‘WINNIE THE POOH: SPRINGTIME WITH ROO’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Easter Time with Roo, Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh and Friends
This film has become a recent favourite of mine on Disney+ 😀
When it comes to Easter, you don’t find many films celebrating the occasion. And I don’t mean in terms of the biblical sense with films and TV dramatisations of the Easter story involving Jesus like ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘The Miracle Maker’ and ‘The Passion of the Christ’.
I’m talking about in the secular sense when people think about Easter Eggs and such. You don’t find many Easter films in the same way you find many Christmas films that celebrate Santa Claus and such. There are a few Easter-related TV productions and films.
The ones that spring to mind include the 2011 film ‘Hop’, the 2014 film ‘The Dog Who Saved Easter’ and the film that we’re talking about here – ‘Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo’ (or simply called ‘Springtime with Roo’), which was released on DVD in 2004. 🙂
My Dad managed to find this film by chance when searching the Disney+ library on our home computer. And it’s very fortunate that this happens to be an Easter film featuring the Winnie the Pooh characters, as envisioned in the Disney manner compared to A. A. Milne’s.
I’m pleased my Dad found ‘Springtime with Roo’ when he did back in 2024, especially with it being an Easter film. I’ve enjoyed it very much and have seen this film more than twice. 😀 I’m sure I’ll be seeing this film again on Disney+ in 2026, 2027 and perhaps beyond.
For those unfamiliar with the world of Winnie the Pooh, especially in the Disney sense, the character is based on the books by A. A. Milne with illustrations by E. H. Shepard. As well as Winnie the Pooh, there’s Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo and a lot more.
Many of these characters are toys that belong to a young boy named Christopher Robin, and they have many adventures in the Hundred Arce Wood. Incidentally, Christopher Robin doesn’t appear in ‘Springtime with Roo’. Nor does Owl and Gopher for that matter. 😐
Winnie the Pooh has made lots of appearances over the years. As well as ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ based on A. A. Milne’s original tales, there’s ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ TV series, which I did see quite frequently on TV and VHS.
There’s also been films like ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin’, ‘The Tigger Movie’, ‘Pooh’s Heffalump Movie’ and the 2018 film ‘Christopher Robin’, starring Ewan McGregor. Some of these Disney ‘Winnie the Pooh’ films I haven’t seen yet.
By 2004, I’d grown out of watching ‘Winnie the Pooh’ in his Disney films, so, I was unaware of ‘Springtime with Roo’ when it came out on DVD. It’s also easy to miss out on the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ films that were released at cinemas, considering many of them were produced.
But that doesn’t mean to say I didn’t want to watch them. My priorities were on other things at the time including ‘Shrek 2’, ‘Spider-Man 2’ and the 2004 film ‘Thunderbirds’. Thus, it took me so long to finally see ‘Springtime with Roo’ on Disney+ around early 2024.
Apparently, when it comes to direct-to-video releases starring Winnie the Pooh like ‘A Very Merry Pooh Year’ and ‘Seasons of Giving’, they tend to reuse episodes from ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ TV series. This is something that I wasn’t entirely aware of.
‘Springtime with Roo’ is considered a direct-to-video ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film that features an original storyline. Well, sort-of original. There are elements of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens to consider, but that’s something I’ll get into more later in this review.
The film focuses on Roo, the young kangaroo who’s the son of Kanga, the mother kangaroo in the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ world. It was interesting to see Roo have a central role in this ‘Winnie the Pooh’ story compared to other stories where that’s not always the case.
According to Sarah Sutton (Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’) who played Baby Roo in a 1970-71 theatre musical production of ‘Winnie the Pooh’, A. A. Milne didn’t write a specific story for Roo, which I find interesting. I did think of Sarah as Roo when watching this film. 😀
Whilst this film contains elements of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, ‘Springtime with Roo’ does feel at times like an original screenplay rather than being a story based on an A. A. Milne tale. After all, there’s one writer for the film who happens to be Tom Rogers.
With that said, there’s an echo of the style of storytelling from ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ where the narrator is reading through the pages of a book, as if this was an A. A. Milne story, which I appreciate and find quite entertaining when watching this. 🙂
In ‘Springtime with Roo’, it’s Easter time in the Hundred Acre Wood. Roo and his friends Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore are looking forward to celebrating Easter at Rabbit’s house. However, when they arrive, Rabbit has organised a Spring Cleaning Day instead. 😐
Roo and his friends try to remind Rabbit what day it is, but it’s clear he doesn’t want to celebrate Easter. Surprised, Roo and his friends eventually agree with the tasks they’re given to clean up Rabbit’s house. But in the process, they find Rabbit’s Easter ornaments.
Assuming Rabbit simply forgot about Easter, the gang decide to surprise him by decorating his house with the ornaments. But Rabbit returns to discover this, he’s very angry and he has everyone kicked out of his home for disobeying his orders, which is shocking.
Going back to the ‘Christmas Carol’ side of things, this is where we see Rabbit’s character development come into play. As well as Roo’s story, it’s Rabbit’s story too. We get to journey back in time to learn what caused Rabbit cancel Easter in the present day. 😐
And by ‘journey back in time’, I mean Tigger takes Rabbit with him back through the pages of the book to Chapter 3 to learn more about what happened the year before. An intriguing way to tell the ‘Christmas Carol’ story in ‘Springtime with Roo’ by going to Chapter 3 itself.
It turns out Rabbit has been the Easter Bunny in the Hundred Acre Wood for a very long time. Unfortunately, Tigger wanted to give Roo a happier Easter compared to what Rabbit was trying to do. Tigger inadvertently took the Easter Bunny role Rabbit on that Easter day.
When Rabbit refuses to hear what Tigger has to say and even what the film’s narrator has to say, he soon gets to see a potential future where his friends are gone because he cancelled Easter. Again, The ‘Christmas Carol’ storyline comes into play again in this film.
Even Tigger says, “What the Dickens?” by the film’s end, as if the references to ‘A Christmas Carol’ in an Easter sense in the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ world weren’t obvious enough. 😀 At least the film acknowledges it’s basing its story on a classic Dickens tale. 🙂
In the terms of the film’s cast, Roo is voiced by Jimmy Bennett. This is one of Jimmy’s earliest acting roles. He would go on to play Billy the Lonely Boy in the 2004 film ‘The Polar Express’ and, apparently, he played young James T. Kirk in the 2009 ‘Star Trek’ reboot film.
Rabbit is voiced by the late Ken Samson. Ken Samson has voiced Rabbit in many Disney ‘Winnie the Pooh’ productions, including ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ TV series and many films like ‘Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin’. 🙂
Jim Cummings is the voice of both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger throughout this film, taking over from Sterling Holloway and Hal Smith (Pooh) and Paul Winchell (Tigger) respectively. Tigger has more to do in this film compared to Pooh, especially when interacting with Roo.
With that said, Pooh does get to have his own song in the film, where he inhales dusts and sneezes violently whilst spring-cleaning Rabbit’s house. Pooh’s violent sneeze causes the box containing Rabbit’s Easter ornaments to be knocked down from a very high shelf.
Piglet is voiced by John Fielder, who originally voiced the character in the three short films from 1966 to 1974 that formed ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ in 1977. Sadly, John Fielder passed away in June 2005 shortly after ‘Springtime with Roo’ was made in 2004. 😦
Eeyore is voiced by Peter Cullen. It’s amusing that Peter Cullen is the voice of Eeyore, as he’s well-known for voicing Optimus Prime in ‘Transformers’. 😀 Of course, he’s voiced Eeyore in other productions, including ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ on TV. 🙂
Kanga, Roo’s mother, is voiced by Kath Soucie. As well as voicing Kanga in other ‘Winnie the Pooh’ film productions like ‘The Tigger Movie’, Kath has voiced Tuffy the mouse in the ‘Tom and Jerry’ film versions of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. 😀
The film’s narrator happens to be the late David Ogden Stiers, who voiced Cogsworth in the 1991 film ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins in the 1995 film ‘Pocahontas’. I enjoyed the film’s narrator having an active role in ‘Springtime with Roo’. 🙂
There are enjoyable songs and music by Mark Watters featured throughout ‘Springtime with Roo’ like ‘We’re Huntin’ Eggs Today’ sung by Roo, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore, ‘Sniffly Sniff’ sung by Pooh, and there’s ‘Easter Day with You’ sung by Roo, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. 🙂
There’s also ‘The Way It Must Done’ performed mostly by Rabbit with a reprise retitled ‘The Grandest Easter of Them All’. ‘Easter Day with You’ also gets a reprise when sung by Roo only and as a finale by the film’s end. The song’s melodies are very lovely to listen to.
If you wish to purchase ‘Springtime with Roo’ on DVD, the special features are as follows. There are the two games ‘Sounds of Spring’ and ‘Decorating Rabbit’s House’. There’s the ‘Disney’s Art Project’ featurette, a first look at ‘Pooh’s Heffalump Movie’ and a first look at ‘The Magical World of Winnie the Pooh’ (which includes two episodes from ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ called ‘Honey for a Bunny’ and ‘Trap as Trap Can’).
I’m very pleased I saw ‘Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo’ on Disney+ in 2024 and I’m pleased to have revisited the film for this review in 2025. The film has become a favourite for me at Easter time lately. It’s such a sweet Easter film featuring ‘A Christmas Carol’ homage to it.
I’m sure I’ll be revisiting ‘Springtime with Roo’ again for future Easters to come. It’s very nice to sit down and relax to, and it’s equally fascinating how the film has Roo be the centre of attention as well as tackling an Easter story within the Disney ‘Winnie the Pooh’ world.
‘Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo’ rating – 9/10
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