The Picking Apart of a Child's View of Winnie the Pooh

Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin

Winnie the Pooh, a beloved collection of children’s tales, written by A.A. Milne, starting in 1926, is full of inspiring and classic lessons for its audience. Tese tales have been turned into a series of movies, starting with the classic Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree in 1966, to the television series today on Disney Channel. Many call its author, Milne, not only an author, but also a philosopher (Bustle). Milne’s tales were inspired by his son and his stuffed animals, especially his stuffed bear (Bustle). Watching the world’s most beloved bear, you can help but to learn a few notable life lessons along the way.

In the movie Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, The friends in the Hundred Acre Woods band together once again to save their friend. Pooh gets a note on the morning of Autumn but can’t read it, so he searches or Christopher to help him but can’t find him, and Pooh goes through the woods finding all of his friends who also cant read the note. Ending up at Owl’s house he misinterprets the letter leading the friends on an adventure to rescue their friend from Skull Rock. This story is an adventure of conquering fears and relying on friends to help you out, as they are “saved” by Christopher who was at school not skull.

In Gianetti’s chapter on Ideology of films, he discussed the different scales of films, as well as the left v. right views on issues. One that was touched upon in Pooh’s Grand Adventure was the Democratic v. Hierarchal society. In the Hundred Acre Woods, everything is equal, fair, and happy amongst the people because there is non one that is better than the other. While some may be more gifted in certain areas than others, no one person is deemed the greatest. This is s very leftist view, having the traits of equal distribution, and an emphasis on the collective (Gianetti 410). 

Another view in the children’s movie is the debate between relative v absolute. This is seen with Rabbit, who makes decisions very quickly, and stands firm in them, even when something goes wrong, it isn’t his fault, its someone else’s.  This is shown when he cannot read the note from Christopher Robin, and he blames this inability on Tigger, who “smeared” the honey on it. He is keen on respect to your elders, obedience, and follows a strict code of wright and wrong. This is similar to the right side, in which there is absolute judgment, respect and obedience of elders and those above you, and judgment basic on a strict code of conduct (Gianetti  412).

Other lessons seen through the Winnie the Pooh film are negative and positive. First, In the beginning of the movie, Christopher Robin says he has something bad to tell Pooh. Pooh replies to that saying “if its bad it can wait forever” teaching the lesson that bad things can be pushed as long as one wants, because if one cannot handle bad news or the outcome from it, they believe it never has to happen.  Another lesson is that of individual progress, in which all of the animals from the Hundred Acre Woods have realize they can all conquer their fears and are strong enough without Christopher Robin.

I think these films have been very successful in conveying positive messages, such as importance of friendship and strength found in yourself,  but also in conveying realistic problems that are confronted but not solved, such as the prolonging of a bad event, or the denial of things happening.  I would rate this film  with five nachos.

Sources:

1. White, Caitlin. "On A.A. Milne's 'Winnie-The-Pooh' Anniversary, 10 Life Lessons From The     Hundred Acre Wood." Bustle. Bustle, 15 Oct. 2014. Web.

2. Giannetti, Louis D. Understanding movies. Boston: Pearson, 2016. Print.