Oscarless Cartoons Part 5

Oscarless Cartoons Part 5: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)

By this point, you are probably asking yourselves 'Why are you including this short when there are hundreds of better cartoons than this?' Well, I chose Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree because Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, while Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film. It would only be fair if Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was included in this countdown.

Based on the beloved 'Winnie the Pooh' books by A A Milne, this delightful and light-hearted short film is about Winnie the Pooh trying to get honey (which he spells 'hunny') from a beehive in a tree. Pooh tries to climb the tree, but he had no luck. Pooh then seeks help from his best friend Christopher Robin, and he notices a balloon. Pooh borrows the balloon, covers himself with mud, and pretends to be a rain cloud.

However, the bees are smart enough to see through Pooh's disguise, and they start attacking him. Pooh, a bear of very little brain, then remembered that 'honey' rhymes with 'bunny', so he decides to see Rabbit. The silly old bear helps himself to potfuls of honey, much to Rabbit's dismay, and gets stuck in Rabbit's hole.

When the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood (minus Piglet and Tigger, who don't appear in the cartoon) discover the predicament, Christopher Robin suggests that they should wait until Pooh gets thin again. A couple days pass, and Rabbit notices something loose: Pooh has lost some weight! Rabbit calls everyone and they rush over to help Pooh get unstuck. Rabbit pushes from the inside, while Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, and Gopher all try pulling the bear out. Pooh Bear finally gets sent flying, and gets stuck in another honey tree. However, Pooh doesn't seem to mind.

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree premiered in February of 1966, ten months before Walt's untimely death. Walt Disney first suggested 'Winnie the Pooh' as an animated feature in 1961. When his daughters were young, they enjoyed Walt reading the 'Winnie the Pooh' books to them before bed. However, there are some noticeable changes. The characters don't look much like the Ernest Shepard drawings in the original books, Rabbit did not use Pooh's behind as a decoration, and Gopher, who's based on the beaver in Lady and the Tramp, didn't exist in the original books. There's even a scene in which Pooh Bear says "After all, he not in the book, you know."

However, Gopher would appear as a main character in the TV series, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. 

Anyway, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, along with the two other Pooh cartoons that made up The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, are wonderful and unforgettable pieces of art that kids will adore for generations to come.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Cartoon. Tune in next week when we travel into the surreal mind of Sally Cruickshank for  Quasi at the Quackadero!