Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin

• Co-Written, Co-Produced, and Directed by Karl Geurs
• August 5, 1997
• Based on characters created by A. A. Milne

Voice Cast

• The Narrator-David Warner
• Winnie the Pooh, Tigger’s singing voice, The Skullasaurus-Jim Cummings
• Tigger-Paul Winchell
• Piglet-John Fiedler
• Piglet’s singing voice-Steve Schatzberg
• Eeyore-Peter ‘Optimus Prime’ Cullen
• Rabbit-Ken Sansom
• Christopher Robin-Brady Bluhm
• Christopher Robin’s singing voice-Frankie J. Galasso
• Owl-Andre Stojka

Winnie the Pooh and his friends on journey to find and rescue Christopher Robin from the mysterious “Skull”.

I am a person that feels Disney has lost its magic touch. At one point the House of Mouse could do almost no wrong. Their animation was quality comfort food or just quality family entertainment. Even their unsuccessful stuff developed a devoted following. Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin came out during that magical time.

By having a juvenile misunderstanding leading to a very big adventure Pooh’s Grand Adventure keeps the simple and comforting tone of the original shorts. It’s like visiting an old friend who takes you back to your youth but relating shared memories. It’s weird that this direct-to-video movie accomplishes that so quickly and easily.

This is a film trying to teach a lesson to the young viewers via the characters. By taking the characters beyond their comfort zone, these characters learn that they are more than they believe. Rabbit is smarter than he thinks he is. Tigger is bouncier than he thinks he is. And Pooh is braver than he thinks he is.

In the beginning the characters are shown to be very dependent upon Christopher Robin. It’s to the point they don’t know what to do when he disappears. They live in a very isolated world and this is a change they don’t understand. On this adventure, they learned that they are indeed capable of doing things without him. He’s just the bacon that makes their lives better.

For a Winnie the Pooh story there are moments of melancholy in this. Not strong but it’s there as Pooh or the others begin to lose hope of finding Christopher Robin. This is a greater level of stress and struggle than the characters had previously experienced. Nothing ever gets too exciting or too scary. There’s no attempt to be intense or disturbing.

The animation style is very much in line with the original originals. It’s just missing that bit where the words of the book can be seen. They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel here. Not nearly as one to one as the Return to Neverland but very close. The same can be said for the voice work for the actors that took over for those that passed.

David Warner took over for Sebastian Cabot as the narrator. I couldn’t think of anyone better. He had an interesting career playing anything from villains to a friendly Baxter Stockman. His voice could either sound menacing or rather comforting such as here. He provides the warmth and kindness.

Based on the misunderstanding and the imagination that became involved this film reminded me a bit of the Muppet Babies cartoon. Not strongly but there is certainly the hint of it in here. In essence these were children processing the world based on their limited understanding. Imaginations ran away with them and their short attention spans created chaos. There’s not much story here but they got a great deal now mileage out of the simplistic and childish aspect of the characters. It’s a soft coming of age tale.

Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin is a good bit of Disney fluff. It’s the kind of movie that Disney is best known for. It’s heartwarming and sweet and quite enjoyable for adults and children.