Winnie the Pooh (2011)

	Directed by: Stephen J. Anderson Don Hall	COUNTRY USA GENRE Children's/Family/ Animation NORWEGIAN TITLE Ole Brumm RUNNING TIME 100 minutes
	Produced by: Peter Del Vecho
	Written by (based on A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh): Stephen Anderson, Clio Chiang, Don Dougherty, Don Hall, Brian Kesinger, Nicole Mitchell, Jeremy Spears, Kendelle Hoyer

Review

It can sometimes be hard to determine if Disney's children's movies are actually covering a need or rather creating new ones, but when it comes to the (cleverly milked) Winnie the Pooh franchise, it is at least based on timeless and intelligent children's literature. With that said, this year's entry in the series about that silly old bear, the first since the Heffalump Movie back in 2005, is far from the quality of the original, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). This one cannot quite boast the 1977 film's level of clever dialogue and banter filled with double entendres which makes the experience equally enjoyable for adults as for children. And the stories presented here are, in all honesty, more or less rehashes or lesser versions of previous Pooh adventures. Still,  younger kids will hardly have a problem with that, and with this film's light narrative and mild suspense, it will probably suit 3–4 year-olds better than the slightly older ones (for which a film like the Heffalump Movie might work better). What does work impeccably, however, is the good old hand-drawn animation and the pleasant, sensible pacing, which all in all makes Winnie the Pooh a welcome reunion with A. A. Milne's beloved characters.