Inspired by Winnie the Pooh

[smraynor]

Hi all,

I'm sure like many families with small children all of my kids went through a heavy Winnie the Pooh phase. I've got a 4 and 8 year old and the Winnie the Pooh ride at WDW ranks in their top three. I miss Toad but the kids love the ride!

As an academic I started researching Winnie the Pooh and A.A. Milne and I was really struck by the original drawings by EH Shepard. It would have been problematic to animate in the EH Shepard 'style' so they simplified the characters a bit and you get what we see in the films, tv shows and theme park rides.

The imagery of the 100 acre wood shows up in the ride and I wanted to know what the real 100 acre wood is based on. It ends up that it is a real place in Sussex, England and that the real Christopher Robin (AA's son) played their with his stuffed animals.

It was also heartwarming to see that the Disney company paid to help restore the original Pooh-sticks bridge. So hooray to Disney.

If you'd like to read my article it can be found here:
http://www.itats.org/the-british-winnie-the-pooh-and-finding-a-a-milne/

 

[JVig]

Thanks for sharing that-I enjoyed it! I agree it's heartening that Disney paid to restore the bridge

 

[smraynor]

It's pretty cool to drop a stick on the one side and watch it come out on the other. The strangeness is that there aren't any sticks around the bridge since all the Pooh fans have broken them off.

I also heard that they have to clean the stream of all the sticks! To make sure it doesn't dam up the water.

 

[smraynor]

Is anyone else singing the song in their heads?

 

[bellebowandsnow]

No, but the article did make me smile. There is a small dam near where I live with a tiny stream trickling past where there's a similar bridge and woods just small enough for a couple of kids to play their own game of Poohsticks. We used to go up there when I was little and play for hours. I hope to one day be one of those fans to see the original bridge.

 

[smraynor]

I hope you can make it over to see it as well! It's a peaceful place.

 

[LibraryJulie]

Winnie the Pooh has always been one of my favorites. I always wondered if there was a real bridge where Christopher Robin would play "Pooh sticks" and now I know!