Saw the 2011 version of Winnie the Pooh. It's fairly winning. It follows Pooh as he tries to get his hands on another hit of honey. Eeyore is missing his tail and the animals are hunting for Christopher Robin who has abandoned them for reasons unknown. The film is very much a kid's film with everyone generally smiling, virtually nothing scary at all, and a plot that sort of wanders from thing to thing, not so much unveiling a plot as stringing events together like beads on a string.
It contains some very hip references for the adults (Craig Ferguson and Zooey Deschanel have guest-songs, for example) and some tame snark (at one point Christopher actually says "Ooo-kay." It's an ironic response which slightly surprised me.) There's also ample opportunity for grumpy adult snark. Christopher's abandonment of the stuffed animals, for example, suggests the inevitable coming of young-adulthood. Most obviously, Eeyore seems to be suffering through some cotton-stuffed hell where even suicide is denied him. Many times I wanted to crack a wry joke just to diffuse the wholesome sweetness of it all. And the film obligingly hangs some fruit low for me to lay in to. Good for it.
The film is really quite pleasant. In an era of children's entertainment which is sharp, biting, hip, and ironic, this mellow little film stands out as an oasis of quiet. I'm sure it would become like nails on a chalkboard after the twentieth viewing, but the first time around it's sweet. There's also a world-of-honey fantasy sequence which is pretty great. The animators put a good deal of effort into getting the dripping, beautiful, golden honey just right. That's pretty awesome and the effect is pretty fun.
This is essentially a harmless film. It knows it, I know it, you know it. It's charming the way a nice thick sweater is charming. A comfy-core film.
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