The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on March 11, 1977. It is the twenty-second animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. The movie is based upon the Winnie the Pooh books by A. A. Milne.
The film is actually composed of material from three previously released animated shorts:
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!
Because of this, it is seen by some as the last of the Disney "package films" (movies consisting of two or more short segments) the bulk of which were produced by the studio to keep costs down during World War II. "Pooh" was produced for similar economic reasons. This is also the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement, since one of the shorts ("Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree") was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day."
Its characters have spawned an industry of sequels, television programs, clothing, books, and toys. The film differs from the three individual shorts by having newly-created linking material, and an ending to give closure to the stories (based off of the final chapter of The House at Pooh Corner). It was always Walt Disney's intention to create a feature film, but he decided to make shorts instead — after production had begun — to familiarize US audiences with the characters. All three shorts as well as future feature films boast classic songs by the Sherman Brothers including "Winnie The Pooh" and "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".
The Many Adventures Of Winnie the Pooh was first released on VHS and laserdisc in the early 1980s. In 1996, it was re-released on VHS as part of the Masterpiece Collection. It was released on DVD for the first time in 2002 as a 25th Anniversary Edition, with digitally restored picture and sound. Meanwhile, the individual shorts have also been released on their own (Blustery Day was also included as a bonus feature on the NTSC DVD release of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin).
The film also inspired an attraction of the same name at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Hong Kong Disneyland. A much-more elaborate attraction, also based on the film, opened in Tokyo Disneyland as "Pooh's Hunny Hunt".
