Winnie-the-Pooh in Russian

Much has been made recently about Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, a new, authorized collection of Pooh stories (the first in eighty years) by David Benedictus, attempting to follow in the footsteps of the original author, A.A. Milne.

The book introduces a new character, Lottie the Otter, who is full of herself and forgetful. Ultimately, the entire enterprise is ill-conceived and unsuccessful, so the less said about it the better.



These "authorized" sequels (as if the author actually gave his permission other than tacitly by virtue of being dead) don't work because the people hired to write these stories, though they may be fine writers, don't have a personal investment other than monetary in he ultimate outcome.


Think of the new Bourne books by Von Lustbader, the series of James Bond sequels done post Ian Fleming and the authorized sequel to Peter Pan. These books are okay at best. Pastiche, that is, one author working in the style of another, works best when the writer is truly invested in the characters and writes the stories because he feels he has to. Look at The Seven- Percent Solution by Nicholas Meyer. That story works because Myer wanted to tell it, not because the present license holders decided it was time to do an authorized sequel ahead of the inevitable copyright loss when the work enters Public Domain.

The Winnie-the-Pooh book loses all credibility when it claims to have introduced, for the first time, a brand new character to the Hundred Acre Wood. Disney, in their series of original animations, introduced Gopher in 1966, a character who burrowed through the ground and whistled through his teeth as he talked. Over the course of the Disney movies and television series Disney has introduced many new characters to the Hundred Acre Wood, including a cousin for Owl and a huffalump named Lumpy.

Pyatachok (Piglet) and Vinni-Pukh

In 1969, not worrying about such things as copyright, Soviet animator Fyodor Khitruk directed Vinni-Pukh, an adaptation of an original Milne story. You know the story, Pooh grabs a balloon and pretends to be a cloud to steal honey from bees. Disney did it as well, but they did not do it nearly as well. Khitruk gives Pooh a real character and wit, much more in accordance with Milne's portrayal, and far removed from the slow witted Disney idiot. He sings fun songs, breaks the fourth wall, and hatches crazy schemes. The short film is a revelation. (See it at the end of the column.)

Khitruk did two more Vinni-Pukh cartoons, Vini-Pukh idyot v gosti (Winnie-the Pooh Goes Visiting) (1971) and Winnie-the-Pooh i den zabot (Winnie-the-Pooh Goes Visiting)(1972). Each is a mini masterpiece and, if the comments on IMDB are any indication, a cultural touch point in Russian speaking countries. You'll want to track these down after the first movie wets your appetite.

And why are these cartoon so good? Because they were unauthorized, made from the heart and out of an artistic need to tell a good story with great characters in an interesting way. The Disney versions are, let's face it, crap. (Except for Tigger, who is awesome.) If A.A. Milne were alive today to see what has been made of his books, he would be saddened, until he saw these delightful and entertaining slices of art from Russia. These films are treasures, and should be more widely known.