Winnie the Pooh/YMMV

General:

• Alternative Character Interpretation: This psychological journal gives a clinical assessment of the characters, determining them as having a wide variety of psychological disorders. Whilst published in an actual medical journal, it could almost be seen as an Affectionate Parody of the characters' behaviours.
• Angst? What Angst?: Sort of, Tigger does have the occasional bout of depression or disallusion, but usually he's pretty hard to get down.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Tigger, oh so very much. Eeyore, to a lesser degree.
• Tear Jerker: The franchise has its fair share of them.
  • The ending of The House at Pooh Corner: Christopher Robin is going away. It's implied he's going to boarding school, which means he won't see his friends again. The characters don't know the specifics, but they band together and write him a goodbye note. As they host a farewell party, Eeyore realizes that the boy wants to be alone with Pooh, and tells the others to leave. Christopher Robin then takes Pooh to 'An Enchanted Place at the Top of the Forest'. They talk together about doing nothing. Christoper Robin mentions that 'they don't let you do nothing. Not for long, anyway.' He tells Pooh of things he'll learn at school--about countries, Kings and Factors, eventually making him his best, most faithful Knight. Then the ending.

"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred." Pooh thought for a little. "How old shall I be then?" "Ninety-nine." Pooh nodded. "I promise," he said.


Still with his eyes on the world, Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's Paw. "Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I — if I'm not quite —" he stopped and tried again — "Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?"


"Understand what?" "Oh, nothing. He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!" "Where?" said Pooh. "Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.


So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.

• • Surprisingly, the ending was copied almost word for word in the ends of both The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Pooh's Grand Adventure. Slightly toned down yes, but the implications are still the same-and it's just as sad.
  • "Wherever You Are" from Pooh's Grand Adventure, in fact, the ENTIRE MOVIE (With the exception of the last five minutes) is was essentially designed to make children cry.
    • The ending was more of a Bittersweet Ending.
  • "Your Heart Will Lead You Home" from The Tigger Movie.
    • Basically the whole of Roo's role throughout the entire movie.
  • If the trailer of the 2011 film is any indication, it's going for Toy Story 3 levels of this.
    • Hell, the trailer is practically one in and of itself, thanks to "Somewhere Only We Know".
    • Averted by the final film, which feels just as fun and light-hearted as any other Pooh adventure.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: It's not unusual for those not very familiar with the Pooh series to assume that Rabbit and Piglet are both female. Heck, it's not unusual even for those who are rabid fans of the series to sometimes still find themselves thinking this way, even though they know better. From the Viewer Gender Confusion page: "One is a nagging, Super OCD neurotic with a thing for doilies, while the other is a timid, high-voiced submissive wearing what appears to be a pink one-piece swimsuit. Even Roo's cheeriness makes him come off as more of a tomboy. Since the characters are mostly asexual or pre-pubescent, the Smurfette Principle isn't so glaringly obvious.
  • Lots of viewers are confused by Rabbit's personality and home decor as to whether or not he's an old lady or a gay man.
  • Also, Owl was depicted as female in the Russian translation by Boris Zakhoder and in the Soviet Vinni Pukh cartoons based on it (because the Russian word for "owl" is feminine), as well as in the original Norwegian translation of the books.
  • A special mention goes to The Book of Pooh because of "Do the Roo." In this story, Roo searches for his own special dance. Piglet recommends ballet and he dresses up in a pink tutu to dance it, and gets Roo to dress up in one too.
  • Well, masculine pronouns are technically used in the books, but a character whose gender is not an important part of the story (i.e. Kanga as a maternal figure) always seemed to have no gender.

The books:

• Tastes Like Diabetes: Milne's creations have sometimes been criticized for this. Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

Dorothy Parker: It is that word "hummy", my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up.

• Viewer Gender Confusion: Christopher Robin's rather feminine shoes and outfit (in the books) tend to confuse some children.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: While most of it does have a tongue-in-cheek feel to it, many texts and books have been written analyzing and exploring the deeper aspects of the stories or illystrate complext philosophical ideas. Perhaps most famous are Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, which use the characters to explore and explain various Taoistic principles. It works surprisingly well.
  • The Disney version does not get this treatment, mind you. If any of the above-mentioned texts or books mention it at all, it's almost always in degradatory terms.
    • Which is shameful because there are many strong elements within the Disney versions that could fairly be given such an analysis.

The Disney version:

• Adaptation Displacement: To an extent, the books are popular, but not nearly as known as the Disney interpretation, the fact Disney Pooh is The Merch almost as much as Mickey Mouse doesn't help.
  • Even more. Pooh merch makes more money for Disney that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy put together.
• Awesome Music: The Backson Song from the 2011 movie.
• Base Breaker: A lot of book purists detest Gopher (partly for not being in the original book and partly for his early Replacement Scrappy status for Piglet), but he has a lot of fans as well.
  • Like Gopher before him, Lumpy has his fans and his haters. A lot of fans find him endearing and entertaining, while others dislike him for having turned the Heffalumps into cute and cuddly creatures instead of the unknown menaces from the earlier days of the franchise.
• Ear Worm: Virtually any song, especially the series' iconic theme song.
• Girls Need Role Models: Out of all the Hundred Acre Wood residents, Kanga has the most common sense. This is in great contrast to her original book counterpart, who was just as stupid as the males.
  • She's also cast in something of a Team Mom role, mind.
  • There's also Darby from My Friends Tigger and Pooh.
  • This is averted, as Lottie, while having more experience of the outside world, is just as much a Cloudcuckoolander as the rest of the cast.
• Ho Yay: Eeyore and Tigger share a few moments. ^[1]
• Hype Backlash: Minor one. The trailer made it look like the film would have the stories hit a kind of Cerebus Syndrome and become really deep and bittersweet. Well... it turns out it's even more comedic and bouncy than any of its predecessors! And it's only an hour long, with some people saying they now needed to wait four more years for an actual hand-drawn Disney feature instead of two!
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin. All of it.
  • The Heffalumps and Woozles sequence in Blustery Day.
  • Also, the stuffed Pooh bear winking at the end of the original shorts, along with the fanfares accompanying that sequence, were quite unnerving for a number of people. Just look at this video and its comments.
• Periphery Demographic: This is probably one of the few for which most people will unashamedly admit to being a member. Let's face it, most of Disney's Pooh releases are squarely aimed at preschool or early grade-school audiences, but if you ask most fans, they'll probably unashamedly admit to liking Pooh. And there are certainly merchandise releases out there for adults related to this series.
  • John Lassetter has said that the target audience of the 2011 film "transcends generations."
• Replacement Scrappy: Gopher was originally intended to be used in place of Piglet in the adaptations to give more American appeal. Fans of the novels were against it and thus Piglet was adapted into "A Blustery Day" onwards, arguably allowing Gopher to be a fan favourite in his own right.
  • Ironically enough, there are several fans who view Lumpy as this for Gopher. Others view him as this for the (decidedly less cute) Heffalumps that were occasionally seen in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
  • Darby is a Replacement Scrappy to Christopher Robin in My Friends Tigger and Pooh. Although he has made an occasional appearance in the show, Darby has mostly taken over his role... which has not made her popular among fans.
• Win Back the Crowd: The 2011 will try this for traditionally animated Disney.
  • Unfortunately, the movie is opening the same weekend as the last Harry Potter movie, so things aren't looking too bright.
• The Woobie: Nearly every blasted character has at least one moment as this. Piglet was essentially conceived for this role, however.

My Friends Tigger and Pooh

• Foe Yay: Tigger admits to being able to see inside Rabbit's kitchen from his house in one episode. Rabbit isn't exactly pleased to hear this.

Rabbit: I have better things to do! Gardening! Cleaning! And putting up curtains so Tigger can't see into my kitchen anymore! *Storms away*
Piglet: I think Rabbit's a little cross...

• • Tigger also calls Rabbit "Ra-Ra" several times during the series.
  • In one episode, Tigger goes to Rabbit's house to hear through the door, "WE'RE THROUGH!"

Rabbit: I never want to see you or your stripes again!
Tigger: What did I do?

• • Turned Up to Eleven in Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too. When Rabbit is declared mayor of the Hundred Acre Wood, he decides to limit Tigger's bouncing to 30 minutes a day and forces him to wear special anti-bouncing shoes the remainder of the time. The depressed Tigger takes to following Rabbit around the Wood, dogging his every step.

Rabbit: Tigger, why do you keep following me around?
Tigger: Well, what else am I supposed to do?
Rabbit: Something! Anything! B-but you can't follow me around all day! (Tigger continues to follow him.) Tigger!
Tigger: What?
 

1. ↑ (Though, really, it seems to be more that Tigger is so love with himself that remaking Eeyore into his image is more a form of praising and worshipping himself. Note that Eeyore is able to foil this by pointing out that another Tigger's existence would make Tigger no longer unique.)