Over the years since it was on the air, Disney has released several compilation videos featuring episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The earliest are from the ten-volume Walt Disney Home Video series of which The Wishing Bear
is volume two. This video includes just two stories from the series,
both of them full-length episodes for a total of about 45 minutes. Both
also happen to be among my favorite episodes in the series, so I’m very
glad I happened upon this particular volume at the library sale over the
summer.
The Wishing Bear - One quiet wintry night,
Christopher Robin (Tim Hoskins) takes Pooh (Jim Cummings) up to his
favorite spot in the woods and shows him his very own wishing star.
After teaching Pooh the “special wishing rhyme,” he tells the bear to
close his eyes and make a wish. Of course, Christopher Robin knew he
would wish for honey and came prepared. When a delighted Pooh tries to
make more wishes on the spot, Christopher Robin warns that too many
wishes could wear the star out but promises he can come back tomorrow.
The next day, Pooh lets the secret slip to Piglet, Tigger and Rabbit,
and after a valiant struggle to remember the rhyme, he leads them to the
star, which goes behind a cloud as soon as they leave. When Pooh sees a
shooting star immediately afterward, he is convinced that he wore out
the star and sets about to grant his friends’ wishes himself.
This
is a great episode for several reasons. It shows the powerful bond that
exists between Christopher Robin and Pooh. It’s very funny, with Piglet
(John Fiedler), Tigger (Paul Winchell) and Rabbit (Ken Sansom) each
struggling with specific issues that lead to many complications for
Pooh, whose attempts to remember the rhyme earlier in the episode are
also quite amusing. He comes up with some very strange lines, my
favorite of which is “Flap like an armadillo.” My biggest laugh-aloud
moment comes later in the episode when Piglet asks Pooh, who has just
been working on a plan to keep the bugs out of Rabbit’s house, about his
strange headgear. Scrambling for an explanation that won’t blow his
cover, Pooh tells him that its purpose is to keep sharks away, which of
course sends Piglet into a panic. Classic!
However, the best
thing about this episode is the determination and ingenuity Pooh shows
in seeing to it that his friends get their wishes, or at least an
approximation of them. It’s an idea that also turned up on the show
during a Christmas episode that found Pooh filling in for Santa Claus
after failing to get his letter out in time, but the episodes are
distinct enough to keep either one from feeling redundant. It just goes
to show what a kind and generous bear Pooh is. Even though so much of
what he does is driven by the demands of his rumbly tumbly, ultimately
his heart takes precedence.
The Piglet Who Would Be King - Like The Wishing Bear,
this is a story about being generous to a friend. However, the
circumstances are quite different. In this case, after Pooh gives Piglet
a spring he finds on the ground as a “friendship gift,” Rabbit and
Tigger tell Piglet that he must reciprocate by giving Pooh the grandest
gift of honey imaginable. A small pot will not do; he needs something
truly extravagant. After their first honey-collecting attempts go awry,
Tigger proposes an audacious idea: undertake a quest to the Land of Milk
and Honey, where they will find all the honey they could ever want. As
before, Piglet uncomfortably goes along with the plan, and once they get
there and find it populated by the Pigglies, who look just like Piglet
but are half his size, he becomes more and more distressed. They regard
him as their rightful king, a job he is reluctant to accept, but Tigger
and Rabbit insist he take the job so they can enjoy its perks. As their
selfishness escalates, Piglet must find the courage to truly step into
his role as ruler.
Now, this is a very strange episode positing
that deep in the Hundred-Acre Wood, or just beyond it, lies a secret
civilization of pygmy Piglets resting in the shadow of a volcano.
Between Piglet’s house and the Land of Milk and Honey, they come across a
hysterical hyena, a monkey marching band led by a burly primate in a
sharp red suit and a thick Scandinavian accent, and a herd of stampeding
pint-sized elephants. It’s weird, all right. But it’s an excellent
episode full of adventure. Tigger and Rabbit even sing an original song,
Nothing’s Too Good for a Friend, as they drag Piglet through treacherous paths toward the Land of Milk and Honey.
The
question is, what are the true qualities of a friend? Tigger and Rabbit
spend this entire episode as Piglet’s dueling advisors, united in their
desire to force Piglet into procuring an unusually complicated gift but
bickering over every detail along the way. Both of them are extremely
bossy, and even when their intentions are good, their way of doing
things isn’t the best way for Piglet. Hence, this episode is about
Piglet learning how to do like Neville Longbottom in the first Harry
Potter book and assert himself when he believes they are in the wrong
instead of being a pushover. Two excellent quotes come out of this
process: “People should do things for friends not because they have to
but because they want to” and “Even very small animals must stand up for
what’s right.” As Piglet’s timidity is a characteristic to which I can
relate far too easily, I find this an inspiring episode.
As
always, I wish that it was possible to buy a DVD boxed set of the entire
series, but if you’re going to get them piecemeal, I highly recommend
this second volume. If you’re wishing for a pair of great Pooh stories,
your wish will certainly be granted.
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