Magic Earmuffs

Christopher Robin, you know you can't skate without your earmuffs... his Mum calls. He rushes out to play. Piglet is making a snowman, as the others whiz by on a snowboard and pick him up along the way. Gopher's ice fishing and Roo wants to play a game of Ice Cookie- (they don't have a real hockey puck) Piglet doesn't want to play- he can't skate and is terribly embarrassed. Christopher Robin gives Piglet his earmuffs and tells Piglet that he can skate with them and Piglet thinks they're magic. Eeyore is goalie, and eats the puck as it's hit toward him. He's knocked on his back, then gets up and walks off. After the game, Pooh goes to retrieve a hunny put and the gang go with him. The ice on the lake starts to crack. Piglet sees and is horrified as they're heading toward a waterfall. He puts on his earmuffs, grabs the gang's skates, and starts skating from ice piece to ice piece. He hurls the skates to the gang and tried to skate to safety, but the earmuffs come off and Piglet loses confidence. Christopher Robin tells him that the skating is in him and Piglet narrowly manages to escape. He is glad he learned to skate... Though just as the Spring thaw set in...

Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Gopher, Roo, Owl, Christopher Robin, Christopher Robin's Mother

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.