Watch Winnie the Pooh with your children this Easter

The golden bear with the rumbly tumbly is back on the big screen this Easter in Winnie the Pooh. The perfect day out with your children this Easter holidays, Winnie the Pooh will entrance and entertain children and parents alike with his adventures in 100 acre wood along with friends, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo and, of course, Christopher Robin.

Winnie the Pooh first appeared in 1925 in serialised stories in a London newspaper The Evening News, before being published in the book, Winnie-the-Pooh, in the USA. Based on the bedtime stories told by A A Milne to his son Christopher Robin, the Winnie the Pooh stories appealed to all because of the simple fun stories of friendship and adventure.

The rights to Winnie the Pooh were soon purchased by Stephen Slesinger in 1930 who grew the friends of 100 acre wood into a $50 million per year business. It was Slesinger who developed the red t-shirt which Pooh Bear still wears, and really created the base from which Winnie the Pooh was to explode onto the world stage.

In 1966, The Walt Disney Company bought the rights for the Winnie the Pooh franchise from Slesinger. It wasn't until 1977 however that Pooh Bear was really launched into international stardom with the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a full length feature animated film.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was soon followed by The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, an animated TV series. Aired for over 80 episodes, this new TV series cemented Pooh and his friends in the minds of children and parents across the world. The series was so successful that the last repeat airing was in 2007.

Disney Animation Studios also released three spin-off films in the new millennium, The Tigger Movie (2000), Piglet's Big Movie (2003) and Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005).

Disney Channel also developed a brand new animated TV series which launched in 2007 My Friends Tigger and Pooh. Using computer generated 3D animation, Pooh and his friends were taken into a virtual 3D world along with a new friend, a little girl, Darby. This series was taken off air in 2010 to make way for the more traditional new Winnie the Pooh movie.

Winnie the Pooh is a significant step back into traditional animation for Disney. Created completely with hand drawn animation Winnie the Pooh has a classic Disney feel of beautiful imagery of 100 acre wood, a world made of hunny, as well as subtle humour and nostalgia. The movie is narrated by John Cleese and also uses a book to actually tell the story.

5 April 2011

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