Plot: What’s it about?
The holidays are celebrated all over the world, even in the Hundred Acre Wood. As Christmas approaches, Winnie the Pooh and his friends get together to celebrate and find themselves looking back on a much different holiday season from the past. One year when the group wrote their annual letter to Santa, Pooh forgot to include his requests and as such, he and Piglet attempted to get the letter before it was mailed. While they do get the letter in time and rewrite it to include Pooh’s wishes, but a strong wind manages to carry off the letter. Now Pooh thinks he has doomed everyone’s Christmas, so he decides to be Santa, with chaotic results. Back in the current holiday, New Year’s is close and everyone is abuzz, as Rabbit plans to move out of the wood. The group quickly promises to make some New Year’s resolutions in an effort to keep their friend close, but will their good intentioned, but not always well executed resolutions be enough?
While Christmas themed entertainment is quite common, New Year’s hasn’t gotten as much of the spotlight. A Very Merry Pooh Year splits the duration between the two holidays, but it is still nice to have a New Year’s tribute. The feature is divided into a Christmas portion that focuses on Pooh and a New Year’s tale that brings Rabbit to the forefront. I don’t think A Very Merry Pooh Year is as substantial as some of the other Pooh releases, but it is good, solid fun. Seeing the characters taken on each other’s personas is a lot of fun, in fact. The short duration is another concern, but the stories are well crafted and little time is wasted. In terms of animation, the visuals are passable, but 2002 looks a lot different than the animation of 2013, of course. But the feature has the Pooh visual design elements fans expect and that is what counts. And fans will love being able to pick up the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy all in one package, to be sure. So if you’re a fan of Disney, Pooh, or animation in general, A Very Merry Pooh Year is good fun that is well worth adding to your collection.
Video: How’s it look?
A Very Merry Pooh Year is presented in full frame, as intended. This feature looks good, but shows signs of age and budget constraints. The wear isn’t extreme by any means however, so the visuals still look good and the jump to high definition yields a nice improvement. The print is clean aside from the light source woes, so detail is strong and provides a more refined experience than the DVD release. So you might not be dazzled by the visuals here, but the transfer is faithful to the source and the visuals have been given a nice upgrade.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The 2.0 stereo soundtrack is decent, but not memorable. This is about the same as watching a cable broadcast, so the basics come across, but little else. The sound design comes through well, with clear vocals and music that sounds good, there just isn’t much depth or presence. But as far as 2.0 stereo tracks go, this one is more than solid. This release also includes Spanish and French language tracks, as well as subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The extras include a sing-a-long option and some activities that become available when you pause the feature.
