In 1961, Walt Disney Productions bought film and other rights to the character and made a series of cartoon films about him. (Note that Winnie-the-Pooh’s name was hyphenated in the Milne books, but lost its hyphens in the Disney incarnation.) The early cartoons were based on several of the original stories. However this is not true of the more recent films and television series which Disney has made.

Disney’s storytelling style and characterisation have little in common with Milne’s tales, and were greatly disliked by the Milne family. The appearance of the cartoons derives from Shepard’s illustrations but the style of drawing is simplified and the characters are given exaggerated features. Alongside the cartoon versions, merchandise using the Shepard drawings is now marketed under the description “Classic Pooh”.

In 1977, Disney released the animated feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, introducing a new character named Gopher, which Disney acknowledged by having Gopher proclaim, “I’m not in the book, you know!” This movie features three segments that were originally released separately as featurettes: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974). This feature version featured new bridging material and a new ending, as it had been Walt Disney’s original intention to make a feature. In 1983, a fourth featurette, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, was released.

Pooh has become one of the most lucrative literary franchises in history. Today, Pooh videos, teddy bears, and other merchandise generate $1 billion in annual revenues for Disney—as much as is earned by Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto combined.[1] Pooh stuffed toys can be found in every imaginable (and some unimaginable) shape and size from Beanie and miniature versions up to human size stuffed varieties. As well as the stylised Disney Pooh there is also a large range of Classic Pooh merchandise depicting the EH Shepard style in toy form.