Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. The tone, action, and plot of the franchise is made much softer and slower than that of any other Disney animated film, in order to appeal to a more preschool-oriented audience. History In 1930, producer Stephen Slesinger originally acquired sole and exclusive American and Canadian merchandising, television, recording and other trade rights to Pooh from A. A. Milne. Then as early as 1938, Walt Disney expressed interest in obtaining the film rights to the Pooh books by first corresponding with the literary agency Curtis Brown. In June 1961, Disney Productions acquired the film rights from Milne's widow Dorothy, as well as the television and merchandising rights from Slesinger's widow Shirley Slesinger Lasswell. By 1964, Disney told his animation staff that he was planning to make a full-length animated feature film based on the books. A meeting was held with senior staff members to discuss the proposed film. However, during the meeting, Disney decided not to make a feature film, but instead a featurette that could be attached to a live-action film. Disney dropped the hyphens from the name and adopted Slesinger's red-shirted version of Pooh. To Milne's set of characters, Disney added Gopher to add a more traditional and relatable American creature to the mix. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree in 1966 was the franchise's big-screen debut.