| A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of the dinner scene | |
| Written by | Carter Crocker |
| Directed by | Jun Falkenstein |
| Voices of | |
| Music by | Carl Johnson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company | Walt Disney Television Animation |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release |
|
A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving is a 1998 made-for-TV special featuring the voice talents of Jim Cummings, Paul Winchell, and John Fiedler. The special shows Pooh and his friends learning the true meaning of Thanksgiving. It was nominated for Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program.[1]
Plot
It's Thanksgiving in the Hundred Acre Wood and Winnie the Pooh and his friends bring food for the feast. Pooh brings honey, Piglet brings acorns, Gopher brings lemonade, Owl brings biscuits, Eeyore brings thistles, and Tigger brings "hot chocolatey" ice cream. But Rabbit tells them that they need a real feast with turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie and sends them on a scavenger hunt to get them (Eeyore and Tigger to pick the cranberries, Gopher to gather pumpkins for the pie, and Pooh and Piglet to get the turkey).[2][3][4] When everything goes wrong (Tigger and Eeyore losing the cranberries, Pooh and Piglet mistaking the former two for a turkey caught in their trap, the decorations and pumpkin pie getting destroyed), Rabbit believes Thanksgiving is ruined and therefore cannot proceed. Despite everyone else giving up on Thanksgiving as well, Pooh comes to realize that it's more about giving and sharing what you have with your friends. In light of this realization, he gathers all of his friends back up (including the initially-hesitant Rabbit) and they proceed with their original Thanksgiving feast.
Cast
- Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh / Tigger's singing voice
- John Fiedler as Piglet
- Steve Schatzberg as Piglet's singing voice
- Paul Winchell as Tigger
- Peter Cullen as Eeyore
- Ken Sansom as Rabbit
- Andre Stojka as Owl
- Michael Gough as Gopher
- Brady Bluhm as Christopher Robin
- Frankie J. Galasso as Christopher Robin's singing voice
- David Warner as Narrator
Broadcast
The special originally aired Thanksgiving Day 1998 at 8 pm on ABC.[5] It reaired every year on Thanksgiving until 2003. According to TVTango.com's ratings database, the first airing brought in a 3.8 household Nielsen rating.
Home video
The video has not been released by itself, with the exception of specially released tapes that were given to members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for that year's show. It was released as part of the VHS cassette Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving with the narrator's lines were redubbed by Laurie Main, and the ending scene was shortened down, along with select episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1999.
References
- ↑ 1999 Primetime Emmy Awards from IMDb
- ↑ New York Times Review (1998)
- ↑ Spreier, Jeanne (November 22, 1998). "Pooh serves Thanksgiving dessert" (Fee required). Dallas Morning News. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
- ↑ Langdale, Joss (November 24, 1998). "Pooh and friends make Thanksgiving special" (Scanned image). Georgia: Calhoun Times. Walker County Messenger. pp. 1, 2. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
- ↑ King, Susan (Nov 26, 1998). "Weekend TV; Parades, Specials Put Viewers on the Holiday Bandwagon". Los Angeles Times. p. 65. Archived from the original (Fee required) on October 20, 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
'Tis the weekend for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a new Winnie the Pooh special, the Hollywood Christmas Parade and several ice skating specials.
