Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

And we have a bit of an Easter-themed Disney+ Roundup on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ today! This specifically concerns the third film ‘Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo’. And I’ve seen two ‘Winnie the Pooh’ films lately, which I’ve enjoyed very much. First things first: ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’!

Last year, I reviewed the 2009 film ‘Race to Witch Mountain’. Apparently, it was the latest in the ‘Witch Mountain’ film series. So, it made sense that I check out the first film ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’, which was released in March 1975. I greatly enjoyed checking out this film on Disney+. 🙂

The film is based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Alexander H. Key. It tells the story of two teenage orphans who possess special powers. They attract the attention of a villainous billionaire named Aristotle Bolt. The two teens end up on the run, and befriend a widower who helps them out.

Kim Richards stars as Tia and Ike Eisenmann stars as Tony, the two teens with special abilities. Tia has psychic powers whist Tony has telekinetic powers. It’s established, especially by the film’s end, that Tia and Tony are aliens from outer space. This is confirmed when a spaceship takes them away.

Eddie Albert stars as Jason O’Day, the widower that the kids befriend who’s bitter and travelling across the country from home. There’s Ray Milland as the ruthless billionaire named Aristotle Bolt and Donald Pleasance (who’s been in ‘The Barchester Chronicles’ and the 1978 film ‘Halloween’) as attorney Luca Deranian.

I found ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’ more enjoyable than ‘Race to Witch Mountain’. Not that ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ is terrible by any means, but I found ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ straightforward and easier to follow, especially when it concerned the journeys of the two teenagers – Tia and Tony. 🙂

On Good Friday last week, my parents and I saw ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin’. Admittedly, we saw this on Disney+ back in late 2022, but I didn’t get the chance to review it. This is a ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film I used to like watching on VHS when I was a kid in the 1990s.

‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure’ is a 1997 film that follows Pooh and his friends on a journey to find and rescue their friend Christopher Robin from a place called Skull. They confront their own insecurities, including Piglet trying to be very brave, Tigger trying to be strong and Rabbit trying to be really smart.

Eeyore also joins Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Rabbit on their adventure. 😀 Revisiting this film on Disney+ has been a treat for me. It came as a surprise to me that the late David Warner narrated this ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film and I’ve met him at conventions over the years. It was nice to hear his voice. 🙂

Winnie the Pooh is voiced by Jim Cummings, Piglet is voiced by John Fielder and Tigger is voiced by Paul Winchell. Rabbit is voiced by Ken Sansom and Eeyore is voiced by Peter Cullen. I find it amazing that Eeyore is voiced by the voice artist of Optimus Prime in the ‘Transformers’ cartoons and films. 🙂

Owl also appears in this film, voiced by Andre Stojka, and there’s Christopher Robin, voiced by Brady Bluhm. ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure’ can at times be a creepy film, especially with our heroes on their journey to Skull, but I’ve very fond memories of this ‘Winnie the Pooh’ fim and I’m glad that I’ve seen it again.

The third film I saw on Disney+ is ‘Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo’, which was released in 2004. This is an actual Easter film that my Dad managed to find by chance when looking up the Disney+ library. I’m glad he found it, as it’s an Easter film I’ve been able to see twice. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.

The film has Roo, who’s like the main star of course, and his friends Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore looking forward to celebrating Easter at Rabbit’s house. But it turns out Rabbit has organised a Spring Cleaning Day instead and doesn’t want to celebrate Easter. Roo and his friends are surprised by this.

There are elements of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens featured in this ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film. This is when we travel back in time to find out what caused Rabbit to cancel Easter in the present day and Rabbit gets to see a potential future where his friends are gone because he cancelled Easter.

As well as being Roo’s story, this is also Rabbit’s story, as it turns out he’s been the Easter Bunny in the Hundred Acre Wood for a very long time. Roo is voiced by Jimmy Bennett whilst Rabbit is voiced by Ken Samson. Jim Cummings gets to voice both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger throughout this film. 🙂

John Fielder is the voice of Piglet, Peter Cullen is the voice of Eeyore and Kath Soucie is the voice of Kanga, Roo’s mother. The film’s narrator is David Ogden Stiers. I’m pleased I saw ‘Springtime with Roo’ recently on Disney+ and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting it again when it comes to Easter next year. 😀

It was a pleasure to check out the two ‘Winnie the Pooh’ films I saw recently on Disney+, including ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure’ and ‘Springtime with Roo’ – the latter being a nice Easter film. I’m glad I saw ‘Escape to Witch Mountain’ too, especially as it’s the original film to the ‘Witch Mountain’ film series. 🙂

Stay tuned for another Disney+ Roundup on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ soon. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂