
DVD cover.

10th anniversary gift set.
Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving is a holiday Winnie the Pooh home video release. The approximately 70 minute film featured a collection of the stories from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh edited together through interstitial segments to form a unified story. Featured the stories are “Ground Piglet 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, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Owl and Kessie. It also added some new bonus features, including 2 games-- Decorate Your Own Christmas and Coloring With Piglet, as well as 2 additional The New Adventures stories: “The Magic Earmuffs” and “The Wishing Bear”.
For it's September/October 2009 issue of Disney and Me Magazine, Redan awarded the 10th anniversary DVD set to those whose crafts, drawings or pictures appeared in Disney and Me Club section of the magazine.
Plot[]
- The story begins with Tigger has always wanted to ski, but Winnie the Pooh and Piglet point out that there isn't any snow yet, so they go ask Rabbit what day of the year it is. Rabbit's calendar pages blow away, but he has completly forgotten, and announced that it is February 2, Groundhog Day. In an effort to find out if there are 2 more weeks of winter or if spring comes tomorrow, they ask Gopher if there is a shadow, but Gopher furiously quarrels with Rabbit he is actually a gopher and not a groundhog, seeing this as an insult to his ancestors. They have Piglet pretend to be a groundhog. He cannot even see under his hat very well, 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 angrily snaps at Piglet and furiously blames it on him, then goes home to see that his calendar pages are on the floor and realizes that it is not Groundhog Day, but only November 13. Feeling remorseful over what he said, Rabbit goes to apologize to Piglet, only to find a note from him saying he has gone to look for a real groundhog. Rabbit frantically goes looking for Piglet. Meanwhile, Piglet sees that the groundhog is still not here and decides to go home after a pile of snow falls on him, leaving his hat on the pile of snow. Rabbit finds the pile of snow and thinks it is Piglet frozen solid, so he rushes to Piglet’s house, where he, Tigger, and Pooh melt the ice. Thinking that Piglet has melted, Rabbit sadly and tearfully sobs for his loss and apologizes for everything, only to realize that the real Piglet is behind him. Rabbit hugs Piglet in relief, then tells everyone that it is November 13, so they decide to get ready for Thanksgiving.
When Thanksgiving has come, Pooh arrives at Christopher Robin’s house and they talk about the celebration at Rabbit’s house later that day. Then Pooh and Piglet dance around the 00 Acre Wood singing about Thanksgiving. Everyone except Christopher Robin arrives at Rabbit’s house with food that they each brought. Rabbit tells everyone what they brought have not made 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 pie, Tigger and Eeyore gather up cranberries while Tigger sings a silly song about berries, but on their way back, they realize there is a hole in their sack and go to pick more cranberries, only to fall into Pooh and Piglet’s turkey trap. Thinking that they have 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 quite 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 have 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 except Christopher Robin and Gopher are at Rabbit's house decorating. Roo is worried Santa will not 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. A curious Roo asks who Kessie is, so Rabbit tells him the 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 give her, Kessie winds up in a bubble and when it pops, Rabbit catches her and makes her promises 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 her to flap her wings. Back on top of the hill, Rabbit sadly explains to Tigger that he never told Kessie that he loved her. Kessie and Owl arrive and the 2 embrace. Kessie tells Rabbit 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) and 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 furiously arrives and angrily stops her, then lividly reprimands Pooh and ragefully 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, 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 sadly claims that Kessie does not need him for anything and goes to bed, miserably 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 she 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 loves Kessie and how they cannot believe she came back again.
Back in the present, Rabbit concludes he has not seen Kessie since then as Tigger cries and blows his nose on Santa Claus's hat. Rabbit looks at his clock to see that it is 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 does not actually look like a falling star, but Kessie holding a star, which she puts on the tree. Reunited and together at last and Kessie has come to wish Rabbit a Merry Christmas, ending the story in a place called the Hundred Acre Wood.
Cast[]
- Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
- Paul Winchell as Tigger (flashbacks)
- Brady Bluhm as Christopher Robin
- Frankie J. Galasso (singing voice)
- Tim Hoskins as Christopher Robin (flashback)
- Nikita Hopkins as Roo
- Steve Schatzberg as Piglet
- John Fiedler as Piglet (flashbacks)
- Ken Sansom as Rabbit
- Gregg Berger as Eeyore
- Dylan Watson as Eeyore (singing Voice)
- Peter Cullen as Eeyore (flashback)
- Tress MacNeille as Kanga
- Andre Stojka as Owl
- Michael Gough as Gopher (flashbacks)
- Amber Hood as Kessie
- Laura Mooney as Kessie (flashback)
- Laurie Main as the Narrator
Songs[]
- Winnie the Pooh
- The Seasons of Giving
- Hooray, Hooray!
- Berrily We Roll Along
- The Turkey Song
- Our Thanksgiving Day
Trivia[]
- This film likely takes place before the events of "A Bird in the Hand" as Kessie is still a child and Rabbit though he just never saw her since the events of "Find Her, Keep Her".
- Both episodes reference having Rabbit unwillingly upset one of his friends.
- In the first and third segments, there were changes made so that they would tie in with the story:
- At the end of the first segment, Tigger's lines were changed. In the episode, he says that it is Porcupine Day and describes what will happen on that nonexistent day while in the film, he instead says that it's Thanksgiving and announces that he is going to prepare some hot chocolate ice cream, which appears in the next segment.
- Additional scenes (which never appeared in the TV series) were included at the beginning and end of the third segment, while the episode itself is featured in a flashback.
- This marks the last Winnie the Pooh feature-film to have Brady Bluhm provide the speaking voice for Christopher Robin and Frankie J. Galasso's last time to provide his singing voice. However, this wasn't the last time Brady Bluhm voices Christopher Robin. The last time he voices him is in the Winnie the Pooh PC games Tigger's Honey Hunt & Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day: Activity Center, which were released in 2000, the same year The Tigger Movie was released.
- This would be the first time the Sherman Brothers Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman would write a new song for a Winnie the Pooh project since the television series Welcome to Pooh Corner that ran from 1983-1986.
- This would be the only Winnie the Pooh film to compile existing episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series as later package films would instead include only a couple more of the TV specials.
- Despite the cover saying “New Full-Length Adventure” only about 10% of this film is not a compilation of existing Winnie the Pooh media.
- Similarly to its repackaged special A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving, this film is not available on Disney+, however the compiled episodes of New Adventures are available separately in its respective series on the platform. The film is also available on DVD and was formerly available to purchase on iTunes but was removed.
Trailers[]
- The Tigger Movie
- A Goofy Movie
- Toy Story
- A Bug's Life
- Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas
- Pinocchio
- 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 the Clips from Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood)
Trailers (End) (2000 Re-Print)[]
- Playhouse Disney Promo
Trailers (2003 Re-Print (DVD Only))[]
- The Lion King: Special Edition
- Sleeping Beauty: Special Edition
- Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year
- Disney's Sing Along Songs
More to Explore[]
- Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving at IMDb