CRACKER LOOT!

These seasonal character badges were among the contents of a set of Disney Christmas  Crackers c. 1990s...

HAPPY POOHDAY!

Today is Winnie-the-Pooh's official birthday (A A Milne's book of that name was first published 87 years  ago. Here are two curious items of Pooh merchandise...

An unauthorised set of nesting Russian dolls purchased in Moscow and a long way off any known Pooh artwork – either by E H Shepard or Disney!

And a miniature  trinket box (one of a series featuring Disney characters) c. 1990s, with an interior 'surprise'...

TIME-PIECE THURSDAYS: Disney Watches & Clocks

Time for something sweet... to eat!

GREATER POOHSPECTIVE

A short TV documentary on the new Disney Winnie the Pooh film in which I make a cameo appearance...

See also my posts on Mark Henn and Andreas Deja.

IN POOHSPECTIVE

“Winnie the Pooh,” says his animator, Mark Henn, “is deceptively simple in his design, but successful animation is about the character having a heart that feels and a mind that thinks. Unless you can capture that you are just simply moving lines around.”

Talking about animating this now world-renowned character, Mark points out that whilst Pooh may not necessarily be the most colourful character in the stories – Eeyore and Tigger seem to top most people’s list of favourites – he is, nevertheless, the centre of the world. As he puts it: “Some of the others maybe more multi-dimensional or have a greater range of emotions, but Pooh is the anchor and acts as a stabilizer on everybody else’s eccentricity.”

The new Disney feature, Winnie the Pooh opens in the UK, Europe and Latin America this month and in North America on 15 July.

DEJA VIEW

Disney animator, Andreas Deja, at the press junket for the new Winnie the Pooh feature film held at Buckhurst Park, Withyham, Hartfield, East Sussex (on the edge of the original '100 Aker Wood') in March 2011, draws his character from the film, Tigger...

“Taking on such a well established and much-loved figure as Tigger,” says Andreas, “is obviously very different from creating an entirely new character for the screen. But the secret is to reach a point where you have mastered the knack of how to draw Tigger, so that you can forget about the business of drawing and start inventing things.”

Anyone who has ever seen a Disney Pooh film will be familiar with Tigger’s fast moving and bouncy persona, but Andreas wanted to introduce one or two characteristics that people hadn’t see before.

There’s a line in Tigger’s famous signature song in which he growls, “I’m the only one!” The performance by voice-talent Jim Cummings provided him with a fun moment of inspiration. “The way Jim delivered the line,” he says, “reminded me of Clint Eastwood, so – just for a second – I have Tigger screw-up his eyes in an Eastwood way!”