The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh? - Blu-ray Forum

The Mad Kiwi · 10-13-2011, 11:28 PM

I had posted these in the thread for the new film's Blu-ray release, but I figured they'd be more relevant here. Disney has been re-editing clips from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, re-dubbed them, and released them as Disney Channel interstitials called "The Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." Those who've seen their "Have A Laugh" series will be familiar with this process.

These clips have been released online, but the reason I'm drawing attention to them is because they've been struck from a new master. The image quality in all of these is flawless, so that indicates to me that The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has received a full-blown restoration that's serving as the source for these clips. This isn't just a "good enough" mild clean up job ala The Fox and the Hound, either. The image is immaculate to the point where the rough xerox animated lines are more noticeable than usual.

They're also presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, similar to the ratio these shorts would've been shown in as opposed to the open matte 1.33:1 of the DVD releases. I know some open matte purists will cry foul over that (heck, just look at the debacle regarding the mini-cropping of The Lion King from 1.66:1 to 1.78:1). Personally, outside of two brief shots that look a little cramped, I feel the widescreen ratio suits Pooh very well.

So is Disney prepping The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for a Blu-ray release? The "Friendship Edition" DVD went out-of-print earlier this year, I believe, at the same time Pocahontas did. Now we're hearing Pocahontas is coming to Blu-ray the first quarter of 2012, and 2012 just so happens to be Many Adventures' 35th anniversary. I'm collecting all of the "Mini Adventures" clips and posting them here in chronological order. Disney has steadily been releasing one a day, so it looks like we'll have most of the movie available to us in HD (albeit with trims and new voices) online before we even get the Blu-ray.

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