Disney Plans New "Winnie the Pooh" Movie

In an age when high-tech movies seem to dominate the box office, Disney has plans to go back to basics with an new animated "Winnie the Pooh" movie in 2011. There will be no computer-generated special effects and no 3D glasses required.

John Lasseter, the genius story-teller and innovator behind the Pixar classics like "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "Up," is overseeing a production that harkens back to the Disney animated movies of past generations.

The lush new "Winnie the Pooh" film premiering in the summer of 2011 will be hand-drawn, just like the classic films that made Disney a family favorite. In the tradition of movies like 'Snow White," "Fantasia" and "Cinderella," the new "Winnie the Pooh" features the rich, subtle background colors that are immediately recognizable as classic Disney.

The new "Winnie the Pooh" movie will be the first animated version of the classic A. A. Milne children's stories produced for theaters by Disney since short feature stories debuted more than 30 years ago.

"We wanted to create a movie for the big screen that had the charm and wit of those original shorts," producer Peter Del Vecho told the Associated Press. "What originally endeared all of us - adults and children - to these characters was that they were stuffed animals that came to life in the imagination of a child. We wanted to rekindle that imagination in a big way."

All the familiar "Winnie the Pooh" characters will appear in the new 2011 version of the movie, including Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl and Christopher Robin. The film will reportedly include five new original songs.

But the main attraction for parents, if not their children, will be the retro look of the film. Still photos released by Disney, along with the recently-released trailer for the movie, unveil a beautifully-illustrated hand-drawn film that calls to mind the classic Disney movies beloved for generations.

Once a standard, the old-fashioned animation style now stands out in a marketplace of mass-produced soulless animated movies with none of the character of this version of "Winnie the Pooh." It is a credit to Disney - and Lasseter - that in 2011 the studio can dazzle us as much with low-tech movies as they can with their spectacular computer-generated marvels.

Disney's new "Winnie the Pooh" movie is scheduled to open in theaters on July 15, 2011.