WINNIE THE POOH

 HISTORY

During the first World War, troops from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) were being transported to eastern Canada, on their way to Europe, where they were to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. When the train stopped at White River, Ontario, a lieutenant called Harry Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a hunter who had killed its mother. He named her 'Winnipeg', after his hometown of Winnipeg, or 'Winnie' for short.
Winnie became the mascot of the Brigade and went to Britain with the unit. When the Brigade was posted to the battlefields of France, Colebourn, now a Captain, took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. He formally presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919 where he became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.
The bear was also very popular with Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favourite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie... Winnie the Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear). The name Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in the introduction of Milne's 'When We Were Very Young'.
A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. These other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo were also based on stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Robin. The characters, Rabbit and Owl, were based on animals that lived, like the swan Pooh, in the surrounding area of Milne's country home, Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. It is this area on which the 100-Acre-Wood was based.
'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926, the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner' in 1928. All these books were illustrated in a beautiful way by E.H. Shepard, which made the books even more magical. The Pooh-books became firm favorites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every known language. A conservative figure for the total sales of the four Methuen editions (including When We Were Very Young) up to the end of 1996 would be over 20 million copies. These figures do not include sales of the four books published by Dutton in Canada and the States, nor the foreign-language editions printed in more than 25 languages the world over!
The Pooh-books had also been favourites of Walt Disney's daughters and it inspired Disney to bring Pooh to film in 1966. In 1977 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the first feature-length animated film of Pooh was released. In 1993, the Walt Disney Company acknowledged that Pooh Bear is second only to Mickey Mouse in their portfolio of the most-loved and trusted characters known to millions of people all over the world. By 1996, after the second release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the Bear of Very Little Brain had proven to be more popular than any other Disney character. In 1997, twenty years after the release of the first feature-length animated film, Disney released 'Pooh's Grand Adventure', picking up where Disney's 22nd Masterpiece left off. In February 2000 Disney released the third Winnie the Pooh movie called 'The Tigger Movie', this time with the leading part for Tigger.

 CHARACTER

Winnie the Pooh

He is a small golden bear, stands at nearly 22 inches tall and wears an old red color t-shirt. This bear is undoubtedly the world’s most loved and revered bear. He has little brains, does a lot of silly things, and his love for honey (hunny) is endless, yes the bear is none other than everyone’s favourite bear - Winnie the Pooh. The 1st chapter of the Winnie-the-Pooh book was published on December 24, 1925 while the entire book written by A. A. Milne was released on October 14, 1926. All over the world his birthday is celebrated with much fanfare on 14th October. Winnie the Pooh is also called Pooh Bear or just Pooh. He is best friends with everyone in the 100 Acre Wood. The first thing he says when he gets up in the morning is “what’s for breakfast”. Pooh invented the game ‘Poohsticks’. Things he likes to do is to exercise in the morning, go on an adventure with Christopher Robin or Piglet, visiting friends who he thinks have ‘Hunny’ and looking for “Hunny to Fill the Rumblee in his Tumblee”.

Eeyore

Eeyore is a donkey and for some he is their favourite Pooh character amongst all the others. He is a blue-gray donkey, about 3-years in age and stands 18 inches tall & 27 inches in length. He is originally like the other Pooh character; stuffed with sawdust. His appearance is highlighted by a small light pink bow on his tail. He is an intelligent animal but tends to keep to himself. Eeyore is a extremely gloomy donkey and has a very bad habit of losing his tail! Mostly, he tends to depend on his friends to find his lost tail for him and thereafter Christopher Robin fixes his tail using a drawing pin. What he simply adores is that his friends remember him on his birthday and celebrates it with him. He often says “Thanks for noticin’ me” and “Oh, well”.

Tigger

He is a very Bouncy Animal and resembles a tiger. He is always in an electrifying & exuberant mood and loves to bounce, bounce and bounce. He is 23 inches tall and his most standout feature is his springy tail. His character is easily recognizable by the black & orange stripes, a springy tail, and a long chin, beady eyes which all mix well into his bouncy and fun loving personality. He is a bouncy, pouncy, flouncy and a trouncy creature that is always looking to make the most out of what life has to offer. The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is that "I'm the only one!" Tigger likes to bounce a lot, "cause that is what Tiggers do best." His favourite food is the extract of malt but is known to be an extremely fussy eater. He takes a lot of pleasure in being able to “unbounce” some of the other animals in the 100 Acre Wood.

Piglet

Piglet is another of the original stuffed toy animals of Christopher Robin Milne in the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is a very brave animal as supposed to his diminutive size and frame of a timid pink pig. Piglet stands barely at 10 inches tall and is always seen wearing a long pink striped shirt. His original address in the 100 Acre Wood was the Beech Tree, south of Pooh's house, 100 Acre Wood Southwest. But from the time Owl moved into his house, Piglet has started living with his best friend Winnie the Pooh. What he loves doing best is going on adventures with Pooh, he is quite fond of bright colors and especially balloons, and he even likes blowing dandelions. Haycorns are his favourite food. Every Tuesday Piglet spends his day at Christopher Robin’s house. The first thing that Piglet utters when he gets up in the morning is “I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?”.

Rabbit

Rabbit is one of the 2 real animals that are recognized by their actual animal names in A.A Milne’s children’s story books. Since he is a real animal it is considered that he has brains and the same goes for Owl. He actually makes this clear in a conversation with Owl where he say “You and I have brains. The others have fluff”. He is pushy and takes his own decisions, is able to spell better compared to all the other animals. He is quite certain about the important things in his life. What he likes doing most is organizing a plan and to lead group events, even if nothing gets done. He is unhappy if anyone disturbs or interrupts him while he is engaged in any kind of activity, he doesn’t like being bounced either. He relishes gardening and his favourite food is the carrot and other vegetables, he makes it a point to avoid Pooh during lunch time.

Kanga and Roo

Kanga & Roo are 2 fictional characters that belong to Winnie the Pooh. Kanga is the sole female character in Winnie-the-Pooh and she is 30 inches tall. She is the mother of a young joey (baby kangaroo) named Roo, who is nearly 10 inches tall. Kanga carries her family in her pocket and is the fastest amongst all animals in the forest. She takes utmost care of Roo and shall often warn Roo of possible dangers involved in the activities that Roo undertakes. She often says "Now now Roo, you mustn't do that dear," to which Roo mostly replies "But moma!" Kanga & Roo live in the Northern section of the 100 Acre Wood. Every Tuesday Kanga goes to Pooh’s house and tries to teach him how to jump. Roo is the youngest member of the 100 Acre Wood, he love milk and most other eateries expect for the extract of malt. He really likes the game ‘Poohsticks’ and likes playing with Tigger too.

Christopher Robbin

He is boy for whom Winnie-the-Pooh was originally written. He is also a part of the stories and poems written by his father A.A. Milne. He is the master of the 100 Acre Woods. Christopher Robin’s address in the forest is – Top of the Forest (High Ground), 100 Acre Wood East. He is everyone’s best friend and mostly indulges in activities to help his friends to get them out of tricky situations, most of the times it’s the silly old Pooh bear that he helps. He will help Pooh collect honey, he will rescue Roo & Tigger when they are stuck in high trees in the forest and shall nail Eeyore’s tail. His favorite food is probably Birthday cake and one of his favourite things to do is hosting birthday and hero parties. But what he likes doing best is Nothing; "It means just going along, listening to all the thing's you can't hear, and not bothering".

Owl

He is the wisest amongst all the animals living in the 100 Acre Wood. He is a large owl and stands at nearly 28 inches in length and when he spreads his wings they are 42 inches wide. Owl, like Rabbit wasn’t an original toy belonging to Christopher Robin Milne. Along with Rabbit he is considered to be an animal with brains. His intelligence is often called upon to aid a certain bear of very little brain. He is always forthcoming in offering his advice, opinions and anecdotes irrespective of others wanting it. He also loves telling stories related to his relatives. His original residence is called The Chestnuts but when a storm blows away his house and thereafter he makes Piglet’s residence his new residence. His residence has amenities like a pull- bell and a door knocker. Owl is capable of writing and some illustrations show him holding a pen in his talons.

Gopher

Gopher’s full name is Samuel J. Gopher. Gopher wasn’t a part of the original stories and poems written by A.A. Milne and was introduced by Walt Disney as the felt that the then existing characters of Winnie the Pooh weren’t American enough for the American audience to be able to relate to. This fact is recurrently pointed out he says "I'm not in the book you know." Gopher is a Bricklayer, Builder, Excavation and Demolition Expert. His address is perhaps more apt when describes as all over the 100 Acre Woods as he lives under tunnels he creates. What he likes doing most is working on projects that involve building tunnels or projects which could be used by the other members in the forest. Gopher is 15 inches tall and the biggest problem he will encounter is that he falls into the tunnels that he engineered. Since he is a Walt Disney character there are neither illustration of him nor is he there in the stories written by A.A. Milne.

Heffalump

Heffalump is a frictional character that has been mentioned in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928) written by Author A.A. Milne. But the character of Heffalump had never been given a real structure in Milne’s children’s story books. He is an animal that the residents of the 100 Acre Wood fear. But in the Disney animated film Pooh’s Heffalump Movie he comes across as a friendly young four-footed creature. His color is lavender and a trunk similar to what an elephant has. Heffalump lives in the 100 Acre Wood but his address is not known as he is rarely seen. His favourite food is honey which is also Pooh’s favourite food.

Short Stories from Pooh Fans

Although Milne wrote mostly plays and novels, the Pooh stories remain his best known work. For those not familiar with the wonderful way of writing of Alan Alexander Milne, I have selected extracts from his Winnie the Pooh stories to give you a quick impression. The first of these is two parts from 'In which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place', the second chapter from 'Winnie-the-Pooh', which was first published on October 14, 1926 by Methuen & Company. Secondly, two parts from 'In which Tigger comes to the Forest and has breakfast' and thirdly, two parts from 'In which it is shown that Tiggers don't climb trees,' chapter two and four from 'The House at Pooh Corner,' published on October 11, 1928.

Pooh Goes Visiting

Pooh always liked a little something at eleven o'clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see Rabbit getting out the plates and mugs. Having a mouthful of something at Rabbit's is very nice indeed, but squeezing back out of the front door again is quite another matter. When Pooh finds himself a Wedged Bear, there's nothing to do but wait until he gets thin again. Oh Bother!

Tigger Comes to the Forest

Pooh was just going to say 'Hallo!' for the fourth time when he thought that he wouldn't, so he said, 'Who is it?' instead. 'Me,' said a voice. 'Oh!' said Pooh. 'Well, come here.' So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the candle he and Pooh looked at each other. 'I'm Pooh,' said Pooh. 'I'm Tigger,' said Tigger. And that's the beginning of some very bouncy stories.

Tiggers Don't Climb Trees

'Can they climb trees better then Pooh?' asked Roo, stopping under the tallest Pine Tree, and looking up at it. 'Climbing trees is what they do the best,' said Tigger. 'Much better then Pooh.' 'Could they climb this one?' 'They're always climb trees like that,' said Tigger. And indeed, climbing trees is what Tiggers do best....but coming down is quite another matter!