A MarkInTexas Made-For-TV Thanksgiving Dinner: A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving (1998)

There isn't really a reason in the world for there to be a Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving special.  The stories takes place in England, where Thanksgiving is not celebrated.  But Disney, which has owned the rights to A.A. Milne's characters since the early 1960s, already had Christmas and Halloween specials involving them, so why not one involving a holiday that none of them were likely to celebrate?

To be fair, A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving is fairly delightful, as are most of Disney's productions involving the characters.  And given that, other than Christopher Robin, none of the characters speak with British accents, its relatively easy to pretend that they're all proud American animals.

The plot involves Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Tigger, and Gopher coming together to celebrate the holiday, each bringing a contribution to the dinner, such as honey, acorns, and melted ice cream.  This doesn't sit well with fussy Rabbit at all, who decides that what everyone needs is a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with traditional Thanksgiving foods, such as turkey and cranberry sauce.  Taking charge, he divvies up responsibility to finding and preparing the new meal to the others, without actually making sure any of them know what they're doing.  Of course, this can only lead to disaster.

Rabbit seems to have decided whose doing what on the basis of comedy, for example assigning Pooh and Piglet the task of catching a turkey, even though the two of them have no idea what a turkey looks like nor how to capture it.

Of course, the point of a special like this is not to present unexpected twists and turns (only small children will probably be surprised by the outcome).  It's always nice to spend time with Pooh and Piglet and Tigger, and indeed the special suffers when it shifts its focus to the much less interesting character of Gopher and Owl (whose subplot is generally played more for slapstick laughs than even Tigger and Eeyore's).  There's also a nice message at the end.  The original songs are largely forgettable, though.  This also marked one of the final times that Paul Witchell, one of only two original cast members (along with Piglet voice John Fiedler) still playing the characters at that point, would play Tigger.

A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving is a step down from the theatrical shorts, and even prior TV specials.  But its sweet and has a good message, and given the affection we naturally have for the characters, that's enough.

Next time: The most famous--and most unconventional--animated Thanksgiving dinner ever.