The CD Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

First of all, let me say... "Winnie the Pooh" is wonderful.  I mean, absolutely wonderful.

For those fans of classic Disney Animation, or those of you who are fans of the old school Pooh, not this preschool abomination that is on Playhouse Disney, with that stupid Darby chick, where the animation is all computerized and clunky and the stories are on the level of a 3 year old... okay, well, I guess that's on purpose... but anyway, this is Pooh how he should be.  And Eeyore.  And Owl.  And Kanga & Roo.  And Rabbit.  And of course, Tigger... and Christopher Robin is back in his tussled hair, shorty short and yellow shirtyness.


Here's the trailer for "Winnie the Pooh", using Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know".  Even though this song wasn't in the actual film, its use in the trailer is brilliant.

In our story, Eeyore has lost his tail (again).  And so the gang goes on a mission to replace the tail, and Pooh just wants some lunch--that would be in the form of honey.  Along the way, though, due to a misunderstanding (and to Owl's pompousness--Craig Ferguson does a great job here), they end up preparing themselves for a scary creature named The Backson which brings in a memorable and fun musical number.

The characters also utilize the fact that they are in a story, namely in an actual book, as the letters on "the page" are acknowledged and even used in a desperate situation in the film.

If you remember early Pooh stories, mostly from the compilation film "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh", they are simple yet smart, simply drawn yet beautifully drawn, with a story that's easy to understand, yet funny, warm and adult enough to keep the older folk entertained... that is, if you want to be entertained.

Don't go into "Winnie the Pooh" expecting a Pixar movie.  Don't think you'll see "The Incredibles" or "Finding Nemo" here, but in its own way, "Pooh" is just as good.  There's no CGI, though computers were used for some of the animation, but much of it is traditionally hand drawn--and this will grow into an absolute Disney Classic, as it should.  Its wonderful.

I loved this movie, and had this movie come out two years later, I could totally see this being the first movie for Lorelei Addision or Campbell Isaiah, especially with its short 65 minute running time.  And yes, we'll be purchasing this on home video when its available.

The other thing I enjoyed about this movie was the music... actress and singer Zooey Deschanel steps in to sing three songs, and is awesome.  I'm not that familiar with Zooey's music, though I do know she is in a musical duo called She & Him (her partner in S&H is M. Ward, who also helped with music for Pooh), who was featured on a previous episode of The Deucecast.



Anyway, she's great.  My favorite is "So Long", featured in the video, but she also does a super version of the Pooh theme song, and another song called "A Very Important Thing to Do"... and "The Backson Song" is so much doggone fun.  I know that we had a CD Purge a few weeks back, but darn it, I want this soundtrack for my very own.  I want this CD.

I'd been nosing around for it, usually when I go into Best Buy or Target or Wal-Mart, I'll step to the Soundtrack section, or Kids music, and have been doing this since mid-August, but alas, I've seen nary a copy.  Even at 2nd & Charles, my new favorite place to buy and sell used CDs and movies, there have been no sightings of it.  (just as an aside, its somewhat slightly surreal to see a CD that you used to own on a sale rack, with a price tag on it, knowing that since they are selling it for $3.49, you probably were paid about 36 cents for it...)

Tonight, The Lovely Steph Leann and I were enjoying a tasty dinner at Zoe's Kitchen (they returned my man card as I was leaving) at The Summit, and remembered there was a Coconut's nearby.  Coconuts used to be my home for used CDs, but all the locations I knew of closed except for this one single store.  After dinner, I drove over, parked and ran in quickly--The Lovely Steph Leann elected to stay in the car, as I could have run in and out in the time it took her to get from the car to the front door.

I finally found it.  But not used.  New.  And Coconuts, for all the great prices they have on used CDs completely sucks it up when it comes to new ones.  The price?  $17.99.  I cannot remember the last time I paid for than say, $14 for any CD of any kind, much less $17.99 for this.  Disappointed, I sighed and put it back and ambled back to the car.

"Didn't have it?" she asked as I started the car and backed out of the spot.
"No, they did, but it was $17.99, and I wasn't about to pay that for any CD," I replied.
"Can you download it on iTunes?" she asked.
"Well, yeah.. but... " I started... and I guess I should.  But I just don't want to.  I want the actual CD.

Do you know what I mean?  In this digital age where its easy to have 15,613 songs on an iPod (like I do), I sometimes lament the loss of the physical CD.  Not always, but sometimes.  In our CD purge, over 300 CDs lost their cases, with the jackets and the discs going in the CD book, the plastic cases being tossed and recycled.  But sometimes, you just want to hold the case.  While driving in the car, open the case, pull the disc out and insert it into your CD player.

Or, if you are old school, open that case, pull the disc out and insert it into a small stereo, or your computer or your DVD player for playing.  Certain CDs, you just don't want to scroll up and down on your circle pad on the mp3 player, or plug into the AUX port in the car or whatever.

I brought up the fact that The Lovely Steph Leann has a Nook, and she's mentioned before that she sometimes likes have a book in her hand, being able to bend the cover back, break the spine to show that its been read, to flip the physical pages and such... she sighed, and said, "Yeah, but I guess I've made the transition."

Perhaps its the same thing that our grandparents went through, watching our parents pass up vinyl for 8 tracks, or cassettes, or passing up .45s for cassette singles.  Watching some parents, maybe older siblings passing up or transitioning from those same cassettes to CDs.  And now, we are making conscious decisions to move from larger CDs and clunky, space consuming CD towers to music on mp3 players, saved on our computers, all on our hard drive, playable at the click of an iPod wheel or the press of a triangle in iTunes.

I hope that Lorelei and/or Campbell know what its like to put a CD in a CD player.  And if I'm lucky, they'll but putting their copy of The Winnie the Pooh Soundtrack CD in a CD player.

But not for $17.99.