Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh's Most Grand Adventure

by Catherine McCafferty (Adapted By), John Kurtz (Illustrator)

Storybook adaptation of the 1997 film of the same name.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Own

22 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A re-watch of Pooh's Grand Adventure reinforces in me why it is my least favorite of the Pooh movies, though it does have a terrific soundtrack. It's the first film to really stray far from the Milne canon, playing excessively fast and loose with the Busy Backson chapter from The House at Pooh Corner. I believe that's a result of being produced as a direct-to-video release by the TV animation group that gave us the equally freewheeling The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series. The whole adventure is forcefully squeezed between scenes in the closing chapter of the preceding The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie to give it some unearned credibility.

This is the darkest and most morose of the Pooh movies, with the Hundred-Acre friends searching for Christopher Robin because they believe him to be kidnapped by a monster and, though it is unspoken, possibly dead. The rescue is plagued with members of the group having self-doubts about their bravery, strength, or intelligence, which seems lifted directly from The Wizard of Oz. Rabbit, Piglet, and Tigger are Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and Tin Woodman to Pooh's Dorothy and Eeyore's Toto. The rumored Skullosaurus serves as their Wicked Witch. Without a yellow-brick road on hand, a map serves to wind the quest through creepy encounters amidst dangerous mountains that seem far from the hundred acres of coziness where they usually reside. Despite Pooh's bouts of depression, a happy ending is served up for the kiddies.

Without the songs to alleviate the gloom, this book adaptation is stuck hitting the major story points, getting in and out as quickly as possible while leaning on the bits about growing one's self-confidence. It's a decent try brought down by less-than-decent source material.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... )

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's an amount I want to read/watch more of Pooh to get the awkwardness of Christopher Robin out of my head—a free library acquisition I somewhat regret—but while I'm sure I read ALL THE STORIES (and neglected to leave a review, since that may have been before I started on Goodreads), I've unfortunately found that the more negative a thing, the more likely it will stick in my mind than a similarly positive thing.*

Yet, I persist; today, I discovered a delightful new adventure I hadn't seen (as this is the Disney version vs. A.A. Milne's). Unfortunately, I have to *technically* tag it "did not finish" because someone kindly tore out an entire page, which is somewhat of an important page since it "introduces" Pooh and his boy Christopher Robin.

It's still TECHNICALLY readable, but it reminds me of videos I had when I was younger, which were cut off because my mother didn't have very good copies—before DVDs were cheap and readily available (and forget about streaming services, spoiled young readers of today)—so a very lot of movies I've watched, I've never actually seen the beginning. It's definitely a tough way to go through life, being overfamiliar with only part of a thing.

I guess earworms work that way, too, on a smaller scale. Definitely not a major, life-altering thing, but irritating.

Anyway, this is a very Pooh adventure, getting caught up in a wild adventure on the basis of a complete misunderstanding because Pooh's head is stuffed with fluff instead of brains. Silly old bear! The COMPLETE book is good, I assume, since the main adventure takes place after several pages, but I can only assume without a complete copy. Oh well.

*I have a theory about this, that it's a survival instinct: surviving isn't having good things so much as avoiding bad things. That is, good things aren't strictly necessary for survival, but avoiding bad things definitely is. So, remembering the negative so to better avoid it.

Sucks, though.

[Alyssa Ricard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor is another one of my "old favorites", as a child I always read the adventures of Pooh and his friends. In this book Pooh learns to adventure without Christopher Robin because he is now starting school.

[Lorie LovesBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description says it's based on the movie but the two are quite different. I liked this book better than the movie; the book was more action and excitement and the movie was more talking and planning.

[Jennifer Brinkmeyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice moral, but gaping plot holes.

[Chad Olson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pooh goes looking for Christopher Robin after he starts school

[sahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could've watched the movie for how long this book is.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book based on a not-very-good movie. Even so, the book is better. Maybe because my internal narrator sounds like John Cleese.

I do find it funny that "school" is spelled "skull", and the illustrations are delightful.

[Makeda]

I love Pooh and Piglet. Not so much Tiger

[Cws]

JE-Dis

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

retelling of the movie with movie stills

[Selia · Rating 4 out of 5]

За съжаление превода не е много за деца, особено в най-малката възраст.

[Julia Jasztal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mommy's review from 9/5/09 -



One of the better Disney books for me and Julia.... will almost definitely read again sometime...

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Long and boring, plus it's just a re-telling of the (not so interesting) movie...the writing has no style to it at all.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pooh was never a favorite of mine, but my son enjoyed it though it was quite long for a kid's book.
If Pooh had just paid attention none of it would have happened in the first place.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ryan says it was a little bit good because he like Christopher Robin. He went somewhere far away from the rest of them. Ryan didn't understand that Christopher Robin went to school - not skull.