Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is a down-to-earth screen interpretation of three A.A. Milne-inspired tales about fear, friendship and the benefits of play. How sweet it is to relish the wonder of clever wordplay and delightful characters instead of the usual animated 3-D movies for children.

In the story, Winnie the Pooh and his Hundred Acre Woods friends are trying to help gloomy Eeyore find his tail. They decide to have a contest, with the prize being a pot of honey.

All is fun until they become afraid that their human friend Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by the Backson (he left a note saying he'd be "Back soon").

This film is spiced up by the winning narration of John Cleese. Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall have come up with some clever ways of linking the story with the written word, and the animation style is very close to the illustrations in the books (Walt Disney Pictures, G).