Winnie-the-Pooh

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"Pooh" redirects here. For other uses, see Pooh (disambiguation).
Disney's representation of Winnie the Pooh.
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Disney's representation of Winnie the Pooh.

Winnie-the-Pooh, properly named Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. He appears in the books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh in the children’s poetry books When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

The hyphen was later dropped when Walt Disney Productions adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Winnie the Pooh featurettes which became one of the company's most successful franchises worldwide.

The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, notably including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the first foreign-language book to be featured on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

Original Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie-the-Pooh"), Eeyore, and Piglet.
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Original Winnie the Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie-the-Pooh"), Eeyore, and Piglet.

Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a toy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. His toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for Owl and Rabbit, who were probably based on real animals, and the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Donnell Library Center Central Children's Room in New York.[1]

Christopher Milne had named his toy after Winnipeg, a bear which he and his father often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh," a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear, called "Winnie," was known as a gentle bear who never attacked anyone, and she was much loved for her playfulness. This is exactly what inspired Milne to write about Pooh Bear.[2] Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.

The home of the Milnes, Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, England, was the basis for the setting of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. The name of the fictional "Hundred Acre Wood" is reminiscent of the Five Hundred Acre Wood, which lies just outside Ashdown Forest and includes some of the locations mentioned in the book, such as the Enchanted Place.

[edit] Publication

Though Charles Scribner, The New York Evening Post, and St. Nicholas Magazine published Milne’s stories with illustrations by several of the more famous American artists of the 1920s, Milne’s original version is better known to have been illustrated by E.H. Shepard. Though Shepard decorated the books published by Methuen and E.P. Dutton, he preferred to be known as a political cartoonist for London’s Punch Magazine.[3] Shepard’s only known painting of Winnie-the-Pooh is on display at the Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In 1930 illustrator/producer Stephen Slesinger and his company, Stephen Slesinger, Inc., adapted the Winnie-the-Pooh character for use in children’s theatre, on radio and TV, in story-telling records with Jimmy Stewart and Gene Kelly, in song recordings, in early animated paper films, and in the promotion of goods and the advertising of services.

Slesinger, who was the largest developer of comic and children’s book character rights in the 1930s and 1940s, elevated Pooh to best-loved bear in history.[citation needed] With the help of Dutton, Pooh’s American publisher, Pooh sales reached $50 million in 1931, according to trade reports.[citation needed]

Upon his death in 1956, A. A. Milne left the rights to Pooh and his other characters in trust to four beneficiaries: The Garrick Club, Westminster School, The Royal Literary Fund, and the A. A. Milne Family.

In countries where copyright terms are no longer than required by the Berne Convention, the copyrights to the Pooh stories will expire at the end of 2006. However, Shepard's illustrations will remain under copyright until 2026, as he died in 1976.

[edit] Disney

Darby, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh, in a screenshot from the My Friends Tigger & Pooh program (l to r)
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Darby, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh, in a screenshot from the My Friends Tigger & Pooh program (l to r)

After Slesinger's death in 1953, his wife, Shirley Slesinger, continued developing the character herself. In 1961, she granted rights to Disney in exchange for royalties in the first of two agreements between Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and Disney.[4] The same year, Daphne Milne also licensed certain rights, including motion picture rights, to Disney.

Since 1966, Disney has released numerous features starring Winnie the Pooh and related characters. Many direct-to-video featurettes have been created, as well as the theatrical feature-length films The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, and Pooh's Heffalump Movie.

In December 2005, Disney announced that the Disney Channel animated television series, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, will focus on adventures had by 6-year-old Darby and the Pooh characters, with the occasional appearance from Christopher Robin.[5]

[edit] Ownership controversy

Pooh videos, teddy bears, and other merchandise generate substantial annual revenues for Disney. The size of Pooh stuffed toys ranges from Beanie and miniature to human-sized. In addition to the stylised Disney Pooh, Disney markets Classic Pooh merchandise which more closely resembles E.H. Shepard’s illustrations. It is estimated that Winnie the Pooh features and merchandise generate as much revenue as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto combined.[6]

In 1991, Stephen Slesinger, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Disney which alleged that Disney had breached their 1983 agreement by again failing to accurately report revenue from Winnie the Pooh sales. Under this agreement, Disney was to retain approximately 98% of gross worldwide revenues while the remaining 2% was to be paid to Slesinger. In addition, the suit alleged that Disney had failed to pay required royalties on all commercial exploitation of the product name.[7] Though the Disney corporation was sanctioned by a judge for destroying millions of pages of evidence, the suit was later terminated by another judge when it was discovered that Slesinger's investigator had rummaged through Disney's garbage in order to retrieve the discarded evidence.[8]

After the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, Disney bought the name of Clare Milne, Christopher Milne's daughter, and attempted to terminate any future U.S. copyrights for Stephen Slesinger, Inc.[9] After a series of legal hearings, the federal district court found in favour of Stephen Slesinger, Inc., as did the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On Monday, June 26, 2006, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case, thus sustaining the Appeals Court ruling and ensuring the defeat of the suit.[10]

[edit] Adaptations

[edit] Radio

Pooh made his radio debut in 1930 in New York. Readings of various Winnie-the-Pooh stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom with narration by Alan Bennett and also have been released as recordings.

[edit] Broadway

Pooh debuted on Broadway with Sue Hastings' Marionettes in the 1930s.

[edit] Peek-a-poohs

A Peek-a-pooh is a small plastic toy that looks like Pooh in a removal animal costume. At least ten series of these have been produced and are available from crank machines for $2.00 CDN.

[edit] Disney media

Featurettes

Full-length features

*These features integrate stories from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and/or holiday specials with new footage.
†These features were Direct-to-video.

Television shows

Holiday TV specials

  • 1991: Winnie the Pooh & Christmas Too!
  • 1996: Boo! To You Too! Winnie the Pooh
  • 1998: A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving
  • 1998: Winnie the Pooh, A Valentine For You

Video games

Winnie the Pooh in a Soviet cartoon
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Winnie the Pooh in a Soviet cartoon

[edit] Other cartoons

In the Soviet Union, three Winnie-the-Pooh stories were made into celebrated cartoons by Soyuzmultfilm in which Pooh was voiced by Yevgeny Leonov. Quotes and songs from the films are a staple of Russian vernacular, and they and the characters are often parodied in anecdotes.

[edit] References in other media

  • In The Hums of Pooh, Harold Fraser-Simson set to music several of Milne’s poems and the verses sung by Pooh in the original books.
  • Kenny Loggins's 1969 song "Return To Pooh Corner" is based on the story of Christopher Robin and Winnie The Pooh. In 1994, he recorded a children's album bearing the same name.
  • In the "sport" of Poohsticks, competitors drop sticks into a stream from a bridge and then wait to see whose stick will cross the finish line first. Though it began as a game played by Pooh and his friends in the stories, it has crossed over into the real world: a World Championship Poohsticks race takes place in Oxfordshire each year.
  • The Canadian Medical Association Journal published an article which facetiously diagnoses the Pooh character with various mental illnesses. For example, it claims Winnie the Pooh shows signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tigger of ADHD, and Eeyore of chronic depression.[11]
  • Possibly the most bizarre incarnation of Winnie the Pooh is in the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Q-Squared, in which Trelane brings Winnie the Pooh characters to life, intending to help the teacher entertain young children in a classroom. Pandemonium results, and the Winnie the Pooh characters misinterpret attempts to bring order to the classroom as child abuse, and attack Enterprise_D crew members in a fashion that is in character for the characters and, from a certain point of view, is hilarious.

[edit] Trivia

The Disney incarnation of Winnie the Pooh, as a stuffed toy
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The Disney incarnation of Winnie the Pooh, as a stuffed toy
  • Pooh's official birthdate is August 21, 1921, the day Christopher Robin received him as a present on his first birthday.
  • The sign over Pooh's door says "Mr Sanders," though the name is not Pooh's.
  • Pooh's obsession with honey is based on a completely false premise about bear behaviour. While bears are major predators of beehives, they are seeking the brood (larvae and pupae).
  • On April 11, 2006, Winnie the Pooh was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard.[12]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Adventures of the Real Winnie-the-Pooh. The New York Public Library.
  2. ^ "Winnie." Historica Minutes.
  3. ^ Benson, Tim. "The man who hated Pooh." BBC News.
  4. ^ "The Curse of Pooh." Fortune.
  5. ^ "New-look Pooh 'has girl friend'." BBC News.
  6. ^ "The Curse of Pooh." Fortune.
  7. ^ "The Pooh Files." The Albion Monitor.
  8. ^ "Judge dismisses Winnie the Pooh lawsuit." The Disney Corner.
  9. ^ "Winnie the Pooh goes to court." USA Today.
  10. ^ "Justices Refuse Winnie the Pooh Case." ABC News.
  11. ^ "Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne." The Canadian Medical Association Journal. December 12, 2000. V163: 12.
  12. ^ "Winnie the Pooh Celebrated 80th Anniversary with Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame."

[edit] External links

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