Whimsical fantasy is difficult to pull off, especially over an extended period of time. The Winnie the Pooh cartoons (especially those created for television) quickly lost sight of the delicate qualities that made them special. However, the series is still fresh and unsullied in the second film, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. The animation -- which started to suffer by the last of the theatrical shorts and took a further nosedive during the television entries -- is of a very high quality, with careful character animation and lovely backgrounds that seem to have popped right out of the original books. The mini-score is sprightly, with the cute and engaging "The Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down," the exuberant "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers," and the intoxicating "Heffalumps and Woozles." The last named affords a most impressive (and hallucinogenic) feat of animation, an homage to the "Pink Elephants On Parade" sequence in Dumbo. The introduction of Tigger threatens to disturb the delicate humor, as he is distinctly more boisterous and rowdy, in a peculiarly American way, than in the books, but the creators manage to rein him in just enough so that he serves as a welcome added spice. As usual, the voices are perfection. Blustery Day is a movie that will charm adults as much as it entrances children.
by Craig Butler
review

