Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh (1977) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, as released in 1977, re-edited three earlier cartoon shorts, each lasting about 25 minutes into one seamless 74 minute feature.

I wish Disney would release the original cartoon shorts each with its own opening and closing titles and with different actors doing the voice of Christopher Robin. In 1977 when the feature film was being assembled Timothy Turner from Tigger Too revoiced the earlier cartoons for consistency with Tigger Too. The cartoons shorts were Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). I vaguely remember seeing the first Winnie the Pooh cartoon on the bottom half of a double bill with The Ugly Dacshund and the second cartoon with The Horse In the Grey Flannel Suit (1968). In both cases the cartoon surpassed the main feature. It would be nice to see them individually again.

But I will buy the blu-ray of the compilation feature because it's the only way to see the cartoons.

 

[Matt Hough]

Also, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.

 

[Jeff Robertson]

Anyone notice that the trailer is framed at what appears to be 1.66:1? Is this an indication of what we could expect on the BD? I've only ever seen this in 1.33:1. IMDB says 1.37:1. Close enough.

 

[MatthewA]

Pooh is 1.75:1, as everything after 101 Dalmatians was supposed to have been (though this list states no info on The Sword in the Stone):
http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=555729

I don't mind them framing 1.75:1 titles at 1.66:1; it's a relatively minor change, but 1.75:1 would be more accurate and closer to 16x9. They would have been shown that way in most theaters even when they were still shorts.

Richard-W,

It's funny how the poster for Honey Tree depicts Piglet and Tigger when they weren't even in it!

 

[Mark-P]

Here are a few screencaps to tide you over:

 

[Mark-W]

I don't want to derail this thread, but...

The Blu-ray reviews for the UK editions of 101 Dalmatians and Aladdin report the transfers are fine, but nothing stellar.
The Blu-ray reviews for the UK's Tarzan often mention video flickering and lossy audio, giving it a poor quality rating.

I just ordered two of them and skipped one. Guess which one?.

If you're willing to buy them through their UK division, "Aladdin" and "Tarzan" are already available in region-free pressings from Disney at reasonable prices...I have purchased both of these titles titles through Amazon.co.uk and they look and sound wonderful. Can't help you with "Jungle Book", though!!!

 

[Mark-P]

Having had a chance to take a closer look at the disc, let me first say that the screencaps posted above aren't completely representative of the Blu-ray as screencap software on my PC results in a lot of compression artifacts. On my projector the image looks very sharp and beautiful. As for the extras, A Day for Eeyore is in High Definition, but strangely at 1.33:1 and it also hasn't been cleaned up or de-grained like the feature film has.

 

[Matt Hough]

Thanks, Mark. Gives us a nice preview of what's coming.