A re-watch of Pooh's Grand Adventure reinforces in me why it is my least favorite of the Pooh movies, though it does have a terrific soundtrack. It's the first film to really stray far from the Milne canon, playing excessively fast and loose with the Busy Backson chapter from The House at Pooh Corner. I believe that's a result of being produced as a direct-to-video release by the TV animation group that gave us the equally freewheeling The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh series. The whole adventure is forcefully squeezed between scenes in the closing chapter of the preceding The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie to give it some unearned credibility.

This is the darkest and most morose of the Pooh movies, with the Hundred-Acre friends searching for Christopher Robin because they believe him to be kidnapped by a monster and, though it is unspoken, possibly dead. The rescue is plagued with members of the group having self-doubts about their bravery, strength, or intelligence, which seems lifted directly from The Wizard of Oz. Rabbit, Piglet, and Tigger are Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and Tin Woodman to Pooh's Dorothy and Eeyore's Toto. The rumored Skullosaurus serves as their Wicked Witch. Without a yellow-brick road on hand, a map serves to wind the quest through creepy encounters amidst dangerous mountains that seem far from the hundred acres of coziness where they usually reside. Despite Pooh's bouts of depression, a happy ending is served up for the kiddies.

Without the songs to alleviate the gloom, this book adaptation is stuck hitting the major story points, getting in and out as quickly as possible while leaning on the bits about growing one's self-confidence. It's a decent try brought down by less-than-decent source material.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )

I saw this movie when I was a kid, and so when I finished reading it to my daughter we found the movie on Netflix and watched it together. Soon she was saying "Christopher Robin!" along with the other characters. So cute! (She's two and a half at the time of this writing.) I get the feeling that the book was written after the movie, because the movie has more explanation in it - such as the fact that Owl is making up everything he's writing on the map. But still, a fun story about trying to find Christopher Robin when he goes away to school. Rather a lot of text for my toddler, but that would probably be fine for an older child.

Morals: "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." 5/5
Storyline: Interesting, with more steps to it than your standard children's book. 5/5
Pictures: Generally full-page or two-page spreads, although some of them are smaller. There's a lot of text, which interferes with the pictures sometimes. 4/5 ( )

I gave this book a four star rating because I think it would keeps students engaged and find out how the story ends. Also, for children who are in first or second grade, this book may teach them how to spell the word school. In this story, Christopher Robin tells Winnie the Pooh that he is not going to be around as much because he has to go to school, but in a note that Pooh finds, the owl misreads the note and tells him he's going to skull, not school. This then makes Pooh and friends very worried that the Skullasaurus is going to harm Christopher Robin, so Pooh and friends set out on a journey to rescue Christopher Robin. The language in this book is very clear and easy for early elementary students to follow. The book was in third person which I think is best because it wouldn't have made sense in any other point of view. ( )