Mr. Narrator is an unseen entity which serves as the omniscient storyteller for most of the Winnie the Pooh franchise.
Unlike most narrators in television programs, Mr. Narrator is not simply a convenient narrative mode to help the viewers understand what's going on; he is also an actual character within the stories and interacts regularly with Pooh and his friends. Although the mysterious Narrator never appears on screen, his calm voice is often heard and his presence is usually, though not always, acknowledged by the other characters.
While most installments of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise do include meta-references (i.e. "breaking the fourth wall"), The Book of Pooh is particularly odd in that the major characters occasionally find themselves discussing the story with the narrator at the same time this story is happening. Mr. Narrator rarely interferes, however, and prefers to discuss matters with the audience rather than the protagonists if possible. In the episode "Mr. Narrator", he tries to tell a story about Pooh and his friends.
While Mr. Narrator surely fits in the "third-person omniscient narrator" category, his omniscience is sometimes limited, and no matter how much he deviates from the typical narrator figure, he will reveal the end of a story.
Voice actors
- Sebastian Cabot (1966 - 1977)
- Laurie Main (1983 - 2003)
- John Rhys-Davies (1996, Boo to You Too!)
- David Warner (1997 - 1999)
- John Hurt (2000, The Tigger Movie)
- Roger L. Jackson (2001 - 2003, The Book of Pooh)
- David Ogden Stiers (2004 - 2006)
- Michael York (Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year)
- Roy Dotrice (2003, Piglet's Big Movie)
- John Cleese (2011 - The Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the Pooh (2011 film))
