Silly old bear.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

Obviously, I have to turn in my mouse ears because I did not even know this was in the works. A hand-drawn Winnie the Pooh based on the original A.A. Milne stories!

I love Winnie-the-Pooh. I love the books, and I love the Disney cartoons. These cartoons, starting with the first animated short "Winne the Pooh and the Honey Tree" in 1965, purposely imitated the look of E.H. Shephard's classic illustrations. They include numerous short subjects, feature films, and TV series. I've been reading and watching Winnie the Pooh forever. I cried when I learned that Disney had lost the rights to use Christopher Robin for their TV series and had replaced him with a girl character. So when I saw this trailer for a new movie to be released in 2011, I was struck dumb with delight.



First of all, it's hand-drawn. That alone would be cause for rejoicing. I'm excited for Tangled (even if it looks like no version of Rapunzel I ever read), but Tangled is CG. As much as I love Pixar, hand-drawn animation feels like home to me. Second of all, Christopher Robin is back. From the start, the tears were biding their time, but as soon as Christopher Robin appeared (a little taller if I'm not mistaken), the floodgates burst open. Also the new movie is based on Milne's stories and features the "book format" of the original Disney-Pooh cartoons.

Did I mention it's hand-drawn? Beautifully hand-drawn too, from the looks of things. The combination of Pooh and old-school animation is almost too good to be true. Pooh needs to hand-drawn. There's a warmth and melancholy beauty to the Hundred Acre Wood that hand-drawn animations brings out so well. I am a slave to nostalgia (especially Disney nostalgia), so this well and truly made my day. I officially can't wait.

In the meantime, if you ever want to know why "pooh" is the best thing to say to swan, I will happily tell you.

P.S. That uncannily appropriate song in the background is Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know."