The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by authors A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, The New Adventures was the first time a major Disney character headlined an animated, made-for-television series as well as the first Disney television series based on a major animated film. The cartoon premiered with a limited run on The Disney Channel on January 17, 1988. Nine months later, the show moved to ABC as part of their Saturday morning lineup. New episodes continued until October 26, 1991. Proving popular with children and older fans, it remained a staple on television in the United States for nearly two decades.
Publications ranging from The Los Angeles Times to TV Guide gave the series extremely positive reviews for its resemblance to the earlier Disney efforts and its high production quality, receiving praise for its wholesome tradition. The show won back-to-back Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program as well as two Humanitas Prizes. The show was well received by both children and their parents. Most of the viewer mail the crew received were from parents thanking the staff for producing a show that they can watch with their children. The New Adventures is credited with bringing about a resurgence of Pooh animated media, including a series of television and video specials.
Premise
The series depicts the everyday lives of Christopher Robin and his 9 companions Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl and Gopher. Rather than a straightforward adaptation, the show was more Americanized than previous Pooh efforts. Episodes dealt with strong messages about honesty, responsibility, confidence, teamwork, friendship, and caring. Many stories are designed to help young children distinguish between fantasy and reality and overcome common childhood fears. Most episodes have two stories, but some are a single 22-minute episode.
Characters
- Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) is the main title character. He is a naive yet lovable and good-natured teddy bear. Cummings called the program timeless.
- Piglet (voiced by John Fiedler) is Pooh's best friend. He is a shy and kind-hearted toy piglet and is obsessed with keeping things neat and tidy, and enjoys beautiful things like flowers. His fears and nervousness often hinder his life, as Piglet runs and hides when unnecessary and often stutters when nervous, but has been shown to have a lot of hidden courage and often faces danger to help others. Piglet sometimes has an inferiority complex, although his friends think highly of him. Episodes about him tend to revolve around these traits as well as his small size. Fiedler is one of the only members of the original cast involved.
- Tigger (voiced by Paul Winchell in seasons 1–3 and Jim Cummings in seasons 1–4) is an ebullient toy tiger. He is always filled with great energy and optimism, and though always well-meaning, Tigger can also be mischievous, and his actions have sometimes led to chaos and trouble for himself and his friends. Tigger is very confident and has quite an ego, having a high opinion of himself. Tigger has a notable habit of mispronouncing various words, or stressing wrong syllables in them. Unlike previous adaptations, Tigger is shown living in a large treehouse. Winchell thought of him as a cross between the Dead End Kids and the Cowardly Lion. He is one of the only members of the original cast involved.
- Eeyore (voiced by Peter Cullen) is a gloomy toy donkey. He is somewhat less caustic and sarcastic in this version than in the original stories. Despite his depressive nature, Eeyore is capable of great compassion. Eeyore usually expects misfortune to happen to him, such as his house of sticks to be knocked down regularly, but accepts it when it does.
- Kanga (voiced by Patricia Parris) is a toy kangaroo and Roo’s mother. She rarely appears, but is shown to be kindhearted and calm.
- Roo (voiced by Nicholas Melody) is a young joey. He wears a light blue shirt. The smallest of the characters, Roo frequently is seen hanging around Tigger.
- Rabbit (voiced by Ken Sansom) is a sarcastic and finicky rabbit. In addition to wanting to be organized and practical, Rabbit's tendency to take charge is inflated to the extent that Rabbit becomes a control freak who insists on doing things exactly right, in his way and in the proper order. Rabbit keeps a garden and does whatever he can to protect it from other animals such as bugs and crows, often getting upset when anyone or anything tries to steal his vegetables. Rabbit and Tigger are usually foils for each other, reluctantly working together. Rabbit was shown as pale green in the series, compared to yellow in later efforts.
- Owl (voiced by Hal Smith) is the eldest character in the series. He presents himself as a mentor and teacher to the others, but is really quite scatterbrained. Owl enjoys telling stories about his distant relatives, whenever something reminds him of one, but many of his stories are pointless or absurd. Owl speaks with a Southern English accent. Along with Fielder, Smith was one of only two members of the original cast involved in the show for its entire run.
- Gopher (voiced by Michael Gough) is a hard-working gopher who lives underground. Gopher is shown to be a bit of a workaholic, and is obsessed with dynamite and digging in his tunnels. Gopher speaks with a Southern accent, whistles his "Ss" and wears a helmet with a light attached.
- Christopher Robin (voiced by Tim Hoskins) is a young boy that has adventures with the stuffed animals. He's also Pooh's other best friend.
For the most part, the show used a limited cast consisting only of characters in the original Milne books, with the notable exception of the Disney-created character Gopher.
Kessie, a female bluebird that Rabbit rescues, makes her first appearance in this series; Kessie would later appear in The Book of Pooh. Stan Woozle and Heff Heffalump appear as a pair of honey-stealing thieves. This marked the first time heffalumps and woozles were seen on-screen. Instead, the show used other unseen villains such as Jagulars Papa Heffalump also appeared from time to time. Other characters on the show include Owl's cousin Dexter (voiced by Hal Smith) and Skippy the Sheepdog. Chuck McCann provided additional voices as well.
Episodes
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! colspan=2 rowspan=2 width=10%| Season
! rowspan=2 width=10%| Episodes
! rowspan=2 width=10%| TV season
! rowspan=2 width=20%| Time slot (ET)
! colspan=2| Originally aired
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! width=20%| Season premiere
! width=20%| Season finale
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| style="width:9%;"|1
| 22 The following year, a collection of Pooh stories was formally released bearing the name Winnie-the-Pooh. The stories proved very popular and inspired a sequel.
The idea for a television series was first discussed in 1957. NBC suggested Jay Ward undertake the pilot, then titled The World of Winnie the Pooh, with an option for thirty-nine episodes. Some songs and bits of dialogue were recorded, but the project was ultimately abandoned. In 1961, Disney's namesake founder Walt Disney purchased the film rights to make an animated movie starring the characters. He subsequently produced a series of three short featurettes throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). Disney had also aired a variety show with the characters that used electronically controlled puppetry and life-sized costume titled Welcome to Pooh Corner. This became the highest rated program on The Disney Channel. The original featurettes also proved popular, with video sales topping the charts in 1986 and 1987.
Development
thumb|left|Production took place at the [[Academy of Television Arts & Sciences complex]]
An animated cartoon starring the characters was first proposed by Walt Disney Television Animation Vice President Gary Krisel during a Disney retreat, in which company assets and future prospects were examined. Rich Frank later recalled him saying: "I think Pooh is a great character for Saturday morning animation". He believed the merchandising license, held at that time by Sears, would work as a great promotional tool. Mark Zaslove was contacted to write the series bible; he had recently finished work on the DuckTales pilot episode. The document was written over Memorial Day weekend 1987, with Zaslove having only three days to complete the proposal. The pitch was well received by Disney and subsequently green-lit.
Instead of shopping Winnie the Pooh around to different networks, the show was pitched directly to ABC. The network had desperately wanted a cartoon from Disney for their Saturday morning schedule, which had fallen to last place in the ratings. They had hoped Pooh could boost ratings for the channel, specifically that they believed Winnie-the-Pooh would draw an audience old enough to operate the people meter that largely dictated television ratings at the time; ABC had blamed the people meter being too difficult for young children to operate for the failure of its previous series The Little Clowns of Happytown, a show geared toward a preschool-aged audience. A deal was reached giving ABC the show, while giving first run rights to The Disney Channel.
The show was official announced via a press release on November 15, 1987. It would mark the first time a prominent Disney character was seen on Saturday morning television.
Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times called the show "the best made-for-TV cartoon show in several seasons". and gave an similarly positive review the next year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said it "contained much more detailed and lively animation than the usual kidvid". TV Guide said the show had "theatrical-grade animation, sprightly stories, conscientious eschewing of laugh tracks and best of all, the willingness to let the visual jokes speak for themselves". Entertainment Weekly gave the show an "A" saying "there's enough excitement, including lots of slapstick and bad guys, to keep '90s adventurers happy". The Dayton Daily News called the program one of the best on television writing "The animation of this offering from the Disney's studios is not as sumptuous as the company's feature films, but it is miles above the television norm". Charles Witback praised the show claiming that "Milne [came] out on top " and they remain unique to the flashy, noisy Hollywood. Common Sense Media gave the show 4 stars, saying "the lessons are just as classic and time-tested as the characters". DVDVerdict.com called the show "perfectly respectable imitations that still rank as stellar, sweet-natured children's entertainment", going on to write "Kids should enjoy this stuff and adults should feel comfortable leaving their young ones in the care of this of this good-hearted programming for an hour". AnimatedViews called the show "a well-remembered if not exceptional series that slotted into the kind of programming that filled the Disney Afternoons."
Not all reviews have been positive. Evan Levine, writing for the Philadelphia Daily News, gave the program a mixed review, saying "the characters are all true to form, but the colors are overly bright, and the whole look is harsh" but adding "this series is certainly better than a lot of other cartoons that we've seen". Jan Crain Rudeen, writing for the Scripps Howard News Service, described the series and the resulting video releases as "awful", which she felt lacked imagination. Desson Howe of The Washington Post described the series as "cheaply sweetened fare". One particular episode has been a source of controversy. "Sorry Wrong Slusher", in which the characters stay up late, order pizza, and watch a late night "slusher film", has been called violent.
Ratings
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! colspan=3|Select Nielsen ratings
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! Date !! colspan=2 width=35%| Score
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| September 10, 1988 || 5.9/22 ||
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| September 17, 1988 || 5.7/23 ||
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| September 24, 1988 || 5.1/21 ||
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| October 1, 1988 || 5.2/22 ||
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| September 9, 1989 || 4.9/25 ||
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| September 16, 1989 || 4.4/20 ||
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| September 23, 1989 || 4.1/18||
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The network television premiere on Saturday, September 10, 1988, was hailed as an immediate success. Selby Hall, Marketing Manager for ABC, was quoted as saying "[the show had] been very successful on Saturday mornings in the States". The high ratings caused an extra push behind the international airings of the program. Throughout the season, the show continued to receive "solid" ratings. The show ranked 10th place out of all Saturday morning cartoons for the season.
During the 1989–90 television schedule, the series was paired with Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. The show once again won its time-slot, but fell one rating point from the previous year's debut. The show repeated this the next week, but was beaten by Captain N: The Game Master the next two weeks.
By 1993, the show had fallen in the ratings. Finishing 27th out of the 36 Saturday morning programs, the show averaged a 2.1/9 Nielsen rating share. The show received a 3.3 Nielsen rating in late February 1993 corresponding to 3.2 million viewers. In 1997, MediaWeek ranked it 301st out of every broadcast show. By the late 1990s, the show was one of the top five Saturday morning cartoons. It had a (2.5/11) market share in Boys 2–11 and a (2.2/11) market share in boys 6–11.
Awards and nominations
For its debut season, the show won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. During his acceptance speech, Mark Zaslove praised the actors and animators for their dedication to the series and specifically thanked Jymn Magon and Karl Geurs for the humanity they brought to the program. The following year the series was awarded the same honor, this time in a tie with Beetlejuice. The show was awarded the first of two Humanitas Prizes during its first season for "[examining] the need to both hold onto and let go of love". Three years later, the show would pick up its second prize for its dramatization "of the struggle to assume responsibility and live with the consequences of your mistakes". The show also received a commemoration from the Action for Children's Television with President Peggy Charren calling the show "an imaginative extension of the Pooh stories...preserving the essence of the original characters".
The show was cited in the Children's Television Act of 1990 as an example of a positive educational program. The show received a special salute during the opening session of the Congressional Club in 1988. Joan Lunden, co-host of Good Morning America, hosted the opening session which included United States Congressional and Cabinet wives as well as their children and grandchildren. BuzzFeed ranked the theme song third in their list of "7 Cartoon Theme Songs Guaranteed to Earworm You"
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{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-right: 0;"
|+ Awards and nominations for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
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! Date
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
|-
|rowspan="2"|1988
|CableACE Award
|Children's Entertainment Series or Special, 8 and Younger
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|
|-
|Parents' Choice Awards
|Silver Seal Award
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|
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|rowspan="7"|1989
|rowspan="2"|Golden Reel Awards
|rowspan="2"|Sound Effects Mixing
|"Paw & Order"
|
|-
|"The Masked Offender"
|
|-
|Young Artist Awards
|Best Young Actor Voice-Over Role
|Tim Hoskins
|
|-
|Action for Children's Television
|Commercial Broadcast Award
|<!---->
|
|-
|Daytime Emmy Awards
|Outstanding Animated Program
|
|
|-
|Humanitas Prize
|Children's Animation
|Doug Hutchinson, Larry Bernard and Mark Zaslove<br />
|
|-
|Parents Choice Awards
|Gold Seal Award
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1990
|Daytime Emmy Awards
|Outstanding Animated Program
|
|
|-
|Parents Choice Awards
|Gold Seal Award
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|1991
|Daytime Emmy Awards
|Outstanding Film Sound Editing
|
|
|-
|Golden Reel Awards
|Outstanding Achievement
|"The Good, The Bad, and The Tigger"
|
|-
|rowspan="3"|1992
|rowspan="2"|Daytime Emmy Awards
|Outstanding Animated Program
|
|
|-
|Outstanding Film Sound Editing
|
|
|-
|Humanitas Prize
|Children's Animation
|Bruce Reid Schaefer<br />
|
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|Children's Animation
|Karl Geurs, Mark Zaslove<br />
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|Primetime Emmy Award
|Outstanding Children's Program
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|-->
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|}
Home media
thumb|150px|Logo used for Disney's Pooh products in the 1990s
Although Disney has never released the complete series on home video, there have been numerous video collections released over the years. This was followed by an additional two the next year, one more in 1991 and four more in 1992. Due to a twenty-five year license agreement on Pooh merchandise, these videotapes were released only in Sears. Sales were very poor, despite a solid consumer base.
Eric Schulz, Vice President of Marketing at Disney, recalled an incident one Friday afternoon at Kmart where parents were shopping: "We noticed that no Winnie the Pooh characters were available. Several consumers were asking the store clerks if the Poohs were sold out". Schulz and his team discovered there were no plush toys available at Kmart, due to the licensing. They also discovered that this license was expiring in just a few months and would not be renewed. That afternoon, the marketing team returned to the office and began to plan new ideas to sell Winnie the Pooh videos. Videos were packaged with Pooh plush characters together in a single box. which coincided with the 70th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh. In lieu of traditional press kit, Disney sent out a Winnie the Pooh cookie jar to the press outlets, a decision which received overwhelmingly positive reaction. The Today Show proudly displayed its Pooh cookie jar on television while the hosts talked about the new video releases. Sales were very high, with numerous videos turned up on the Video Bestseller List. In just three weeks, Disney had sold twenty times more Winnie the Pooh videos than they had in the previous twelve months. By 1995, Pooh videos sold over thirty times what they had sold the year before, despite the fact that Disney had only repackaged existing products.
The show first appeared on DVD in the United Kingdom. Under the title The Magical World of Winnie the Pooh, eight volumes were released consisting of four episodes apiece. The first five volumes of this series later appeared in the United States under the name Growing Up with Winnie the Pooh. Appearing in February 2005, the releases were made to coincide with the premiere of Pooh's Heffalump Movie. These episodes did not include the original opening credits, but instead had new sequences specifically made for the discs.
The series became available on Disney+ when the service launched on November 12, 2019.
Legacy
The series helped spawn a successful Winnie the Pooh media franchise, which grew into a series of made-for-TV holiday specials, two additional television series, and four theatrically-released movies. Many of the cast members continued to work with these Winnie the Pooh adaptations. Jim Cummings continues to voice Pooh and Tigger in the present day. Paul Winchell briefly reprised his role as Tigger in Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin (1997) as well as some of the 1990s specials.
The show was one of the last times Winnie the Pooh was designed and marketed for audiences of all ages. In the years following the series, Walt Disney Home Video began to reposition their strategy and marketed the television series, and Winnie the Pooh in general, towards younger age groups, despite critics claiming the show can be enjoyed by members of all ages. In later years, the show has been touted as strictly for preschoolers. DVDizzy summarized the idea saying "Even though Milne's books had won over readers of all ages and even though kids weren't buying movie tickets and merchandise, Disney seemed set on the idea that Pooh was strictly for little ones, those not even old enough to attend school".
The program caused a resurgence of popularity of Winnie the Pooh that continues to this day, to the point of the character being Disney's second largest animated franchise, only behind Mickey Mouse & Friends. As of 2012, it is the third most popular media franchise in the United States.
To promote the opening of Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation, the production released a recording of Corbin Bleu covering the show's theme song. Bleu sings the original Winnie the Pooh theme for the actual production.