As part of the famous El Capitan Theatre’s “Throwback Thursday” screening series, the 1977 Disney film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh made its return to the big screen this past week. Like at many other El Capitan events, this one also featured some special guests, there to discuss the classic film and offer their insights. This time around those guests includes Floyd Norman and Burny Mattinson with Ted Thomas moderating the conversation.
From left to right: Floyd Norman, Ted Thomas, and Burny Mattinson.
Leading off the discussion, Thomas said, if pressed to come up with one word to describe The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the word would be “charming,” noting that the film has no true villain. To that point, Mattinson says the lack of conflict in stories of the chubby little cubby is what worried Walt about the project to certain degree. In fact, he says that that’s why they initially decided to release shorts instead of pursuing a full feature.
Meanwhile Norman shared the story of how he was actually working on The Jungle Book at the time the studio was also making the Pooh shorts. Interestingly, he also says that Sterling Holloway ended up voicing Kaa partially because he was already around the studio doing voice work for Pooh. Norman, noting the irony, said, “So Sterling did Winnie the Pooh — this sweet, cuddly little character — and he also did the villainous Kaa the snake for The Jungle Book.”
Take a look at their full discussion below:
For future Throwback Thursday screenings and other events, be sure to visit the El Capitan Theatre website.