Disney  haven’t treated Winnie The Pooh all that well over the last decade or so. Supporting roles in The Tigger Movie and Piglet’s First Movie, alongside a series of not-particularly-good direct to video efforts, have left the silly-willy-nilly old bear somewhat battered and bruised of late. Now however, Disney are making an effort to breathe new life into the franchise, by returning it to Disney’s feature animation division (rather than their Disney Toon Studios, direct-to-video unit), and aiming from the outset for a theatrical release.

The new film, helpfully called Winnie The Pooh, is a great little movie. With a barely feature length running time of 69 minutes it absolutely flies by, while managing to tell it’s (admittedly simple) story in a satisfying fashion.

That running time is actually a nice analogy for the production process on the film, which was completed in a matter of months by the same team that worked on last year’s Princess and the Frog. Given the fast turnaround of the project it could be forgiven for having a few rough edges: a missed story beat, or a bad voice performance, or some less than perfect animation, but it doesn’t.

There are things that don’t quite work: Christopher Robin’s high-pitched English accent jars with the soft American accents of Pooh and his pals, and Zooey Deschanel’s vocals on the soundtrack, particularly her version of the Pooh theme are a little too sweet and cloying, but these are the criticisms of a grumpy twenty-something whose job it is to pick holes in films. No one else would, or should care about such minor issues in a hugely enjoyable film.

****~ (4/5)

It seems that we’ve been bringing you new posters for nearly a year for this movie now…. that’s because we have an here’s a couple more! With all these new animated movies coming out, it seems nice to have a movie that will take us back to the good old days of Disney and they’ve done it in the form of The Princess and the Frog.

The movie features voices of Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, John Goodman, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Oprah Winfrey and Jenifer Lewis and is directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. If you’ve not seen the trailer, you can check it out here. It’s set for release 12th February which feels like a long time to wait but no doubt it’ll come around fast.

Source: Filmofilia

Much like Sony have done with 2012, Disney have released the first five minutes from their new 2D animation, The Princess and the Frog. I’ve embedded the clip below along with a 30 second clip showing how some of the animation was achieved. The video clip also features some animation which is as yet incomplete.

The Princess and the Frog features voices from Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, John Goodman, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Oprah Winfrey, Jenifer Lewis, is directed by Ron Clements, John Musker and is released 12th February.

Synopsis: Walt Disney Animation Studios presents the musical THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, an animated comedy set in the great city of New Orleans. From the creators of “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin” comes a modern twist on a classic tale, featuring a beautiful girl named Tiana (ANIKA NONI ROSE), a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again, and a fateful kiss that leads them both on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous of Louisiana. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG marks the return to hand-drawn animation from the revered team of John Musker and Ron Clements, with music by Oscar®-winning composer Randy Newman (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Cars,” “Toy Story”).