Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie Review

"Hello, Rabbit. Your honey invited me in!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown October 28, 2013

It's that time of year again. Halloween candy will be reduced to empty wrappers, Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, and the Christmas season will be in full swing. Sales and doorbusters, Black Friday, holiday hustle and bustle, parties and dinners, gifts heaped atop gifts... all of which makes for a perfect opportunity to take a break from the shopping, reorient a few priorities and remind children that Christmas has very little to do with the many, many, many things in which we involve ourselves, our time and our money. Mickey's Christmas Carol and Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year may be from different sides of the Disney tracks; the former a warm, tasty cup of near-classic nostalgia for the whole family as meaningful as it is heartfelt, the latter a hit or miss slice of direct-to-video dessert young kids will gobble up (even though moms and dads will shrug their shoulders). But both offer the same much-needed message. It's not about you. It's in the sharing and giving; a truth even adults are too quick to forget.

A Very Merry Pooh Year is actually two Winnie the Pooh animated specials in one: ABC's 1991 television special Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too! is the sweet, creamy layer of goodness, while 2002's Happy Pooh Year is the less filling, less satisfying cookie pieces that sandwich it in. The story finds Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) and his friends (minus Owl, who doesn't make an appearance in the movie) preparing to throw a New Year's party. As the festivities approach, the Hundred Acre Wood denizens tell Roo (Nikita Hopkins) about a Christmas that came before he was born, when Pooh and Piglet (John Fiedler) try to salvage the holiday after the group's Christmas list is lost. From there, their memories turn to Rabbit (Ken Sansom), who once grew so frustrated with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger (voiced by Paul Winchell in '91 and Cummings in '02) and Eeyore (Peter Cullen) that he wanted to move away. Until, that is, the four of them made a few personality adjustments.

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unlike Mickey's Christmas Carol, Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year hasn't been subjected to copious amounts of noise reduction, nor is it a poor representation of its original source. That doesn't mean its digitally remastered 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation doesn't disappoint, though. Animated by DisneyToon Studios and released directly to video in 2002, A Very Merry Pooh Year suffers from many of the eyesores and problems that plague several other on-the-cheap Disney sequels and specials available on Blu-ray. (Atlantis: Milo's Return immediately comes to mind.) DNR, smearing and other heavy-handed techniques aren't at play here; this is simply a mediocre source resulting in a mediocre high definition image. If fact, most, if not all of Pooh Year looks so much like a standard definition upscale presentation (which it presumably is) that the real question should be why is this being released on Blu-ray at all? Noise of all varieties, color fluctuations, pixelation, aliasing, ringing, artifacting, and even a few, brief 3:2 pulldown anomalies appear throughout. Moreover, the entire movie is quite soft, albeit again, inherently so. It doesn't help that grain is present to some small degree in the 1991 Christmas Too portions of the film and not in the 2002 Happy Pooh Year segments, adding yet another visual inconsistency to the mix. Bottom line: Pooh Year wasn't created with a high definition future in mind, and it shows. Granted, the Christmas Too stretch fares a bit better than its Happy Pooh Year bookends, but only subjectively, in terms of animation quality. Colors are more vibrant, contrast is stronger, and black levels are deeper in Christmas Too, while Happy Pooh Year is rather bright and washed out. Be that as it may, the same issues persist across both sections of the movie and, objectively, the entire presentation suffers equally.

Now here's where it gets tricky. As a representation of its source, A Very Merry Pooh Year's video arguably warrants a solid score. This is the movie as it was animated and prepped for release in 2002, standard definition video-born flaws and all. And yes, the new BD bests its long-since outdated DVD counterpart. However, it all looks far too much like a 2013 DVD release of a 2002 direct-to-video animated movie, meaning there isn't enough of an upgrade or improvement here for even the most nostalgic fans to get remotely excited about. It fails to justify a Blu-ray release, and certainly fails to justify such a notably high premium pricepoint.

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With no lossless audio option to be found, A Very Merry Pooh Year hobbles along with a wholly unremarkable Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. Voices are clear and intelligible, yet rather flat and tinny. Effects and music are quite thin and canned as well, and the mix doesn't deliver a very involving or engaging soundscape either. That said, like the movie's video presentation, this is a fair approximation of Pooh Year's sound design. It just doesn't sound better than what I would expect from a recently released DVD.

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Disney's Song Selection (HD, 6 minutes): Pooh's slim supplemental package kicks off with a series of : "Winnie the Pooh," "Trimming the Tree with Jingle Bells," "Snow Snows," "Jingle Bells in the Snow," "Happy Pooh Year," "Hunny, No Not for Me," "One Last Round of Jingle Bells" and "Auld Lang Syne." There's also an option to play the film with on-screen lyrics.
• Enchanted Environment (HD, 24 minutes): A non-loopable, barely animated Winnie the Pooh holiday season screensaver, playable with music, effects or music & effects.


• Disney Intermission (HD): Pause the film at any point for kid-friendly games and activities.

Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo Pack Contents (Subject to Change): The initial combo pack release of A Very Merry Pooh Year features a slipcover (with the original pressing), a single BD-50 disc, a standard DVD copy of the film, and Digital Copy Plus downloadable digital copy. Please note: the Very Merry Pooh Year digital copy is not available as an iTunes file.

Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Very Merry Pooh Year isn't essential Pooh, or even a very memorable entry in the series, but it does offer a warm, lovable collection of misadventures starring Christopher Robin's beloved stuffed animals, which will be more than enough for young children and families fond of that willy nilly silly old bear. Disney's Blu-ray release, though, is a mixed bag. Little could be done to improve the 2002 direct-to-video source, and yet the video presentation is riddled with issues, its Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track is unremarkable, and its supplemental package may as well be barebones. I'm not sure what here justifies a Blu-ray release, other than the ability to do so. Fans will be paying a rather steep price for what amounts to a slight uptick in quality. Consider yourself duly informed.