Going to see this movie was like stepping back into childhood. I had the 1977 movie on VHS when I was young and I wore that tape out with countless viewings. I was also a big fan of the cartoon show than ran during the nineties and the many direct-to-video films that came out around that time too. So I already walk into this movie with nostalgia on my mind - knowing roughly what to expect, and the film delivers pretty much what you've seen before.

It follows the structure of the 1977 movie mostly, telling three different stories over the length of the film. Which may have worked in 1977, but today if you cut the film apart into these three sections you could just release them as specials on the Disney channel.

The voice work is as good as it needs to be. Jim Cummings is enigmatic as always and Bud Luckey is a nice addition as Eeyore. It's not Disney's best dubbing job but far from their worst.

The film is far too short, there was definitely time for another story should there have been one. 70 minutes shouldn't really be acceptable for a cinema release, under any circumstances.

All qualms I have with the movie are overshadowed by its innocence and joy. Children who go to see this movie may love it, but adults may love it more.

Disney Animation Studio's (DAS) 51st animated feature Winnie the Pooh takes us back into the stories of A.A. Milne. There a donkey named Eeyore, Kanga, and Little Roo. There's Rabbit, and Piglet, and there's Owl, but most of all Winnie the Pooh (there is also Tigger, but he is not apart of the song). In this installment, Eeyore has lost his tail and it's up to the gang to either find his old tail or fashion a replacement one.

Like the previous installment by DAS back in 1977, the stories are simple, much like the minds of their characters. The one genius thing about the Winnie the Pooh stories are how the minds of the characters imitate the minds of the child, Christopher Robin. After all, the characters are all imagined in the mind of Christopher, so it makes sense that they have the same thought process. Even the wisest of characters, Owl, who uses big words and impresses the others, is as outlandish and nonsensical as Tigger. It's not to say that these characters are unintelligent. Like a child they are still learning. They are gullible, easily excited, fearless in the face of real danger and scared in the face of imagined danger.

1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a breakthrough not just in animation but in style. The physics of the film are still untouchable today. The way the characters act out certain scenes inside the book, walking across sentences, leaping from page to page, etc. It's still a joy to watch today. This new version uses a very similar format both in the physical storytelling and in the story arc. There is nothing incredibly different in this film compared to its predecessor, only the voices have changed and the animation is glossier.

For children who have not been exposed to the original film, I suppose this would be a nice film to grow up with. It's cute, innocent, and has a good moral backbone. The animation is up to snuff with Disney standards. It has a beautiful palette and a really nice finish. The characters haven't changed, only the quality of the animation, and for that I thank Disney.

For those who grew up with the 1977 original, this might be a sour grape in the bunch of DAS features. There is too much music, not enough action, and almost follows the old format to a "T." One aspect that Disney is not at fault at is the voice acting. Having grown up listening to Sterling Holloway as the voice of Pooh Bear, I knew going in that this wouldn't be the same. The same goes for the rest of the characters, and I applaud Jim Cummings filling in as both Pooh and Tigger. An arduous task to say the least and he does so with style. Still, I miss the old voices and will always associate those stories to the voices. New audiences will have no problem whatsoever.

The music. The original film had one big number (Heffalumps and Woozles) with a few minor songs thrown about ("Little Black Raincloud," "The rain, rain, rain came down" to name a few). This film seemed weighted down by some of the musical numbers. There are two larger numbers and what seemed like a lot of little ones thrown about. Part of the problem is that the film has such a short run time (barely over an hour) so the numbers are close together, taking away from the action of the story. Some are forced in there when a few lines of dialogue could have helped. It shows that there really wasn't that much of a story to begin with. Not to bash on the music too much, but I am not a huge Zooey Deschannel fan to begin with (at least on the mic) so that didn't help. Sorry Zooey.

Other than these problems the main thing I had wrong with the film was how eerily similar the format was to the original. From the songs to the jokes I was disappointed with the unoriginality of it all. That's not to say the entire film is a rip off, but I wanted to see something new, rather than the same format.

Regardless, it's a decent effort and another sign that Disney hasn't completely given up on making animated features the old fashioned way, though I was surprised by how little advertisement was put into the film's release. Did they forget or just run out of money after all of the Cars 2 ads? Children will enjoy, especially the young ones. This will be a nice DVD to pull out for a car ride or a rainy day. It's hard for a film like this to compete with the 3-D juggernauts of Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2, but I commend DAS in their effort and pray that their next releases is something to write home about. It looks like the next few releases might be computer animated like Tangled and Bolt, so who knows what could happen. Disney's roots are embedded in ink and paint, but how much longer will the magic last? It will be a sad day when the ink wells dry up at Disney.

Winnie the Pooh is a marvelous and innocent adventure that has been anticipated by me since its trailer debut. Every time I see the trailer, equipped with the wonderful song "Somewhere Only We Know," I break down. There is not a thing sad in the trailer, but just the soft melody of the song, combined with warm and vibrant characters from my younger years just puts me in tears. It's cute, innocent, and just the way I wanted it.

I am beyond grateful that this didn't support the 3D epidemic sweeping our nation these past years. Winnie the Pooh is made up of hand-drawn animation that gives itself a water-color sort of look. It's truly a throwback, and is a nice break from all the CGI animation that, while nice to look at, can't match the feel of classic animation. I couldn't imagine Winnie the Pooh in CGI anyway.

Before the movie, we get a short called The Ballad of Nessie, a kind and gentle Loch Ness Monster who lives with her rubber-ducky. Her pond gets taken over by a golf company and she is forced to move out and find a way home. The short is sad, and well crafted simultaneously. Combined with gentle narration.

On with the film, the story starts out as Pooh (Cummings) trying to find some "hunny." Then, much to the surprise of everyone, Eeyore's (Luckey) tale has gone missing. Christopher Robin (Boulter) holds a contest with all his friends to find a new tale for Eeyore. Whoever finds a good enough tale will win a jar of honey.

The next day, the gang still tries to find the tale when they find a note from Christopher Robin saying "Gon out back soon C.R." Owl (Ferguson) convinces the gang that the "back soon" means "The Backson," a vicious monster who does so many unexplainable things which they make up on their own. So now it's up to everyone to go into the woods and find The Backson and get their friend back.

There is a lot of singing in the film. Lots of well composed songs are in here, my favorite being "The Backson Song." I wasn't under the impression this was a musical, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. The target audience for this is most likely between 4-8. So to put in a lot of soft and melodic songs in it was a good idea.

Winnie the Pooh is perhaps the most gentle film I can remember. Even the "scariest" scenes won't freak out the little ones, and everything is so calm, so tender, and so unobtrusive it's wonderful. Growing up with Winnie the Pooh, this film was everything I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be nostalgic, warm, and inspiring.

During moments of this film, my eyes watered. I can't answer if someone asked me "Why?" I think it was because the film was so joyful and very sweet. Plus, these are characters that I've known since my childhood. I was grateful they didn't play the song "Somewhere Only We Know" from the trailer. I would've broke down in front of everyone.

The voice acting is beautiful. The film doesn't market its actors either. There is no grade-A "Brad Pitt," "Ellen DeGeneres," "Johnny Depp" marketing scheme here. The actors who voice the characters were chosen because they were fit to voice whoever they were able to. They weren't picked because their names look good on a poster.

This is probably the best Disney film in years. It goes back to everything that made Disney so great when they started off. Hand-drawn animation, a lovely story line, and a positive feel. Even at an incredibly short sixty-nine minutes, (minus, maybe, five from the beginning short) Winnie the Pooh is lovely, crafty, and limitless.

Voiced by: Jim Cummings, Tom Kenny, Craig Ferguson, Travis Oates, Bud Luckey, and Jack Boulter. Narrated by: John Cleese. Directed by: Stephen Anderson and Don Hall.