A Winnie The Pooh Thanksgiving

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.   If you recall,  last year,  I reviewed the holiday Winnie The Pooh TV specials.  Well,  there was one that I didn't review as I couldn't find but I was able to rectify this year.  Join me as I take a look at A Winnie The Pooh Thanksgiving.   With that out of the way, let's begin.

The Plot

The plot is simple but cute and that works well for a Pooh Bear special.   We find out that  Thanksgiving is Pooh Bear's favorite day and that all of his friends in the 100 Acre Wood are throwing a Thanksgiving party and each guest brings up something that reflects what they like as Pooh brings Hunny,  Piglet brings acorns,   Tigger brings chocolate ice cream,  Gopher brings lemonade and Owl brings biscuits,  and Eeyore brings thistles, though he acknowledges that he is the only one that'll probably eat them.  Rabbit comes out and see this and tells the rest that this is not what Thanksgiving is about and tells them that it is about tradition and goes over what a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is and what it all includes,  and then Rabbit goes on to assign different jobs to each of the characters such as assigning Owl, the responsibility of prepping the dishes,  Gopher is responsible for making the pumpkin pie,  and he gives the two biggest tasks for Eeyore and Tigger and Pooh and Piglet.  Eeyore and Tigger are sent to go find cranberries for the stuffing.  I'm more of a cranberry sauce person, myself.  While Pooh and Piglet are sent to go capture a turkey but first,  Pooh needed to learn what a turkey was.  Oh Pooh, never change.  And y'know  I feel in a way,  this was done to keep the focus on the more popular characters in this special and not drag it down with the other less interesting characters.  And that works  and it is kinda cute but at the same time,  while this special does a good job of splitting the focus and it helps that the characters are broken into pairs, the going-on's in this special are a little boring.  I mean,  it's cute watching Pooh and Piglet try to search for a turkey in the 100 Acre Wood and Piglet be afraid of it because that fits Piglet and these two have always played well off of one another.  As did Tigger and Eeyore with Eeyore being the straight man to all of Tigger's silly antics but  at the same time,  it's feel like,  a whole lot of nothing happens throughout this particular special. It's cute and all. especially Tigger and Eeyore try and find the cranberries but they don't find any and instead just paint blueberries, the color of cranberries and then lose them. Or watching Pooh and Piglet go on their turkey hunt and see that when they get back to Rabbit's, the turkey, they thought they caught was actually Eeyore and Tigger.   And this upsets Rabbit and then we see the pumpkin pie that Gopher worked on, almost be ruined by the movement of the "turkey",  and then Tigger accidentally destroys it.  It  is at this point that Rabbit calls off Thanksgiving.   We cut later to Pooh,  who is thinking and then we see all of the residents of the 100 Acre Wood go back to Rabbit's house and put on a Thanksgiving dinner with the items, they brought originally and it ends with Christopher Robin delivering a toast in Rabbit's honor.   All in all, this was cute but not memorable.  It's  not bad like the Valentine's Day special but it's nowhere near the same quality as Boo To You or Christmas Too.  It's  in the middle, and that's understandable because Thanksgiving specials are harder to pull off then Christmas or Halloween. That's not to say, this special is bad because it's not but I don't think,  it's one I'll  watch again.

Narration

Narrator - David Warner

I'm pretty sure that Warner has narrated some of the other Pooh Bear holiday specials and per usual, the narration was great.  I honestly cannot complain about it.  

Characters

Now, there truly is no need to break this down further.  So let's begin.  

Pooh  &  Piglet  voiced by Jim Cummings  &  John Fielder

Again  as I said up top,  Pooh and Piglet worked well of one another in this special and their interaction, when looking for the turkey was cute, even if Piglet being scared of the turkey did grow rather tiresome.   But still, these two were fun to watch.

Tigger & Eeyore voiced by Paul Winchell & Peter Cullen

Tigger  and Eeyore were a little more fun because of the way, these two played off of each other.  They are so polar opposites in every way and that worked, when watching them go after the berries.   These two were easily the highlight of this special as I looked forward to see what they were up to next, most of all.

Owl  &  Gopher  voiced by Andre Stojka &  Micheal Gough 

Owl  and Gopher,  it seems were in the special,  the least because  we spent so much time with the characters that were sent to gather food, that we barely spent any with the ones that stayed behind at Rabbit's house.  I mean,  it was nice to go in and check up on them but we barely saw them.

Rabbit voiced by Ken Sampson 

What I said about Owl and Gopher,  also applies to Rabbit but times it by ten because honestly,  Rabbit disappeared after he delegated orders and did not re-emerge until  Pooh and Piglet had come back with their "turkey".   Which by that point, the special was almost over.   

My  Final Thoughts

This special is okay,  it's not bad nor is it great.   If you like Winnie The Pooh,  maybe but it's really not worth watching.  Disney has done better Thanksgiving stuff such as with their show, Recess.  Which we will be covering tomorrow as I take a look at the Recess episode....

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