Everybody Loves Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh is not only one of the most popular, but also one of the cutest Disney characters ever. He always in a jolly mood: he is always willing to lend a helping hand to any of his friends, and he is ALWAYS hungry for honey.
The Disney studios cast a number of talented people to provide the voices for Pooh and his friends when Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) was in development at the studio. Did you know, however, that all the “early” voices of Winnie the Pooh were members of the voice casts of other classic Disney animated movies? Sterling Holloway, who did the voice Winnie the Pooh, was also the voice of Mr. Stork in Dumbo (1941), Adult Flower in Bambi (1942), Professor Holloway in The Three Caballeros (1944), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book (1967), and Roquefort the Mouse in The Aristocats (1970). He also narrated several of Disney’s lesser-known shorts including Peter and the Wolf (1946), Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952), and Goliath 2 (1960), and he voiced Amos Mouse in a short about a fictional story about Benjamin Franklin’s friendship with talking Mouse called Ben and Me (1953).
John Fiedler, who was cast as Piglet (and who continued to portray Piglet in every “Winnie the Pooh” film and television adaptation until his death in 2005), also portrayed the Church Mouse in Robin Hood (1973), the Deacon Owl in The Rescuers (1977), the Porcupine in The Fox and the Hound (1981), and the Old Man in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000). Paul Winchell, who lent his voice to Tigger, and like John Fielder, voiced Tigger until his death, which was also in 2005, also played the roles of Shun Gon, the Siamese Cat in The Aristocats (1970) and Boomer the Woodpecker in The Fox and the Hound (1981). He also did the voice of Zummi Gummi the Gummy Bear on television for Disney’s television series Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1985-1991). (John Fiedler and Paul Winchell were also good friends in real life, and they both died one day apart from each other: Winchell on June 24th (82 years of age), 2005, and Fiedler on June 25th, 2005 (80 years of age)).
Long before Barbara Luddy was cast as Kanga in Winnie the Pooh, she had previously done the voices of Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955), Merryweather the Fairy in Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Rover in 101 Dalmatians (1961). She also played the Mother Rabbit and the Mother Church Mouse in Robin Hood (1973). Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s brother) voiced Roo, and he also played Colonel Hathi the Elephant’s son, Hathi Jr. in The Jungle Book (1967). Junius Matthews had performed as Archimedes the Owl in The Sword in the Stone (1963) and shared the role of the Fox in the animated sequence in Mary Poppins (1964), with Dal McKennon, before landing the role of Rabbit. Sebastian Cabot who narrated all of the Winnie the Pooh shorts also played the roles of Sir Ector in The Sword in the Stone (1963), and Bagheera the Panther in The Jungle Book (1967). Cabot also acted in two live-action films for Disney, Westward Ho, the Wagons (1956), and Johnny Tremain (1957).
Ralph Wright, who worked primarily as a screenwriter for the Disney studios, voiced Eeyore. While that was the only role he acted for the studio, he co-wrote the screenplays for many of the studio’s shorts and films (i.e. Goofy’s Glider (1940), Bambi (1942), Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952), Sleeping Beauty (1959). The character of Gopher has been voiced by a number of actors over the years, but the very first person to do it was Howard Morris, primarily known throughout the world as Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show (1963-1965). Like Ralph Wright, that was the only role that Bass acted for Disney. The role of Christopher Robin has been by 13 different young men from 1966-present, though the only person to do it to have another Disney role outside of Winnie the Pooh, was Bruce Reitherman who voiced him Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966). The following year, Reitherman voiced “Mowgli” the Man Cub in The Jungle Book (1967). (Reitherman was also the youngest son of Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman who was one of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men. “Woolie” Reitherman directed the first two Winnie the Pooh shorts, The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and many other shorts and films for the studio. “Woolie” Reitherman’s two elder sons, Richard and Robert shared the role of Wart/Arthur in The Sword in the Stone (1963) with Rickie Sorenson.) And finally, Owl was voiced by Hal Smith in all of the original shorts. Smith temporarily took over the role of Winnie the Pooh himself for Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983) and Welcome to Pooh Corner (1983-1986), before the role was passed full-time to Jim Cummings for the TV Series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991). In addition to Owl, Smith also took over the role of Goofy, after his original voice, Pinto Colvig, died in 1967, he voiced Philippe the Horse in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Jafar’s horse in Aladdin (1992), and he continues to voice Owl today in all of the movies and shorts that have succeeded The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991), with the exception of Craig Ferguson doing it in Winnie the Pooh (2011). Smith and Jim Cummings have also alternated turns voicing Pooh.
Jim Cummings, who permanently took over the role of Tigger in 1990 from Paul Winchell due to his retirement (though Winchell did voice Tigger for 4 more Winnie the Pooh films, as well as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction for the Disney theme parks), like his predecessor, Sterling Holloway, Jim Cummings has an equally, if not, even bigger, Disney resume, having lend his voice all kinds of Disney films and television shows, including Ed in The Lion King (1994) the singing voices of Chief Powhatan and Kekata in Pocahontas (1995), the Guards and Gypsies in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and the trial role of Nessus the River Centaur, the Tall Thebian, and the Elder Thebian in Hercules (1997), and Ray in The Princess and the Frog (2009). Cummings singing voice was dubbed in for Jeremy Irons singing voice in The Lion King (1994) for the song “Be Prepared” when Irons fell sick due to his voice and was unable to complete recording the song. In addition to lending his voice to The Return of Jafar (1994), Aladdin and the King of Thieves (1996), Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998), Brother Bear 2 (2006) (all of which are direct-to-video sequels), his voice can also be heard in several Disney television shows, including DuckTales (1987-1990), Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers (1989-1990), TaleSpin (1990-1991), Darkwing Duck (1991-1995), Goof Troop (1992-1993) (He voiced Pete, Goofy’s “frienemie” a role that he would continue to do for many other television shows and movies, including A Goofy Movie (1995), and it’s direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000)), Bonkers (1993-1994), Aladdin (1994-1995), Timon and Pumbaa (1995-1999), Gargoyles (1994-1996), House of Mouse (2001-2002), and The Legend of Tarzan (2001-2003).
Winnie the Pooh and his friends are undoubtedly some of the most loved cartoon characters of all time. They always tell good stories of friendship, and the “friends” who voiced those characters are a major reason the characters are loved by generations. It’s a shame that in reality, bears aren’t quite as sweet or friendly as Winnie the Pooh. We can at least be glad, though, that Pooh will always be our friend, because he will always exist in the world of imagination
No comments:
Post a Comment