I was in Walgreens this morning, and I saw some Winnie-the-pooh candy where pooh was dressed up like a ghost and tigger was dressed up like the devil. the devil?! he had a pitchfork, a cape, horns and a forked tail. it made me think how far disney has allowed a.a. milne’s characters to deviate from milne’s original creation.
when jane was a baby, her favorite dvd was “the many adventures of Winnie the pooh.” one day I decided to watch the making of it, and learned much about the character and his author. pooh bear started out as bedtime stories to the original christopher robin. these evolved into children’s books, which walt disney’s children loved. when walt acquired the rights to the character, he wanted to make sure that he stayed true to the books. in walt’s cartoons, pooh bear is actually animated into a book. he’s often seen jumping over pages and text. all of the original cartoons were inspired by a.a. milne’s stories.
the last chapter in “the many adventures of Winnie the pooh” has christopher robin going away to school and the story ending; but the story didn’t end. disney continued to create pooh bear stories- all of them not written by milne, and most of them not including christopher robin. they also introduced new characters into the hundred acre wood, and evolved many of the existing ones. to me that always seemed strange that they would make a movie or a cartoon that was not originally imagined by milne, or use characters that were not created by milne.
there is a new show on the disney channel called “my friend tigger and pooh.” jane loves it. its about a new friend named darby and her dog, buster. she, pooh and tigger form a team called the super-sleuths and the solve mysteries. I enjoy the show, but I have some problems with it. number 1, they use modern technology in it, like darby’s razor-scooter. second, christopher robin appears in the show! he’s back from school! but pooh does not spend his time with christopher, he spends his time with darby! this makes no sense to me at all.
and it reminds me of what I see all the time in Christianity. we started out, much like disney did. we wanted to stick to the book. we wanted to be true to the original text, and to its original hero, jesus Himself. but as times change, we allow things to evolve to suit our purposes. we let jesus evolve into an American or a republican, or a social activist, or a hippie, or even a politician. we take his words out of context to confirm our caricature of jesus.
I’m a purist. with Winnie the pooh, for sure, but when it comes to jesus, definitely. if all the pooh bear fans really want to know milne’s stories,, they should go get a copy of “now we are six,” and any other of milne’s books. and if we want to know jesus, we need to meditate on the words of matthew, mark, luke and john.
disney made a joke about how strictly he was sticking to milne’s stories. he introduced a new character into the story named gopher. One of the first lines Gopher utters during his first appearance in the Disney cartoon is: "I'm not in the book". He is referring to the fact that he is not in the phone book, but this is actually referring to the fact that he was not in any of the original stories by milne. in one story, he zooms off under ground leaving the other characters puzzled. pooh says, “well, he’s not in the book you know…”
when jane was a baby, her favorite dvd was “the many adventures of Winnie the pooh.” one day I decided to watch the making of it, and learned much about the character and his author. pooh bear started out as bedtime stories to the original christopher robin. these evolved into children’s books, which walt disney’s children loved. when walt acquired the rights to the character, he wanted to make sure that he stayed true to the books. in walt’s cartoons, pooh bear is actually animated into a book. he’s often seen jumping over pages and text. all of the original cartoons were inspired by a.a. milne’s stories.
the last chapter in “the many adventures of Winnie the pooh” has christopher robin going away to school and the story ending; but the story didn’t end. disney continued to create pooh bear stories- all of them not written by milne, and most of them not including christopher robin. they also introduced new characters into the hundred acre wood, and evolved many of the existing ones. to me that always seemed strange that they would make a movie or a cartoon that was not originally imagined by milne, or use characters that were not created by milne.
there is a new show on the disney channel called “my friend tigger and pooh.” jane loves it. its about a new friend named darby and her dog, buster. she, pooh and tigger form a team called the super-sleuths and the solve mysteries. I enjoy the show, but I have some problems with it. number 1, they use modern technology in it, like darby’s razor-scooter. second, christopher robin appears in the show! he’s back from school! but pooh does not spend his time with christopher, he spends his time with darby! this makes no sense to me at all.and it reminds me of what I see all the time in Christianity. we started out, much like disney did. we wanted to stick to the book. we wanted to be true to the original text, and to its original hero, jesus Himself. but as times change, we allow things to evolve to suit our purposes. we let jesus evolve into an American or a republican, or a social activist, or a hippie, or even a politician. we take his words out of context to confirm our caricature of jesus.
I’m a purist. with Winnie the pooh, for sure, but when it comes to jesus, definitely. if all the pooh bear fans really want to know milne’s stories,, they should go get a copy of “now we are six,” and any other of milne’s books. and if we want to know jesus, we need to meditate on the words of matthew, mark, luke and john.
disney made a joke about how strictly he was sticking to milne’s stories. he introduced a new character into the story named gopher. One of the first lines Gopher utters during his first appearance in the Disney cartoon is: "I'm not in the book". He is referring to the fact that he is not in the phone book, but this is actually referring to the fact that he was not in any of the original stories by milne. in one story, he zooms off under ground leaving the other characters puzzled. pooh says, “well, he’s not in the book you know…”
what if we had the kind of radar for spotting false caricatures of jesus and were able to say of inaccurate portrayals of jesus, ““well, he’s not in the book you know…”
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