Today In Disney History ~ February 4th
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 film based on the first two chapters of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. The film combines live-action and animation, and was produced by Walt Disney Productions. It’s songs were written by the Sherman Brothers (Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman) and the score was composed and conducted by Buddy Baker.
This featurette was shown alongside the live-action feature The Ugly Dachshund, and was later included as a segment in the 1977 compilation film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Walt Disney acquired the film rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh stories in 1961 with the intent of adapting them into a full-length animated musical feature. However, upon realizing that worldwide audiences are not as familiar with the stories as the British, Disney soon decided to split the feature into a series of featurettes to give audiences the chance to get to know and love the Pooh characters. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree would be the only featurette produced and released during Disney’s lifetime, as he died later that year on December 15, 1966, just as production began on its follow-up Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.
The scene where Rabbit deals with Pooh’s being part of the “decor of his home”, was not used in the original book, and was reportedly contemplated by Disney when he first read the book.
The film was released on February 4, 1966, as a supplement to Disney’s live-action feature The Ugly Dachshund. It would later be included as a segment in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which included the two further Pooh featurettes, released on March 11, 1977.
The film had its television premiere on March 10, 1970, as a special on the NBC television network. The special was sponsored by Sears, then the exclusive provider of Pooh merchandise.
TMSM Today in Graphic by Sherry Rinaldi DeHart; Wiki
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