A different way of telling a story

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Unless you've read any of A.A. Milne's original works, then your image of Winnie the Pooh is the treacly cartoons released by Disney. But there was another set of cartoons depicting the honey-obsessed bear. This set got produced by Soyuzmultfilm, a studio in the Soviet Union, and their Pooh looks more ursine than the Disney one. The first one was "Vinni-Pukh" (the Russian pronunciation of the bear's name). In this one, Pooh wants to get some honey out of a beehive, and so he enlists Piglet's help (Piglet is called Pyatachok in Russian). Naturally there are a few snags. I particularly liked Pooh's nonsense singing. This particular cartoon doesn't include the rest of the characters. It's all about Pooh, Piglet, and the bees. Anyone interested in the history of animation can't afford to miss this short.

I don't think the Soviet Winnie was considerably better or worse than the American, even if only the American version managed Oscar glory. It's clearly different and though it's interesting to compare the two. I'd clearly succeed more in that if it hadn't been quite a while since I saw the American version, but some things come to mind. First of all, the one here has much darker fur while the American is pretty much in the color of honey, which, however, both really love. Also the Soviet Winnie is way more active, almost hyperactive compared to the lazy lethargic Disney Pooh, but equally good-natured and naive. Also his singing was pretty funny and, in contrast to the rest of the story, you won't need subtitles to adore his voice. Winnie doesn't wear the famous red shirt here and beyond his appearance, it should be noted that the surroundings totally look different compared to the character, pretty much like a picture painted by a child, which adds a lot charm to this film.It only goes for 10 minutes and is the first of a trilogy by Fyodor Khitruk, who died not too long ago being way into his 90s. One of my favorite moments was Pooh's reaction when he looks into the camera early on and spots us watching him. Piglet, cute as always, joins Pooh here in his quest for robbing a honeycomb, but these bees sure know how to put up a fight and the fact that Winnie isn't the smartest exactly surely doesn't help. The original Pooh-bear is a must-watch for animation lovers and an entertaining choice for everybody else as well. Also we find out where his name comes from. Recommended.

I remember one day, at my local Library and while I was looking for some foreign cult titles in the Video/DVD section, I came across some anthology of animated titles from Russia and former Soviet Countries and one of them, were three "Winnie the Pooh" titles. I had to check them out, to see what they were like.And to my surprise, most of the stories in these three animated shorts, are closely based off the original A.A. Milne books. The only thing missing was the Christopher Robin character (rumor has it by request that the real life Chris Milne, whom this character was based on, was uncomfortable with his fame and thus, wanted the studio to exclude Christopher Robin). But it is very good and nice details in the drawings and animation. I was rather pleased.But I just wish that all three of the Russian "Winnie the Pooh" films would be more available to the public outside of Russia and the former Soviet countries. That would be sooooo nice!

This series of cartoons is loosely based on the A. A. Milne's story of Winnie-the-Pooh as brilliantly retold (rather than simply translated into Russian) by Boris Zakhoder. The scriptwriters created three 15-minute masterpieces by discarding all the boring and irrelevant characters (most notably Christopher Robin, Tigger, Kanga and Roo) and beefing them up with original graphics (sooo superior to Disney's!), wacky songs and hilarious jokes. Quotes from the Vinni Pukh cartoons and humor based on them (much of it R-rated or worse) have become deeply ingrained into the culture of Russian-speaking people - probably even more than the Star Trek's "Scotty, beam me up!" in the United States. A must-see for any foreigner who wants to socialize with Russians.