Growing up in England in the last years of the 19^th century, Alan Alexander Milne attended Trinity College Cambridge, where he submitted light verse to the college’s literary magazine. After returning from military service in 1919, he had a son, an event that would eventually make both famous. Milne abbreviated his name to A.A. Milne, and in the mid-1920s, wrote a series of children’s books featuring his son, Christopher Robin, and his toys. These books introduced the character of Winnie the Pooh, along with the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood – Eeyore, Owl, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, and Kanga and Roo. Illustrated by artist Ernest Shepard, the books became extremely successful, especially in England, but also in the United States.

In his search for interesting stories for his animated films, Walt Disney happened upon Winnie the Pooh, and in 1961, after halfheartedly trying for more than two decades, was able to acquire the exclusive film rights to the stories from the Milne estate. Three years earlier, Milne’s widow had sold the rights to NBC, which was planning a television series, but after an unsatisfactory pilot, the project was shelved and the rights reverted to the Milne estate. This gave Walt the opening he desired.

Little transpired until 1964, when Walt told his staff that he was planning an animated feature based on the Pooh stories. But shortly afterward, he changed his mind. Realizing that Americans were not sufficiently aware of Christopher Robin and his animal friends, he decided to begin with a 25-minute featurette that could be released along with a Disney live-action film to familiarize Americans with Pooh.

Thus, the first Disney Winnie the Pooh film would be Winnie The Pooh And The Honey Tree, released in 1966 on a bill with The Ugly Dachshund, starring Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette. Making the film even more palatable to American audiences, the Disney animators introduced a new character, Gopher, a species not familiar to the British. The film was kindly reviewed in America, but perhaps not quite so kindly in Britain, where one critic accused Walt of "murdering" Pooh. But the success was sufficient to inspire the Disney staff to immediately start production on a second Pooh featurette, Winnie The Pooh And The Blustery Day. It was released in 1968 with another Dean Jones film, The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit, and received even greater acclaim, along with an Academy Award® for Best Cartoon Short Subject.

Pooh was now established at the Disney Studio and there was Pooh merchandise, Pooh educational films, and eventually a Pooh television series. When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Pooh merchandise even outsold Mickey Mouse merchandise. After the release of the third Pooh theatrical featurette, Winnie The Pooh And Tigger Too, the Disney executives finally felt they would be able to put out a feature release that combined the three featurettes. This film, The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, with newly animated material linking the featurettes, was released in 1977, and in honor of its 25^th anniversary this year, is being specially released on DVD next month.

(See The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, this issue.)