Get to Know Winnie the Pooh's Namesake in A Bear Named Winnie

This Friday, the new Disney movie Winnie the Pooh hits theaters, and though I’m not sure how well the tubby little cubby can compete against the final installment of that equally popular British export known as Harry Potter, I know I’m not the only one looking forward to seeing him on the big screen again. In anticipation of that event, I watched A Bear Named Winnie, the 2004 live-action film directed by John Kent Harrison, who wrote it with John Goldsmith based on the true story by Simon Vaughan.

In this movie, set during World War I, we get the story of Lt. Harry Colebourn (Michael Fassbender), a young Canadian soldier in a veterinary corps who rescues an orphaned bear cub and smuggles her aboard the train to training camp. He names her Winnipeg after his hometown and calls her Winnie for short. While his gruff commander, Col. John Barret (Gil Bellows), warns him that he’s going to have to do something about her before they head off to do some real fighting, Winnie quickly grows very attached to Harry, and shaking her off isn’t going to be so easy.

Winnie is the bear after whom Winnie the Pooh is named, and the movie is framed by scenes several years later that show her at the London Zoo, where she is one of the most popular residents. The bulk of the movie deals with her presence at the training camp in Quebec and later in England, after Harry pulls off another smuggling act, this time in a sea chest. His chief accomplices in this endeavor are geeky Ivy League graduate Ian Macray (Jonathon Young) and cheerful goofball Randy Taylor (Aaron Ashmore). As powerful as the bond between Winnie and Henry is, the movie is just as much about the friendship between these young men, particularly Henry and Ian.

Winnie, played by three different bears named Chester, Charlie and Bonkers, is a charming creature, though she is loud and rather disaster-prone. She has a habit of bellowing in moments of distress, and her ingenuity causes problems when she escapes and makes for the mess tent. However, in times of tranquility she is a comfort to those around her, whether she is nuzzling noses with the camp horses or wrapping her furry limbs around Harry in a firm bear hug. There are moments of comedy with her disastrous antics, but the story more often veers toward the heartwarming.

The only member of the cast I recognized was Ashmore, who has so consistently charmed me as Smallville’s fresh-faced Jimmy Olsen. His character here is of a similar disposition, and he adds levity to most of the scenes in which he appears. Young brings an uptight but sympathetic air to Ian, who is sheltered and jittery but very passionate about his veterinary work. The core friendship between Ian and the more outgoing Henry is helpful in getting us to understand the plight of soldiers during this time. The stern but kind presence Bellows brings stands in contrast to the lunacy of the unit’s top commander (David Suchet), a general who is far removed from soldiers’ concerns.

A Bear Named Winnie is mostly a war story, though its PG rating keeps it from becoming too graphic, even as it delves into some of the harsh realities of wartime. It’s a tale of friendship and how bonds forged in trying times can carry the despairing through to happier days. Christopher Robin and A. A. Milne are characters in the movie, and an end-credits note confirms their identities, but this is not really their tale. They have just enough of a screen presence to tie the movie in with the Winnie whose popularity continues a century later. That Winnie remains my favorite of all fictional bears, but it seems the real Winnie had a lot to recommend her as well.