Mr. Narrator is an unseen entity which serves as the omniscient storyteller for most of the Winnie the Pooh franchise. He speaks in a Southern English accent.
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.
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[]
- James Stewart (1951 RCA records)
- Sebastian Cabot (1965 – 1977)
- Sterling Holloway (1967 – 1968, audiobooks)
- Vladimir Osenev (Soyuzmultfilm shorts)
- Thurl Ravenscroft (Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, 1974 story tape only)
- Laurie Main (1977 – 2003)
- Christopher Plummer (1989, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Read-Along version only)
- Richard Erdman (1995, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree Animated Storybook)
- John Rhys-Davies (1996, Boo to You Too!)
- David Warner (1997 – 1999)
- John Hurt (2000, The Tigger Movie)
- Roger L. Jackson (2001-2002, The Book of Pooh)
- Michael York (2002, Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year)
- Roy Dotrice (2003, Piglet's Big Movie (Read-Along version only))
- Bob Joles (The Magical World of Winnie the Pooh)
- Pete Renaday (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride)
- David Ogden Stiers (2004 – 2006)
- John Cleese (2011)
- Steven Crossley (2018, Christopher Robin novelization audiobook)
- David Kaye (2019, Kingdom Hearts III)
- Toby Wynn-Davies (2023, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey)