Long-Awaited Fantasy Film Released Today

Well, today is the long-anticipated cinematic opening release of a movie that I am truly looking forward to seeing. A movie based on a very popular book series with unforgettable, compelling characters and a strong appeal to the imagination. Of course the movie I'm referring to is nothing other than... Winnie the Pooh!

With all due respects to the hairy pottery-maker, I have come to miss the great Disney cartoon animated version of A.A. Milne's classic Winnie the Pooh, including both the feature films and the television series. The other "Pooh programs" that Disney has put out, in my opinion, have been cheap imitations (although the classic cartoons were themselves a bit divergent from Milne's books).

From what I've read about this new movie, the stories were derived from Milne's original tales. That's good, because frankly some of the last few movies they made, which were original stories, were a bit too sappy and maudlin for me. Let's get back to the fun stuff!

And oh yeah, I'm also interested in Harry and Hermione and Ron and Severus and so on. But I read the final book in the Potter series long ago and know what's going to happen. The only mysteries left are how the movie will present the last half of The Deathly Hallows, which scenes they will add, and which scenes from the book they will omit (probably to my great consternation). And I am especially curious as to whether they include the book's epilogue at the movie's end (and how they present it if they do).

It sure would be nice for Disney or some other channel to air those great old Winnie the Pooh half-hour episodes again, at least for a little while. They have a subtly humorous aspect to a lot of their stories that can resonate with adults, and the characters are great archetypes of general human personalities. As for Harry Potter, it seems that I can hardly turn on my TV anymore and surf through the channels without spotting one of the movies.

I plan to go watch both of these escapist fantasy flicks. Hopefully the new Pooh movie will return to the spirit and mood of the TV series and the first two movies...