Bruce Talkington (1949–2000)

I've long contended, that with the exception of a few decent songs, Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin is the worst of Disney's Pooh movies. It's the first film to really stray far from the Milne canon, playing excessively fast and loose with the Busy Backson chapter from The House at Pooh Corner. I believe that's a result of being produced as a direct-to-video release by the TV animation group that gave us the equally freewheeling The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series. The whole film is forcefully squeezed between scenes in the closing chapter of the preceding The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie to give it some unearned credibility.

This adaptation ditches the most morose and gloomiest elements, but it also discards the lesson for which the film is most famous: "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.” (A quote often attributed to Milne but original to this Disney screenplay, written by Karl Geurs and Carter Crocker.) It's a bland, bare-bones regurgitation of the main story points without any soul.

FOR REFERENCE:

Adaptation written by Bruce Talkington and illustrated by John Kurtz based on the direct-to-video film Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin written by Karl Geurs and Carter Crocker, loosely based on A. A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner, Chapter 5: "In Which Rabbit Has a Busy Day, and We Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the Mornings."

In our old book database, I first read this book to my daughter in 2002: I rated it "Indifferent," and Adelia rated it "Good."

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh books my family owns (see the list here). While I work through few remaining longer Pooh books we own, I'm missing my daily dose of Pooh, so I'm going to start seeking out some of the Pooh books I don't own – yet – from libraries IRL and online. See the reviews here.)… (mere)

Disney’s wonderful world of reading 2001.
The story first. The story is Mickey and Minnie who are not wealthy they don’t have a lot of money. They have a stack of bills, but they want to do something nice for each other over Christmas, and when their plans fall through, they give up the possessions they love the most to make the other happy. What I really like about this book is showing Mickey and Minnie as being everyday people with worries about money and work, but still loving and worrying about the orphans and the people in their society. This is a Mickey and Minnie I grew up reading and loving. This is an older Disney World of Reading title. It was part of their backpack program where one would get a book a month to fill a backpack once someone would order the program. Modern World of Reading books are more traditional easy readers, and this would be a book to read to your child then for them to read it themselves. It is written about a second-grade reading level.… (mere)

I read this book once twenty years and didn't like it. I didn't like it this time either, but at least in rereading it for my Pooh Project I was able to find out that it is the source of four adapted books in the "My Very First Winnie the Pooh" series. The books noted that they were adaptations but did not cite the original source, and the not knowing had been irritating me for a while. I'll mention the new versions with the relevant stories below.

In Search of Breakfast [framing sequence and interstitials] ~ 2 stars ~

Pooh suffers from a bout of insomnia, and Tigger suggests a bedtime story might help him fall asleep. When Tigger's tale doesn't work, Pooh ends up staggering from friend to friend, getting each one to tell him the story that might let him rest.

FYI: The framing sequence and interstitials have been heavily abridged and published without the individual character stories as A Bedtime Story for Pooh in the "My Very First Winnie the Pooh" series. The adaptation is written by Cassandra Case and uses the John Kurtz art from this book. My original review of A Bedtime Story for Pooh certainly applies to this book also:

This book follows a common formula in Pooh books where Pooh has a problem, question, or concern and wanders around the Hundred Acre Wood meeting his friends one-by-one seeking information, opinions, or help, and then everyone gathers for a party to celebrate the resolution.

A sleepless night is the problem of the moment, and Pooh consults his friends about good ways to fall asleep. Nothing works until one does, and then everyone prepares a party while Pooh finally sleeps.

I suppose a boring bedtime story has a better chance of being an effective bedtime story, so it has that going for it.

Once Upon a Bounce ~ 1 star ~

Right off the bat, this collection of stories is in trouble. First, the author has decided that even though Tigger is telling the story in the framing sequence, it will actually be told in standard, neutral, omniscient third-person narration. Tigger just happens to be in the story with Pooh, instead of really giving it voice. The same thing happens with all the subsequent "storytellers." Second, the author has decided to disregard canon from the Milne books and Disney movies and just have Tigger suddenly change his mind and love eating honey. Third, the balance of pictures to text is way off, giving us pages full of words with small pictures or no pictures whatsoever. These stories are going to take a while to get through. Finally, this story is just bad, with Tigger falling into a sudden existential depression for most of the story due to one offhand comment then bouncing back to a ridiculously elevated extent just as suddenly at another.

Rabbit's Rules of Order ~ 2 stars ~

Rabbit is all anxious about his fall harvest and has been passive-aggressively pressuring his friends to help him out. This results in a dream sequence where he imagines his friends acting more like him. I"m not a fan of dream sequences in general, and this one doesn't take its concept far enough to pay off. Though it does give us this image, which only needs some light photoshopping to please any furries or fujoshi who slash Rabbit and Pooh (Poohbit? Rapooh?):


https://i.imgur.com/HclKz7X.jpg

A Knight to Remember ~ 2 stars ~

Piglet tells a hum Pooh wrote about Piglet being a brave knight who has to rescue Princess Kanga from a dragon. I gotta say, the Kanga/Piglet romance is weird and off-putting

Owl's Well That Ends Well ~ 2 stars ~

One autumn day, all of Owl's friends decide that since Owl is a bird, he ought to migrate south before winter. Once he agrees and takes off, everyone of course immediately misses him, but things work out in the end for everyone.

FYI: This story is significantly reworked and retold in the "My Very First Winnie the Pooh" series as Owl's Trip South, with an adaptation written by Barbara Gaines Winkelman and using the original illustrations by John Kurtz from this book.

Gopher's Day Off ~ 1 star ~

A setback in a tunneling project has Gopher deciding to give up his digging career. He hangs with his friends to try out their hobbies as he tries to find a new purpose in life, but just as every problem resembles a nail to a person with a hammer, Gopher keeps trying to help his friends by adding a digging aspect to all their pastimes -- all to disastrous results. It's all heading toward the obvious realization that playas gotta play play play and gophers gotta dig dig dig.

FYI: This bad story is reworked and made even worse in the "My Very First Winnie the Pooh" series as Gopher's Day Out, with an adaptation written by Cassandra Case and using the original illustrations by John Kurtz from this book.

Prince Eeyore ~ 1 star ~

Eeyore falls asleep while search for his missing tail and dreams about a "Prince and the Pauper" case of mistaken identity. Dream sequences -- the bane of my reading existence.

Shadow Play ~ 2 stars ~

Roo's having a night where he's afraid of the dark, but Kanga helps him see the bright side of shadows and night sounds with a Pollyanna spin that I'm not sure any child will fall for.

FYI: This story was also adapted in the "My Very First Winnie the Pooh" series as the second half of Don't Be Scared, Piglet and Roo!, with an adaptation written by Barbara Gaines Winkelman and new art by Kim Raymond.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: In Search of Breakfast -- Once Upon a Bounce -- Rabbit's Rules of Order -- A Knight to Remember -- Owl's Well That Ends Well -- Gopher's Day Off -- Prince Eeyore -- Shadow Play

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh projects my family owns (see the list here). While I work through few remaining longer Pooh books we own, I'm missing my daily dose of Pooh, so I'm going to start seeking out some of the Pooh books I don't own – yet – from libraries IRL and online. See the reviews here.)… (mere)