Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I recently reinstated my Netflix account, taking it off hold in anticipation of renting a plethora of Christmas movies to help get me in the holiday spirit. But I haven’t gotten around to updating my queue, so the first few movies have been surprises to me. I had to laugh at the seasonally inappropriate nature of my latest selection when I spotted the title Springtime With Roo. However, while the movie, with its array of Technicolor flowers and its emphasis on Easter, is thoroughly rooted in spring, except for the puzzling appearance of a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins, I discovered that it wasn’t such an oddball choice for the Christmas season after all.

Springtime With Roo, like most Winnie-the-Pooh movies, is on the short side. Clocking in at just about an hour, this direct-to-video release begins with a hyper Roo (Jimmy Bennett) disturbing the tranquil opening narration of David Ogden Stiers, who explains that the young joey will be the subject of this particular tale. To some extent that’s true, though the movie is just as much about Rabbit (Ken Sansom), who sets the main conflict in motion when he shatters his friends’ anticipation over the annual Easter egg hunt by declaring it Spring Cleaning Day instead. It soon becomes clear that Rabbit no longer considers Easter an acceptable holiday, and while Roo is disappointed to be missing out on so much fun, his biggest concern is his friend’s unhappiness.

It took me a while to cotton on to this, but Springtime With Roo, much like Veggie Tales’ An Easter Carol, is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Persnickety Rabbit is an ideal choice to play the role of curmudgeonly old codger; he’s as much a neat freak as Scrooge is a miser, and at his worst, he can be quite the misanthrope. Owl might have been a good choice too, but he doesn’t make an appearance in this video, nor does Christopher Robin. Gopher isn’t in the main feature but does turn up, in typical pyro mode, in the New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode Trap as Trap Can, which follows Hunny for a Bunny in the Special Features.

Though the nods to the original story are not as plenteous as they could be, Roo is an excellent stand-in for Tiny Tim, while Tigger (Jim Cummings) exudes a Fred-like joie de vivre. Meanwhile, the narrator, with some help from the storybook and Tigger, provides the proper ghostly framework. The tale’s inspiration is most obvious toward the end, when Rabbit repents, first distraught over his friendless future, then “giddy as a school bunny” that he’s been given a second chance. At this point, if anyone still hasn’t gotten the reference, Tigger, with a broad wink at the viewers, demands, “What the Dickens - and I do mean Dickens - is going on here?”

Tigger gets all the best lines in this flick, with energetic bursts of jibberish that lead to him uttering one of my favorite words: onomatopoeia! Equally random: at one point, while showing Roo all of his Easter gear, Tigger accidentally unearths a dreidel. “Whoops, wrong holiday!” he amends. He also gets to sing a couple of short songs, as do most of the main characters. Eeyore (Peter Cullen) doesn’t have any songs to himself, but his fondness for a pair of fluffy bunny ears is good for a lot of laughs. While none of the musical numbers are still rattling around in my head, they’re fun in context.

Among the Special Features, the First Look at The Magical World of Winnie the Pooh is most worth perusing. What it amounts to is two episodes of the aforementioned series; Magical World was evidently the name of a set of DVDs containing episodes from the show. The first, in which Rabbit decides to give away his beloved bunny bookend because he believes he will never find its mate, fits particularly well with the movie, while the second is a fun romp involving a scrawny heffalump and his burly, heavily allergic father.

Sounds of Spring features three clickable scenes; click on the arrow pointing to an object and hear a corresponding noise. This activity is rather fun, but Decorate Rabbit’s House is annoying, since it is constantly correcting the improper placement of decorations. After a movie in which Rabbit’s fastidiousness proves to be problematic, it seems to go against message to insist decorations go in one particular spot when they would look just as good someplace else. Another feature includes step-by-step instructions for making a sort of butterfly puppet that looks neat but seems like it would fall apart easily. The rest of the features are DVD registration and a preview for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie.

Even though Springtime for Roo is an Easter story, its Dickensian nature renders it a suitable choice for this time of year, since it’s fun to compare it to the oodles of other versions of A Christmas Carol floating around. I’m still waiting for Eeyore to get a centric Pooh movie, but I have no complaints about this outing with Rabbit and Roo.

This review is an entry in Chelledun's "Get Those Holiday Reviews Out" Write-Off and Carstairs' All Things Disney Write-Off.

An Easter Carol * Ghosts of Girlfriends Past * A Muppet Christmas Carol * Mickey's Christmas Carol * A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott)

Disney's Winnie the Pooh: A Celebration of the Silly Old Bear (Books) * Presents From Pooh (Books) * Pooh’s Favorite Things About Spring (Books) * Just Be Nice and Let Everyone Play (Books) * Pooh Guess Who (Books) * Pooh Plans a Party (Books) * Good As Gold (Books) * Eeyore, You're the Best (Books) * Pooh Look and Find (Books) * Piglet Feels Small (Books) * A Perfect Little Piglet (Books) * Pooh's Graduation (Books) * Merry Christmas to You! (Books) * Winnie the Pooh's Christmas (Books) * Christmas With Pooh * Return to the Hundred Acre Wood (Books) * Pooh's Grand Adventure (Movies) * The Tigger Movie (Movies) * Piglet's Big Movie (Movies) * Pooh's Heffalump Movie (Movies) * Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (Movies) * Frankenpooh (Movies) * Shapes and Sizes (Movies) * Wonderful Word Adventure (Movies) * Growing Up With Winnie the Pooh: Love and Friendship (Movies) * Peek a Pooh Zodiac Series * Peek a Pooh Garden Series * Peek a Pooh Circus Series * Peek a Pooh Hundred Acre Wood Series * Peek a Pooh Christmas Series * Pooh Pez Dispenser * Pooh Squeezable Flashlight * Fisher Price Collectible Tigger Figurine * Fisher Price Collectible Pooh Figurine * Fisher Price Collectible Piglet Figurine * Winnie the Pooh Blank House Key * Pooh's Very Grand Garden Playset * Pooh's Day at the Lake * Winnie the Pooh Light-Up Jiggly Pens * Gund Wind-Up Musical Pooh * Pooh 2008 Calendar * Plush Lumpy the Heffalump

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD