Movie Thoughts: Winnie the Pooh (2011)

• Released: July 15, 2011
  
• Directed by: Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall
• Running time: 1 h 3 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

The small misadventures of a bear plush named Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Woods.

My Thoughts

Perfectly inoffensive is the way to describe this movie. It's that, but really nothing more or less. It's fine. But I wish I could give it more.

I will praise it for its visuals: it does look really good. It's well animated, the song sequences are creative and the backgrounds especially look great. I really love the style of the backgrounds in most Pooh movies, actually. This neat sketchy old book illustration style rather than full-on detailed complete paintings. But other than the visuals...what is there?

Not much of substance. Just some small conflicts and the some song sequences. There's not an overall plot or anything. Just small conflicts happening to these characters. It's just for really young kids. There's nothing really bad or offensive in here, but it leaves the movie feeling incredibly mediocre. Outside of the visuals there's really nothing here for any older watchers to enjoy. And isn't the point of most Disney movies that they're family films, not just catered towards children exclusively? This movie feels like something a parent would put on to shut up their child for an hour, but not something with actual substance.

The characters are also just way too basic for anyone to care about. They usually have only a single trait (heck, Kanga doesn't even have a personality outside of being the only woman) to them and that's it. And the songs...I didn't like them. 

There's probably some people out there who consider this to be fun and charming, but I'm not one of them. It was just very boring to me. Not a bad movie per se, but it just doesn't stand out in any way. It feels bland and generic and like it's only for very young kids.