Thursday, January 18, 2018

Winnie the Pooh Day

So, if Barnes & Noble and a handful of English newspapers are to be believed, today was Winnie-the-Pooh day (aka Milne's birthday).

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/b/winnie-the-pooh-collection/_/N-2n0y?sourceId=L000026398&st=EML&2sid=180118_FF_PRO_PRODUCT_SOLO&sid=PRO&hConversionEventId=AQEAAZQF2gAmdjQwMDAwMDE2MS0wYTZmLWNiZDQtYTFlZS0xYjZlOTY2ZWIxZTDaACQ3OTEwOTU4ZS02MmFjLTQzYjQtMDAwMC0wMjFlZjNhMGJjZDbaACQyYWU1ZGE5My1mNWZjLTQwNzctYTJkMS1mZTYyMTk3OGMwZWPVa7RGsl9oJ2p4HhFgqoZXAK1QWSZufPoS7cfTAVXurQ

Seeing all the Pooh merchandizing available through the link above -- which is only a small fraction of all the Pooh-stuff out there, reminded me of one final post I wanted to make re. things I learned from reading the Milne biography.

I've seen it said that Milne would have been appalled by all the Pooh-inspired merchandizing out there, especially that based on the Disney cartoons. That may well be true; we'll never know. But Milne, it turns out, was heavily into the merchandising, already underway by the early thirties. What's more, he was enthused at the idea of Disney adapting at least one of his works. Here's what Thwaite has to say re. the topic:

There would be a number of . . . films, both silent 
ones and talkies, made from Milne plays . . . 
Milne would not live to see what Walt Disney 
did to Winnie-the-Pooh, though in fact he might
 not have objected as much as some people assume.
In 1938 he was to write to Kenneth Grahame's
 widow about Toad of Toad Hall: 'I expect you
 have heard that Disney is interested in it?  It is 
just the thing for him, of course, and he would 
do it beautifully.  (p.212)

--TOAD OF TOAD HALL being Milne's 1921 adaptation of Grahame's WIND IN THE WILLOWS for the stage:  a work Tolkien singles out for special condemnation in OFS. Disney's adaption of same came out in 1949. Milne was still alive at the time (this was just a few years before his debilitating stroke) but I have no idea whether he saw the film or not.


--John R.
--current anime: RECORD OF GRANCREST WAR
--most recently watched anime: MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER (tonight, in the theater)








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