Winnie The Pooh (2011)

The Associated Press has posted the first image (above) from Disney’s forthcoming old school 2D Winnie The Pooh feature, scheduled for release next summer. This is the flick most of The Princess and the Frog crew moved over to. Here are some choice excerpts from Derrik J. Lang’s AP story:

The new “Winnie the Pooh,” the first big-screen “Pooh” adventure from Disney animators in more than 30 years, will more closely resemble the classic short films from the 1960s and ’70s. “We wanted to create a movie for the big screen that had the charm and wit of those original shorts,” said Peter Del Vecho, the film’s producer. “What originally endeared all of us – adults and children – to these characters was that they were stuffed animals that came to life in the imagination of a child. We wanted to rekindle that imagination in a big way.”

“Winnie the Pooh,” loosely based on five stories from A.A. Milne’s books, finds Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore and Christopher Robin searching for a new tail for Eeyore in a watercolour-drenched Hundred Acre Wood. The gang will also hunt for a mysterious creature called a Backson, briefly mentioned in 1928’s “The House at Pooh Corner.”

While this version of “Pooh” won’t be generated by a computer or projected in 3-D, Del Vecho cautioned it wouldn’t simply be a redux of past “Pooh” projects. He said the film, spearheaded by Disney and Pixar animation chief John Lasseter, will feature five new original songs and a faster pace punctuated with humour that’s appropriate for modern audiences.

UPDATE: Just recieved this larger publicity image from the forthcoming film (below). See the trailer here.