'Winnie the Pooh' keeps things simple

“Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh

Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff.
He’s Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh.
Willy nilly silly ole bear.”

When was the last time you heard those lyrics? Infectious little tune, isn’t it?

If you find yourself humming it for hours on end — and remembering the days of a stuffed bear who loved his honey oh-so-much — then perhaps you’ll spend some time with Pooh and his friends in the newest “Winnie the Pooh” movie, released last Friday.

The film, wonderfully narrated by John Cleese, centers around finding Eeyore a new tail after he lost his old one. The reward: A big bucket of honey — just what Pooh needs to fill his morning hunger pains. And so Christopher Robin alerts everyone of the problem at hand, and Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga and Roo all set out to find the perfect tail for their dear friend Eeyore.

While Pooh and his friends try out a number of items for Eeyore — a clock, a balloon, a yo-yo, an umbrella, and even an accordion — nothing seems to work. As Pooh goes to alert Christopher Robin of their predicament, he finds a note on Christopher Robin’s door: “Gon Out Bizy Back Soon.”

As Pooh can’t read, he brings it to Owl, who misinterprets the note, thinking a “Backson” monster has taken Christopher Robin away. And so the gang digresses from their quest for Eeyore’s tail and begin to think of ways to catch the fictional monster.

The creators of this film couldn’t have released it at a better time — well, maybe one week earlier would have been nice so that it wasn’t overshadowed by a certain boy wizard — but still, “Winnie the Pooh” succeeds during a time when 3-D, CGI-animated, overblown-special-effect movies are all the rage. From the classic simplicity of the 2-D animation, to the wonderful songs such as “The Tummy Song” and “Everything Is Honey,” all is well in this film.

It’s cute, funny and even quite clever, for instance, as we see Pooh break the fourth wall a number of times by interacting with the narrator — “Just then Pooh discovered a note,” says the narrator. “I did?” asks Pooh — and by playing with the visuals, as Pooh walks on the words of the book and jumps from page to page — “Is there honey in this paragraph?” asks Pooh as he climbs from sentence to sentence, searching for any notion that he will discover honey sometime soon.

The only downside to the film is its 65-minute length — which some parents might see as a huge upside. To me it all felt a bit rushed; every story line rapped up a tad too quickly. And just as Pooh is always left with a yearning for more honey, I was left wanting more time with Christopher Robin and his “Hundred Acre Wood” friends.