I’m a big fan of the classic Disney Winnie the Pooh shorts.
Well, except for the later one where the characters started to look all Don Bluthy.
And that one they did in the 1980s with Jim Cummings instead of Sterling Holloway; the animation in that is almost unwatchably poor, and Rabbit sounds a little off.
But and the Honey Tree and and the Blustery Day are brilliantly conceived, witty, well-animated, and charming.
The latest lucrative incarnation, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, if that is it’s real name, leaves quite a bad taste in the mouth.
- First of all: Tigger (a one-note sidekick character if there ever was one) is given top billing.
- Secondly: There’s some sort of Blue’s Clues/Scooby-Doo knock-offery nonsense about super sleuthing by super sleuthers. Despite being wholly inappropriate and out of character, I’m not even sure “sleuth” is a real word.
- Thirdly: Christopher Robin has all but been ousted in some sort of phantasmagorical coup d’état and replaced by a girl named Darby.
It’s this last point which is the rub. I imagine Disney created Darby in order to have an original, and therefore unambiguously copyrightable, work. However, this leads to philosophical quandaries, as Xen has noted:
The Hundred Acre Wood does not exist. This is self-evident to most of you, but let me clarify. Those of you familiar only with what Disney has done with the intellectual property may be unclear on the fact that Christopher goes from the real world into the imagined world of the Hundred Acre Wood in a way quite reminiscent of darling Alice into Wonderland. To reiterate, the Hundred Acre Wood is a projection of Christopher Robin’s imagination and is therefore contingent on him to exist. If he does not perceive it, it simply is not.
…
This tomboy should have her own imagined world in which to walk and work through a repressed sexual encounter or first awareness of her own mortality. The Hundred Acre Wood is personal and off-limits to persons not stuffed with cotton and psychoemotional detritus.
It’s a good point about fictional characters intruding on other fictional characters’ meta-fictional fictions. Seems kind of creepy and unfair. Xen also goes into detail about how each Hundred Acre Wood denizen symbolizes a different aspect of Christopher Robin’s personality, but I’m certainly not going to spoil any of that.
Fear and Trembing in the Hundred Acre Wood
> Catena Ex Situ
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March 24, 2009 at 9:20 am |
Yanno, every take I’ve seen on this gets it wrong.
(smug, check; self centered, check; egotistical, check – k, I’m still me)
Disney now owns the rights to Pooh et al.
Including CR.
They’ve used him in the past, and can continue to do so.
They use Darby for the very obvious reason that, like most liberals, they think boys suck.
Try finding books or stories for kids released in the last 20 years that center around a main character BOY.
Why do you think Harry Potter shot to the top ?
It was the first new storyline to come along in ages that was GOOD, and that had a GUY as main character.
Most new works , cartoon or written, feature a girl who may or may not have a boy sidekick or occasional companion- but make no mistake, the GIRL is in charge and on top.
Even HP points out that the smartest kid in the school is .. a girl.
In today’s brave new world, women (I am one) have managed a wondrous achievement.
We’re succeeding at every level of education from pre-k up through advanced degrees at a significantly higher rate than men, yet we’re still considered the under served gender, educationally.
Everything focuses on including girls, and EXcluding – or ridiculing …boys.
Even in the 100 Acre Wood, poor ‘ol Christopher Robin must make way for the PC Darby.
April 13, 2009 at 4:04 pm |
I have to disagree… I think that the 100 Acre Wood does exist outside of CR’s mind. The actual question is whether it exists outside of A.A. Milne’s mind. After all, he and CR are both “characters” in the book and he’s the one who tells the stories about what happens in the woods.
I’m no Darby fan, but she isn’t the product of a vast liberal conspiracy. Rather, someone noted that the entire population of the 100 Acre Woods is male – except for Kanga who doesn’t count. (Kanga is a mother/adult figure and kids don’t identify with her.)
So someone thought they’d give girls a presence in the 100 Acre Woods.
April 26, 2009 at 3:32 pm |
You do know that in the storyline, Darby is Christopher Robin’s daughter.
April 27, 2009 at 10:49 am
Oddly presumptive, declarative sentence. Anyway, this fact might open up a whole new can of worms. I certainly wouldn’t want to interact with my parents’ imaginary friends.