Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving

Perhaps one of my less favorite Winnie the Pooh films, this one is less a full length movie and more of three shorts that are tied together with the basic Fall/Winter theme. A lot of the animation is recycled from "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and only about five minutes of this 70 minute feature is actually brand new animation.

Starting us off is "Groundpiglet Day" in which the gang mistakenly thinks it's actually February 2nd instead of November. Since they cannot find a groundhog, they decide it's best to dress Piglet up as one to see if there will be more Winter or if it's time for Spring. One of the more amusing misunderstandings comes later in the episode when Tigger, Rabbit and Pooh assume that Piglet (who ran off to find a real groundhog) was turned into a snowman and melted in the bowl they put the snowman in.

Moving into our second short, we find that it is time for Thanksgiving. Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving largely finds the gang preparing to celebrate the holiday in the only way they know how. Ample amounts of Honey, lemonade, haycorns, thistles and ice cream. However, Rabbit, always the one to barge in and take over tells them they are doing it all wrong and promptly assigns each person a task. We get to spend a bit of each time watching each task, though in the end things still don't quite come together and a lesson is learned by all.

The final short is probably the one with the most drama and depth, which is really refreshing for Winnie the Pooh media given how it's been catering towards tots recently. As the gang prepares for Christmas, we are treated to a story from Rabbit that explains his relationship with a young bird named Kessie. While I do enjoy the final act of this film, Kessie's voice can be rather grating at time and is perhaps the sole factor that takes away from the full enjoyability of this part. As it turns out, Rabbit rescues Kessie when she is young, and raises her in his home but soon becomes quite attached and refuses to let her learn to fly. As the movie closes we get a surprise visit (Take a guess as to who shows up) and thus ends Seasons of Giving.

Overall, the animation improves with each segment but there are still a couple things that take away from the film such as the voice and animation inconsistencies. Despite starting out rough, the film does improve and is still a fairly distracting hour from things.

Garfield's Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, what better holiday for the lovable feline to celebrate than this?

Garfield's holiday specials are much like the Peanuts in a couple ways. The first is that the animation is pretty simplistic, which suits it really well given how it is based off comic strips. It also does not detract from the story and characters by having overly ornate backgrounds. Even if the ornate ones look nice. A second way is how timeless it can feel. I've been watching these specials as long as I can remember, and I know that I will continue to watch these in the years to come. Even if both are a bit plain, they keep straight to the point generally and have a charming quality.

Moving on though to the special at hand, we are given a pretty common bunch of Garfield strips that are pieced together to form this 24 minute short. We find that Garfield is, shockingly, overweight after a trip to see Dr. Liz and is put on a diet. Sadly for Garfield, this is right in time for Thanksgiving. Also taking place at the vet's office is Jon as he attempts to woo the poor doctor, and actually manages to score a date.

What soon follows is a somewhat slow middle part as we watch Garfield suffer through his diet. We also find that Jon isn't all that great of a cook when it comes to Thanksgiving at least, and manages to mess things up greatly no thanks to Garfield who adds a zealous amount of garlic so that everyone else must suffer with him.

After a few more minutes of slow paced comedy, Garfield is finally given the ok by Liz to eat again. Of course, with the food ruined and Jon's culinary skills lacking it's time to call in Grandma! Before you can say Biker Blues, the Grandma is there and ready to help secretly while Jon distracts poor Liz with the history of Thanksgiving.

While it's not quite as well known as Garfield's Halloween or Christmas specials, Garfield's Thanksgiving is still a rather nice addition to the holiday lineup. The characters are fun and enjoyable, and despite a weaker middle bit it still holds up rather well overall for me.