Why The New 'Winnie the Pooh' Movie Is The Best Thing Ever

♪ I gotta get up, I gotta get going... ♪

I'm pretty sure the last Winnie the Pooh movie I saw was 2000's The Tigger Movie, which--considering Winnie the Pooh is just, like, the embodiment of wholesomeness and innocence, and therefore brings out my inner-child--totally had me Tearbending. And the recent trailer for the new Pooh movie, simply entitled Winnie the Pooh, had pretty much everybody who saw it Tearbending too.

Why? Because it's warm, and nostalgic, and sentimental, and wholesome, and innocent, and sincere, and brilliant, and beautiful, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, IT'S AMAZING. I've seen many trailers in my life, folks, and this one is seriously one of very few that show literally no flaws. Why, I could honestly do an entire blog post about just how awesome it is and why the movie itself is essentially the greatest thing ever. If only I had a blog...

Oh wait.

Winnie the Pooh is the first canon theatrical Pooh movie in 35 years, and let me tell you, judging from the trailer, it's gonna have been worth the wait. I mentioned that many people cried watching the trailer, and that's because it's just so nostalgic. It's a true tribute to not only Winnie the Pooh, but also childhood and classic Disney Animation in general. Every bit of this trailer is wholesome and nostalgic and simply beautiful. From the simplest thing, the trailer draws you in and tickles your inner child.

I never thought a balloon hitting a bell could be so beautiful.

And perhaps the most severe examples of why Winnie the Pooh has got me more excited than, like, anything, can be summarized in four words: It's. All. Hand-Drawn. Everything. No CGI (a la that atrocious Playhouse Disney show My Friends Tigger and Pooh), no live-action, just honest, traditional animation. And not just hand-drawn animation either, but gorgeous hand-drawn animation. Burny Mattison is the lead storyboard artist for this movie (he's been working on Pooh since '74 and did several other classic Disney work) and it shows: the style and craft of the art is reminiscent of the way The Sword in the Stone was drawn. It's impeccable. 

Even the honey is hand-drawn!

Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to animation studios. Together with last year's The Princess and the Frog, it could show them that animation can be hand-drawn, story-driven, and successful. The problem with the latter, however, is the unfortunate fact that Winnie the Pooh is coming out the same day as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part II (July 15, 2011). We all know that's going to be number 1 in the world and probably pass the billion mark, which is fine, because I too will be flocking to see it at midnight. 

However, though, this means Pooh will face a lot of competition from it, and so if it's not successful, studios might take that as a sign that hand-drawn is dead, which is bullcrap, because a) it's not and b) it's the studio's fault, not the film, because of their poor scheduling. Alas, there is still hope that it will be successful, and if so, we might see a sudden change in the animation industry as it takes a return-to-form. 'Till then, I'm looking forward to Winnie the Pooh to a degree only previously met by Inception. It's seriously just so amazing.

I close with finally linking to you you the trailer. See for yourself its nostalgic, wholesome wonder.

See  you soon, Pooh. See you soon.