy. Also, with Disney’s FastPlay feature, you can set the disc to play through completely and repeat automatically if you have youngsters who can’t use the remote.
Each disc also contains a set-top game which are cute and fun for young children. There’s also a music sing-along with a different song on each disc.
When you’re out there picking cartoons for your preschooler, you can do a lot worse. You can melt their brains with the Teletubbies, or you can put in a disc of Winnie the Pooh.
I, for one, choose the latter.
Specifications: Dolby Digital. Fullscreen aspect ration (1.33:1). French and Spanish language tracks. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
