Winnie the Pooh: The Seasons of Giving

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving is a holiday Winnie the Pooh home video release. The approximately 70 minute film featured a collection of stories from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh edited together through interstitial segments to form a unified story. Featured stories are “Groundpiglet Day”, “A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving” and “Find Her, Keep Her”. It serves as a follow up to Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin.

Originally released on VHS on November 9, 1999, a DVD of the film was released on November 4, 2003. The film was reissued as a 10th anniversary gift set edition on VHS and DVD September 29, 2009. This release included a small stocking featuring Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Kessie. It also added some new bonus features, including two games-- Decorate Your Own Christmas and Coloring With Piglet, as well as two additional New Adventures stories: “Magic Earmuffs” and “The Wishing Bear”.

For its September/October 2009 issue of Disney and Me Magazine, Redan awarded the tenth anniversary DVD set to those whose crafts, drawings or pictures appeared in the Disney and Me Club section of the magazine.

Plot

The story begins with Tigger wanting to ski, but Winnie the Pooh and Piglet point out that there’s no snow. So, they go ask Rabbit what day of the year it is. Rabbit’s calendar pages blow away, but he doesn’t realize it, and claims that it’s February 2, Groundhog Day. In an effort to find out if there are two more weeks of winter or if spring comes tomorrow, they ask Gopher if he sees his shadow. But Gopher angrily points out he’s a gopher not a groundhog, seeing this as an insult to his ancestors. They have Piglet pretend to be a groundhog. He can’t see under his hat, so they all prepare for spring by airing out their houses, planting gardens and spring cleaning. But, later that day, a huge blanket of snow falls. Rabbit confronts Piglet and blames it on him, and goes home to see that his calendar pages are on the floor, and realizes that it’s not Groundhog Day, it’s only November 13. Feeling awful for what he said, Rabbit goes to apologize to Piglet, only to find a note from Piglet saying that he’s gone to look for a real groundhog. Rabbit frantically goes looking for Piglet. Meanwhile, Piglet can't find a groundhog, and decides to go home after a pile of snow falls on him, and he leaves his hat behind on the pile of snow. Rabbit finds the pile of snow. Thinking that it’s Piglet frozen solid, he rushes to Piglet’s house, where he, Tigger and Pooh melt the ice. Thinking that Piglet has melted, Rabbit sobs for his loss and apologizes for everything, only to realize that the real Piglet is behind him. Rabbit is relieved and tells everyone that it’s November 13. So, they decide to get ready for Thanksgiving.

When Thanksgiving arrives, Pooh arrives at Christopher Robin’s house, and they talk about the celebration at Rabbit’s house later that day. Then Pooh dances around the Hundred Acre Wood singing about Thanksgiving. Everyone, except Christopher Robin, arrives at Rabbit’s house with food that they each brought. Rabbit tells everyone that what they brought is not a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. He assigns Owl to wash the dishes, Gopher to make the pumpkin pie, Tigger and Eeyore to pick cranberries, and most importantly Pooh and Piglet are to get the turkey. Gopher literally blows up a pumpkin to make the pumpkin pie, Tigger and Eeyore gather up cranberries, while Tigger sings a silly song about berries. But, on their way back to Rabbit’s house, they realize that there’s a hole in their sack, and go to pick some more cranberries, only to fall into Pooh and Piglet’s turkey trap. Thinking that they’ve captured a turkey, Pooh and Piglet take the sack to Rabbit. Gopher arrives with the pie, and sits it on the table next to the sack that Tigger and Eeyore are in. Everyone is scared to open the sack, but Tigger and Eeyore break out, and Tigger accidentally throws the pie, Rabbit catches it, only to have Tigger hit him in the face. Everyone disappointingly goes home. Pooh realizes that if they all share the food they originally brought, they can have a great Thanksgiving. So, he gathers up everyone, and they surprise Rabbit with the Thanksgiving dinner they’ve set up. They are joined by Christopher Robin, who proposes a toast, with lemonade, to the best Thanksgiving celebration ever. Everyone sings about what Thanksgiving is really about, friends.

A month later, on Christmas Eve, everyone, with the exception Christopher Robin and Gopher, are at Rabbit’s house decorating. Roo is worried that Santa won’t like his cookies, but Kanga assures him otherwise. Tigger arrives with a special delivery from Kessie, a bird that Rabbit took care of nearly one year and a half ago. When a curious Roo asks who Kessie is. So, Rabbit tells him the whole story.

Rabbit reveals, via framing device, that he met Kessie when he, Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh were desperately trying to save a carrot during a blizzard. They hear a cry for help, and see a baby bluejay hanging onto a tree. Rabbit begins to panic, and rushes to his house to get a ladder. But because of the wind, Rabbit, Piglet, Tigger, and Pooh end up flying on Rabbit’s front door. Rabbit catches the bluejay in Pooh’s honey pot, and they crash into Rabbit’s house. Rabbit decides to take care of the baby bluejay, who calls herself Kessie. After a mishap with a bath that Pooh and Piglet gave her, Kessie winds up in a bubble, and when it pops, Rabbit catches her, and promises her to never go up so high again. In the summer, an older Kessie is holding onto Tigger’s back, while he bounces onto a large tree, which falls, leaving Kessie and Tigger hanging on for dear life. Rabbit arrives to help, but Kessie slips from Rabbit’s hand, and plummets off the cliff. Rabbit tries to go after her, but Tigger manages to get off the tree and stop him, telling Rabbit that Kessie is gone. Meanwhile, Kessie is still plummeting and Owl arrives and tells to flap her wings. Back on top of the hill, Rabbit explains to Tigger that he never told Kessie that he loved her. Kessie and Owl arrive, and the two embrace. Kessie tells Rabbit that Owl is going to teach her how to fly. Rabbit refuses to let her fly, and with that, they go home. In the fall, Rabbit is reading Kessie a story about a princess, and a knight. Kessie looks out the window to see other birds (possibly flying south for the winter), she goes outside. For days, she tries to fly, but is caught by Pooh, who promises not to tell Rabbit. Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet have an idea on how to get Kessie south for the winter, a giant slingshot. When Kessie is about to take off, Rabbit arrives, and stops her, reprimanding Pooh, and tells Tigger to let go of the slingshot. Tigger lets go and Rabbit is hit, falling off the same cliff where Kessie had met Owl. Kessie quickly swoops down, and grabs Rabbit, and brings him back to the top. Now that Kessie can fly, she plans on going south the next day. That night, Rabbit is sadly looking at Kessie’s stuffed bunny. Kessie asks Rabbit to read her one last bedtime story, but he claims that Kessie doesn’t need him for anything, and goes to bed, leaving Kessie in tears all through night. The next morning, Owl, Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger say goodbye to Kessie as she prepares to fly south. Meanwhile, Rabbit is in his garden looking for the potted carrot, that Kessie had planted. He rushes to say goodbye to Kessie but has already taken off. Just as he about to burst into tears, Kessie comes back to say goodbye. Later that day, Pooh and Piglet are relaxing by Christopher Robin’s favorite tree talking about how Rabbit loved Kessie, and how they can’t wait to see her again.

Back in the present, Rabbit concludes that he hasn’t seen Kessie since then as Tigger cries and blows his nose on a Santa Clause hat. Rabbit looks at his clock to see that it’s getting late, and hurries everyone outside to decorate a tree and Christopher Robin arrives to help decorate. After the tree is done, Rabbit realizes he forgot the most important part, a star to go on top of the tree. Rabbit is unsatisfied, but then he sees a falling star. Everyone gathers to make a wish, only to realize that it’s not a falling star, it’s Kessie holding a star, which she puts on the tree. Reunited and together at last, and Kessie wishes Rabbit a Merry Christmas, ending the story in a place called the Hundred Acre Wood.

Cast

Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
Brady Bluhm as Christopher Robin (singing voiced by Frankie J. Galasso)
Nikita Hopkins as Roo
Steve Schatzberg as Piglet
Ken Sansom as Rabbit
Gregg Berger as Eeyore
Dylan Watson as Eeyore (Singing Voice)
Tress MacNeille as Kanga
Andre Stojka as Owl
Michael Gough as Gopher’s flashback voice
Laura Mooney as Kessie’s flashback voice
Paul Winchell as Tigger’s flashback voice
John Fiedler as Piglet’s flashback voice
Peter Cullen as Eeyore’s flashback voice
Hal Smith as Owl’s flashback voice
Tim Hoskins as Christopher Robin’s flashback voice
Laurie Main as Narrator

Songs

Goofs

Rabbit claimed that he hasn't seen Kessie since the events of “Find Her, Keep Her”, but she has visited him in another episode, “A Bird in the Hand”. Rabbit could have possibly forgot.
Kessie appears in this movie as a child, rather than an adult as seen in “A Bird in the Hand”. A possible explanation for this and the above trivia is that this film took place before the events of the said episode.

Trailers

The Tigger Movie
The Fox and the Hound
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
Pinocchio: 60th Anniversary Edition
Madeline: Lost in Paris
Playhouse Disney Promo
Disney.com Website Promo

Trailers (Start) (2000 Re-Print)

The Tigger Movie
Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas/Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving/Rolie Polie Olie: A Rolie Polie Christmas
Spot Video Collection Promo
Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection Promo (Featuring Clips From: The Rescuers Down Under, Robin Hood, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland)

Trailers (End) (2000 Re-Print)

Playhouse Disney Promo

More to Explore

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving at IMDb
Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving 10th anniversary at Amazon.com