Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh shorts. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It was notable for being the last animated short produced by Walt Disney, who died during its production.

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the 1968 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. The Academy Award was awarded posthumously to Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer two years before the film's initial release. It is also the only Winnie the Pooh production that won an Academy Award. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, which was released six years later in 1974, was nominated for the same Academy Award, but lost to Closed Mondays.

The animated featurette also served as an inspiration for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride in Walt Disney World in which the rider experiences several scenes from the cartoon, including Pooh's Heffalump and Woozle dream.

Plot
The story begins when Winnie the Pooh is on his way to his thoughtful spot. Today is a very windy day. But as Pooh sits thinking, Gopher pops out of the ground and advises Pooh to get out of there. Pooh who misunderstood his warning goes across the Hundred Acre Wood to wish everyone a happy Winds-day. Pooh first goes to his friend Piglet, who gets tangled with his scarf in the air like a kite on a string. As Pooh struggles to keep a hold of the scarf he passes by Kanga and Roo, wishing them both a happy Winds-day; Eeyore, whose stick house Pooh breaks as he passes; and finally Rabbit, who Pooh inadvertently helps harvest the carrots in his vegetable garden as he slides by.

The blustery wind finally blows Pooh and Piglet over to Owl's treehouse, where he invites them in. Pooh wishes Owl a happy Winds-day, as he has everyone else, but Owl informs them that the wind is due to "a mild spring zephyr" rather than to a particular holiday. The strong wind rocks Owl's house back and forth causing it to sway and eventually both the tree and the house collapse. Owl blames Pooh at first but Pooh says he didn't do it, Christopher Robin notice this and, since it could not be repaired, Eeyore volunteers to seek out a new house for Owl, who proceeds to tell the others stories of his relatives for quite some time; talking from page 41 to page 62.

Meanwhile on page 62, as night falls, the wind is still blowing and Pooh is kept awake by growling and scratching noise and he opens his door for the visitor outside. An orange bouncing tiger named Tigger emerges from outside, rolling over Pooh and sitting on him. Tigger has come looking for something to eat and decides to try some of Pooh's honey. After a few tastes Tigger gets disgusted and decides that Tiggers don't like honey. Before leaving Pooh's house, Tigger tells him that there are Heffalumps and Woozles in the forest that steal honey. Pooh, frightened by Tigger's tale, guards his honey, but eventually falls fast asleep. As he is sleeping, he has a nightmare about Heffalumps and Woozles stealing his honey and chasing him around until he wakes up during a flood-inducing rainfall.

Later, Piglet is washed away from his home. He writes a bottle-note for help just before the waters carry him away sitting on a chair. Pooh manages to reach higher ground with only ten honey pots. However, as he is eating the honey from one of them the rising waters carry him away. Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, Rabbit, and Tigger all gather at Christopher Robin's house, which is situated on the highest ground. Roo finds Piglet's bottle, and Owl flies off to inform Piglet that help is on the way.

Owl manages to reach Piglet and Pooh, but before he can inform them of the impending rescue (and telling them another one of his boring stories) a waterfall threatens to carry them all over the side. Pooh switches places with Piglet as they take the plunge, and luckily for them the waterfall washes them right into Christopher Robin's yard. Thinking that Pooh had rescued Piglet, Christopher Robin decides to throw a party celebrating Pooh's heroic deed. During the party, Eeyore announces that he has found a new home for Owl. He leads everyone over to his discovery, which, known to everyone except for Owl and Eeyore, is Piglet's beech tree. Owl is very impressed with the house, but before anyone can tell him who the home belongs to, Piglet decides that Owl should have the house. Pooh decides to allow Piglet to move into his home and, is very impressed by his selflessness, asks Christopher Robin to make the hero party for two instead of one (although in other episodes, Owl and Piglet will be living in their original homes again).

Home video
The film was released on VHS and Betamax in 1986. It was re-released in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1997, and was also re-released again on July 11, 2000 as part of the "Storybook Classics Collection". This short also shows up as a bonus feature on the 2006 DVD release of Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.

It was also released on the Super 8mm film format by Derann in the early 2000s, making it one of the company's final and rarest films released, with only twelve copies made.

Voice cast

 * Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh
 * Paul Winchell as Tigger
 * John Fiedler as Piglet
 * Clint Howard as Roo
 * Barbara Luddy as Kanga
 * Ralph Wright as Eeyore
 * Hal Smith as Owl
 * Junius Matthews as Rabbit
 * Jon Walmsley as Christopher Robin
 * Howard Morris as Gopher
 * Narrated by Sebastian Cabot

Songs

 * 1) "Winnie the Pooh" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus
 * 2) "A Rather Blustery Day" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by Sterling Holloway
 * 3) "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by Paul Whinchell
 * 4) "Heffalumps and Woozles" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Mellomen
 * 5) "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus
 * 6) "Hip Hip Pooh-Ray!" by Richard & Robert Sherman and sung by the Disney Studio Chorus

Winnie the Pooh featurettes

 * Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)
 * Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
 * Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974)
 * Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983)