Balloonatics

Dum de dum... Pooh's on his way to Christopher Robin's house. He shows Pooh a red balloon. Pooh asks him if he can take it for a walk, and Chris says he can if he's careful not to pop it, as Pooh goes flying with it. Rabbit's going ballistic trying to scare crows away from his garden. He sees Pooh coming along with his balloon. Rabbit wants the balloon. He bribes him with some hunny.... fresh hunny to borrow the balloon. He asks Rabbit to look after the balloon, but to be very, very careful with it. Rabbit takes it and draws a scary face on it and makes a scare crow, which frightens the feathers off the crows and Rabbit laughs manically. The scarecrow also scares Piglet and he warns Tigger about the big monster... Tigger bounces the thing and Piglet goes flying with the degassed balloon. Rabbit's frantic about the balloon. Tigger catches Piglet and the deflated balloon falls on Rabbit's head, and Rabbit's frantic because the balloon's flat. He, Tigger and Piglet pretend that the balloon's sleeping. Rabbit confesses to Pooh that they popped the balloon. Pooh decides to tell Christopher Robin the balloon, but Rabbit is scared that he'll never talk to them again. He makes them promise never to tell him... Raise your right hand and right legs... Pooh can't sleep and has a nightmare... Rabbit has a big red rock... Piglet is dressed as a balloon, Tigger tries to blow a bubble gum balloon for Christopher Robin He comes to them and they confess. Pooh confesses too, but he says that it's only untied. Pooh rises into the sly, and the others grab on for the ride...

Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, Christopher Robin

Welcome to Pooh Corner...

Winnie the Pooh, prized playmate of human boy Christopher Robin, has also become one of the most beloved honey-eating, life-pondering cartoon bears of all time. Pooh lived in the Hundred Acre Woods along with Christopher Robin's other stuffed animals, who all had lives of their own with or without the boy.

Pooh's best friend was little Piglet, who was the worrier and the conscience of the two. They would often head over to the overly chatty Rabbit's for tea, usually with disastrous results (e.g. - Pooh got stuck in Rabbit's narrow doorway and had to sleep there overnight until the gang could push him out. Silly old bear...)

Wise old Owl and motherly Kanga were the mature ones of the group, while rambunctious little Roo and bouncy Tigger were clearly the more hyperactive members. The lisping Gopher was the sarcastic one, while Eeyore, a donkey who was constantly losing his tail, was easily the most depressed.

Pooh and company started off as characters in a series of 1920's children's books by British author A.A. Milne. In the mid-sixties, Walt Disney created a series of theatrical featurettes featuring the Milne creations (later packaged into the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh), and by 1970, the Pooh crew had a series of primetime TV specials. It wasn't until 1983 that the animals got their own series, with the characters played by actors in costumes on the Disney Channel's Welcome to Pooh Corner.

In 1988, the gang returned to cartoon format in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. After a year, the show was combined with Gummi Bears, then continued for three more years of new episodes (the last two as a stand-alone program... again!). This new Pooh made a few changes (most notably, Christopher Robin now spoke with an American accent), but the sweet-natured spirit of Milne's original remained intact. A hit with young Pooh fans, the show was also appreciated by older viewers, who rewarded The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with two Emmy Awards for Best Children's Program.

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh left the air after the 1992-93 season, but the show returned later in the decade as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning lineup.