Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo

Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo is a 2004 Easter movie that starred Rabbit (despite Roo being the title-bearing character). In this story, Roo, Tigger, Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore got upset when Rabbit cancelled Easter and changed it into "Spring Cleaning Day" instead. It was released on March 9, 2004 on DVD & VHS.

Plot[]

An adaptation of the classic, An overexcited Roo, along with Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore, pay Rabbit a visit to celebrate Easter. But instead of finding an Easter party they find a Spring Cleaning Day celebration led by Rabbit who makes up the holiday to replace Easter. While the gang clean up Rabbit’s house, Pooh sneezes and trashes the house. Then Roo finds all their Easter eggs and decorations stored away in Rabbit’s closet, and throws a surprise Easter party for Rabbit. Unfortunately, he gets very enraged at them for not doing his "Spring Cleaning Day", and furiously sends them out to clean. Roo is crying that Rabbit is unhappy, and Tigger wants Roo to have a happy Easter, so Tigger tries to talk to Rabbit while Roo and the others try to make an Easter celebration of their own in their hopes of cheering up Rabbit.

In order to convince Rabbit that he still misses Easter and how he used to like it to which Rabbit just cannot stand from hating it so much, Tigger and the Narrator take Rabbit out of the storybook and back in time [a few chapters of the book] (Which is over hundreds of pages away) to last year’s Easter celebration. Rabbit, as the Easter Bunny, tried to make everything as organized, orderly, and perfect as possible, treating Easter like a professional occasion rather than a great holiday. Tigger and the others wanted to have fun and unique with making and hunting the eggs, but Rabbit was actually shown to be very over-protective on his views of the holiday, claiming, "It isn’t fun; it's Easter!" So Tigger and the others swiped all the Easter eggs behind Rabbit’s back, and he found them hunting the eggs and celebrating Easter without him. Everyone is more happy with Tigger being the "Easter Bunny" instead of Rabbit. Feeling left out of the fun and disappointed that he isn’t the one getting this kind of honor from his friends, it was then he decided to stop the Hundred Acre Wood from having another Easter celebration again. Rabbit finds out Tigger was right about him liking Easter in his past, but instead of agreeing to allow the holiday back, Then Rabbit tearfully tells Tigger he wants to be left alone, still upset about his past, and accusing Tigger of stealing his role as the Easter Bunny.

The present Tigger tearfully returns to tell Roo and the others that Easter is still banned while Rabbit returns home in the book. Although Tigger feels that he had let Roo down, the only thing Roo wants is for Rabbit to be happy again, so he and the others try to come up with a plan to do so. Meanwhile, the narrator purposely takes Rabbit to Roo’s house instead of his own to show him how much Roo and the others still care about him, and how he should do the same thing, but Rabbit remains stubborn, furious and unconvinced. So late that night, the narrator takes Rabbit into the "pages that not have yet been written", or into the future of the Hundred Acre Wood. It is Spring Cleaning Day, and all the supplies and chores are organized exactly as Rabbit wanted. Rabbit is happy about this at first, but later he learns that the Hundred Acre-Wood is deserted. All his friends Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Christopher Robin, Owl, Gopher, Kanga, and Roo had moved away because of his selfishness. Where Rabbit finally realizes that he was wrong to try to control something that everyone shares and loves, and decides to change the future by changing his attitude to everyone else. But however, he discovers that the Easter supplies were taken by his friends when they moved and he is horrified to discover that he is already too late. But until the next morning he wakes up on Easter day finding out he still has a chance to change the future when he sees the supplies are still in the box.

At the same time, Roo and the others come up with another idea in hopes of cheering Rabbit up, and while they are busy working, Rabbit, feeling as "giddy as a jackrabbit", brings out all the Easter decorations and starts happily preparing a big surprise for his friends. And The Story Ends with the annual Easter celebration proceeding as planned.

Cast[]

David Ogden Stiers as Mr. Narrator
Jimmy Bennett as Roo
Peter Cullen as Eeyore
Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
Ken Sansom as Rabbit
Kath Soucie as Kanga
John Fiedler as Piglet
Jeff Bennett as Piglet's singing voice

Characters[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

THX Tex 1 was used on the USA DVD version, while THX Tex 2: Moo Can was used on the UK and Australian DVD versions.
This is the first film in the Winnie the Pooh franchise where the Narrator has a much more direct impact on the story.
The story's climax resolves in a direct homage to A Christmas Carol, with the Narrator speaking to Rabbit about his poor behavior and showing him a dark future in which Rabbit lives alone in the Hundred Acre Wood.
- The similarity is noted by Tigger in when he asks Rabbit, "What the Dickens—and I do mean 'Dickens'—is going on here?", during which he turns and winks at the audience (and breaks the fourth wall).
When Tigger was guessing what word that Rabbit didn't want to say, he said onomatopoeia and explains that it is a word.
Like A Christmas Carol, Tigger takes on the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Narrator takes the roles of Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future.
When Tigger was guessing what word that Rabbit didn't want to say, he said onomatopoeia and explains that it is a word.
Roo interrupted the beginning just like Tigger in The Tigger Movie and the Narrator references said movie.
Although Christopher Robin, Owl and Gopher were absent in this film, but Christopher Robin was mentioned at the beginning of the movie. And Owl along with Gopher were also mentioned when Mr. Narrator told Rabbit that because of his selfishness all his friends have moved away.
It is implied that Rabbit stops Easter because he was not the Easter Bunny in his past saddening him.
- This is based on how Ebenezer Scrooge's sister dies in Scrooge's past which starts him to be stingy, selfish, graceful and unkind.

Nikita Hopkins, the voice of Roo, was replaced by Jimmy Bennett for the first time.
When Tigger was looking for Roo in the stuff to help him look for Easter eggs, a Mickey Mouse Ears Hat can be seen when Roo pops out of the stuff.
From this movie onward, running time is about one hour and three-to-five minutes.
The fourth wall is completely broken in this movie, as the characters speak to the narrator.
The 2004 original release uses the 1990 Walt Disney Pictures Logo at the start and at the end of the movie.
The 2014 Blu-Ray edition release uses the 2011 variant of the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures Logo (i.e. with just Disney) at the start and at the end of the movie.
Despite the film's title with Pooh and Roo on it, Rabbit is actually the main protagonist/antagonist of the film, with Roo as the deuteragonist, Tigger as the tritagonist and Pooh (Alongside Piglet and Eeyore) reduced to minor tritagonists in the film.
This is the first Disneytoon Studios film to be produced in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. However, many of Disneytoon Studios' previous films before that film were cropped from either 1.33:1 full screen or 1.66:1 widescreen to 1.78:1 widescreen for their remastered Blu-ray or digital printings.
There was a rumored theatrical screening of this film in 2003 before its official release, although most of the evidence of this is from IMDb.
This is the only Winnie the Pooh direct-to-video film to include the characters interacting with the book. The bedroom setting is also the same one used in The Tigger Movie. It would later be used in Winnie the Pooh ABCs, Winnie the Pooh 123s, Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie, Winnie the Pooh - Shapes & Sizes and Winnie the Pooh - Wonderful Word Adventure.

Gallery[]

Click here to view more images from 2004.

The image gallery for 2004 may be viewed here.

External links[]

Springtime with Roo on Wikipedia
Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo on Disney+