Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. So, today I'm here to review the 2002 direct-to-video movie Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year, which I own on VHS. There will be some spoilers since not only is the movie itself 23 years old, but the special that's included as part of the movie, Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too (1991), which is now 34 years old as of tomorrow. Let's get into it.

If you've been following my blog for a long time, you might know that I'm a huge fan of Disney, Winnie the Pooh, both the Disney version and the original book version, and physical media. So when I have the opportunity to talk about all three things in one blog post, I'm gonna take it. Until last night though I'd never seen A Very Merry Pooh Year before. I was in high school and about to turn 16 when this movie came out. So while I loved the Winnie the Pooh shorts and movies I'd grown up with, I wasn't really looking at the new ones coming out, not even The Tigger Movie (2000) or Piglet's Big Movie (2003). I don't even remember seeing the commercials for this release on TV during that time either.

This was a fun movie though. I think it's because I grew up watching Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too on TV every year at Christmastime starting when I was five years old in 1991, and half of this movie is that special with the rest of it as a wraparound story, which starts with the Hundred Acre Wood gang coming together to celebrate Christmas and they end up telling Roo about the Christmas they experienced in the earlier special, being that Kanga and Roo weren't in the special.

The rest of the special was Pooh looking for Piglet's Christmas present, which he'd hidden and forgotten where he'd hidden it, and after annoying Rabbit once again, with Rabbit, yet again, threatening to leave the Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore all make a New Year's resolution to change, which makes them weird. Pooh stops eating honey and becomes gloomy, Eeyore starts eating honey, becomes cheerful, starts walking on two legs, and wearing one of Pooh's shirts, Piglet starts bouncing and starts to be brave, and Tigger stops bouncing and becomes afraid. Which was really weird for me to see, but still pretty fun too.

My favourite line is at the beginning where the gang starts knocking on Pooh's door while Pooh is trying to hide his present for Piglet, and after hearing Pooh inside even though he's not answering the door, the gang opens the door only to find Pooh eating a pot of honey, trying to cover for taking so long in answering the door, and Rabbit says, "Now why doesn't this surprise me?". I laughed so hard at that part because nobody should've been surprised at Pooh ignoring his door when he's eating honey. Even right before Roo opened Pooh's front door I was like, "They're gonna find Pooh eating honey aren't they?" because I KNEW that that's the gag they were going for with this movie, because it's Winnie the Pooh.

My other favourite line is from the Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too segment. It's near the end just before Christopher Robin shows up with everyone's Christmas presents from Santa Claus, and they hear bells in the distance. Tigger says, "If it's another one of those phony Santies, I'm gonna nail him!". Leave it to Tigger to be the violent one. 

This movie incorporating Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too into the movie isn't the first time the direct-to-video movies have done this. Also in 2002 Mickey's House of Villains incorporated the 1952 Donald Duck cartoon, Trick or Treat, the 1937 Mickey Mouse cartoon, Lonesome Ghosts, and the 1944 Donald Duck cartoon, Donald Duck and the Gorilla as part of the cartoons shown at the House of Mouse night club. But, in 2001, the direct-to-video film, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse incorporated Mickey's Christmas Carol from 1983 into the movie as a cartoon shown in the club. So Disney was really trying to put out their money's worth since it was still a few years before Mickey's Christmas Carol would be released on DVD and this movie is the only way Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too was ever released on DVD.

Overall, this was a fun movie. It's available on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and on Disney+. I'm glad that my mom found it on VHS for me earlier this year. It's been a cool addition to the VHS collection and I'm planning on watching it again next year...or on Christmas Day or New Year's Eve, depending on what I feel like doing those days. Regardless, I'll be revisiting it soon for sure.

Alright my friends, I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back next week for another movie review and then the week after as well, so that I can finish the year off and go on hiatus for January. Until then have a great rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.