Blu-Ray Review: Winnie The Pooh Springtime With Roo: The Hippity Hoppity Roo Edition

Mitchell Stein- When this movie was initially released on VHS, marking the first home video release of this movie, I owned a copy of this movie, which I kept watching over and over even when it was way beyond Easter time. I loved this movie as a kid, so this film means a lot to me. 

Fast forwarding to March 2014, the direct-to-video movie is about to celebrate its ten-year anniversary from when it was released publicly a whole decade ago. I made sure to revisit this movie for the first time in years and to give my entire thoughts on this release. 

While Winnie the Pooh has his name in the title, he takes a major backseat in this movie, giving the stage over to Roo, Tigger and Rabbit who easily steal the show. 

Its Roo’s second Easter in the Hundred Acre Woods, and he can’t wait for it. Until Rabbit decides its “Spring Cleaning Day” instead. Everyone is disappointed, so they try to cheer Rabbit up with a bit of Easter fun. But Rabbit doesn’t want any part in in this “Easter” business and bans the word in a style worthy of Ebenezer Scrooge. 

In fact, the film has a big Christmas Carol style feel to it, with Rabbit seeing the past Easter and what will happen in the Easter to come, as shown to him by the narrator, who plays quite a big part in the story as well. 

This marks another return of the legendary Jim Cummings, best known for his work on the classic Disney Afternoon television shows, as Tigger and Winnie the Pooh. Other great voice actors include Jimmy Bennet as Roo, Peter Cullen as Eeyore, and Kath Soucie as Kanga. Sadly this film marks one of the last works of both John Fiedler as Piglet and Ken Samson as Rabbit, who he brilliantly plays once again in this movie, and Rabbit steals the whole movie by far. This movie focuses more on Rabbit then it does on Roo, so I’m quite surprised that the title didn’t have Rabbit’s name in it. 

. 

The music is great too, with very bouncy songs that will stick inside your head, but doesn’t quite live up to the music in The Tigger Movie or in Pooh’s Heffalump Movie but is still enjoyable in general. Not a big fan of the song Pooh sings before he sneezes (yep, he sings about how he is about to sneeze) because it felt pointless and annoying, but other than that, the music was great. 

Sadly, after 20 years, my VCR decided to quit on us last week so I had nothing to compare this to, but I will say that the Blu-Ray looks crystal clear and the audio is great. It’s for sure an improvement from the original VHS and DVD release. As for bonus features, it’s incredibly bare. The only bonus feature available is a sing-along to the movie’s music. They could’ve included anything that would’ve made fans happy, like behind-the-scenes looks at any Winnie the Pooh films, concept art for this movie, interviews with some of the voice actors, audio commentaries, interactive videos, or anything else simple. 

Disney knows how to make their fans happy, as they've shown in the past,f it just seems that they’re too lazy to do it some of the time. I’m super glad that I could now own this film in stunning-high definition, but a few bonus features would've been nicer, and I’m sure would have attracted more people to purchase this release. 

If you were previously a fan of this film or a fan of the Winnie the Pooh franchise (who isn’t?) I suggest you check this release out! It’s a well-done Pooh film and ties in great with Easter next month!

Overall, I enjoyed this release a lot. This movie has always meant a lot to me, and this release really managed to restore that love again and this time in high-def. Make sure you pick up a copy for Spring Cleaning Day -er, I mean Easter! 

Winnie the Pooh: Springtime With Roo is available March 11th, 2014.