Few will dispute that the 1970s represented the darkest period for Disney animation, though the decades that immediately preceded and followed suffered from their own problems. In the 1960s, the studio produced its smallest roster of releases, with only four fully or partially animated flicks during that period.

In addition, Walt died in 1966, which left the company without it co-founder and leader. However, despite the limited number of movies they produced, three of the four - 1961’s 101 Dalmatians, 1964’s Mary Poppins, and 1967’s Jungle Book - made oodles of money and all remain highly regarded by many fans.

As for the 1980s, Disney spent much of the decade mired in problems, and the studio barely survived the period. Indeed, they wouldn’t produce a genuine success until 1988, when they collaborated on the partially animated Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of the year’s big hits.

1988’s fully-animated Oliver & Company pretty much stiffed, but at least Rabbit helped revive the ailing animation division. By 1989, they reclaimed their throne with the success of The Little Mermaid, and Disney animation clearly re-entered the world of the living.

Unfortunately, the 1970s featured none of the highlights seen in the 1960s or 1980s, as Disney suffered from a lack of direction without Walt’s presence. The studio managed to produce six films with animation during the decade, which equals their output in the 1980s and tops what they did in the 1960s.

However, that figure comes with an asterisk. One-third of these were live-action offerings that included some animation, as both Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Pete’s Dragon worked that way. That 33 percent of the total represents an increase over the 25 percent seen in the 1960s and the 16 percent witnessed in the 1980s.

In addition, only three of the four fully animated flicks provided all-new material. Bizarrely, of the six films from the decade, half of them came out in 1977!

This included the partially animated Dragon and well as The Rescuers and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The latter probably shouldn’t really count as part of the Disney feature film pantheon, however, since it offered nothing more than a series of short films cobbled together.

Adventures provided no overriding plot and simply seemed like a cheap and easy way to get some product onto screens.

What does it say about the state of Disney animation at the time when I note that Adventures offers arguably their most entertaining feature from that decade? The material itself seems winning, and it comes across as a minor gem among the decade’s other clunkers.

I should note that Walt always intended for the Pooh shorts to eventually emerge as one feature film. The program states that he wanted to slowly introduce the Disney version of the characters to the public and allow them to gain popularity in that matter.

Walt wanted for them to come out as one long piece at some point. If accurate, this makes Adventures less mercenary than it seems.

Adventures combines three shorts, all of which come from different years. First we get 1966’s Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

In this tale, the always-hungry Pooh (voiced by Sterling Holloway) goes on the hunt for some eats. He disguises himself as a rain cloud to steal honey from a tree - there’s your title! - and then gorges himself at Rabbit’s (Junius Matthews) house.

Pooh eats too much and can’t get through Rabbit’s door. He gets stuck and must remain there until he loses enough weight to depart.

In 1968’s Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, we meet two significant new characters: Piglet (John Fiedler) and Tigger (Paul Winchell). Some inclement weather comes to the Hundred Acre Wood, and eventually this destroys Owl’s (Hal Smith) house.

While Eeyore (Ralph Wright) tries to find him a new abode, Pooh encounters a new resident of the Hundred Acre Wood: Tigger. A rainstorm then floods the area, but Pooh accidentally rescues Piglet from a waterfall. All ends well with a “Hero Party” and a surprise when Eeyore announces the results of his search.

Obviously Tigger became popular during Blustery, as he attained greater prominence via 1974’s Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!. Curmudgeonly Rabbit tires of Tigger’s hyper exuberance and gets Pooh and Piglet to help rid the Hundred Acre Wood of his presence.

They take Tigger to get lost in the woods, but this backfires when they can’t find their way home. Eventually Pooh’s stomach leads the way.

In the meantime, Tigger and Roo (Clint Howard) go for a bounce and get stuck in a tree. This terrifies Tigger, and he agrees to Rabbit’s demand to cease bouncing if he’ll get him down from the tree.

Tigger keeps his word but becomes very mopey, at which point Rabbit reluctantly accedes to the others’ opinions that a happy - albeit bouncy - Tigger is best.

Adventures hearkens back to the second half of the 1940s, when Disney created no single-narrative animated features. Instead, films like The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Fun and Fancy Free just combined shorter pieces into one feature-length film.

However, at least those movies provided segments created explicitly for their releases. Adventures just cobbles together some old shorts.

Still, Adventures works because the material seems charming. All three shorts work fairly well, though each successive clip became less and less entertaining.

Tree definitely presents the most amusing and likable experience. It offers a sweet and compelling piece that nicely introduces the characters to movie audiences.

Blustery also comes across well, though it seems just a little less winning. The short has its moments, and it’s hard not to like the new characters - to the shorts, that is - in Tigger and Piglet, but it appears less fresh and clever.

Tigger has its own charms, and it seems good as a whole. But it combines weaker animation and less strong character development and appears somewhat blander.

Probably my least favorite moment in any of the shorts: the “Heffalumps and Woozles” bit in Blustery blatantly steals from Dumbo’s “Pink Elephants on Parade”. Frankly, I never much cared for that number either, asit seemed self-indulgent and it detracted from that film’s narrative. This second-rate rip-off of the original doesn’t do anything to endear itself to me.

One problem with the “bits and pieces” cobbling of Adventures stems from the voice casting. Some different boys play Christopher Robin, and he varies between American and British accents. This gets a little confusing at times, though Robin is such a minor part that it doesn’t matter much.

Overall, I don’t think The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is one of Disney’s better efforts. It bunches together different pieces to create a somewhat disjointed affair.

However, the various components appear generally entertaining. They might work better on their own than as one long program, but I still think they provide a reasonably fun experience.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh appears in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a good image but not one without issues.

As usual, the main complaints came from Disney’s semi-aggressive use of noise reduction. Their Powers That Be long ago decreed that their animated films should come free from grain, and that can turn into an issue.

However, the nature of animation makes this less problematic than would become the case for live-action flicks. The grain elimination of Adventures created some minor loss of detail but I still thought sharpness and delineation worked well for the most part.

The brief live-action opening credits turned unto the ugliest part of the disc. With mushy detail and oddly blobby “frozen grain” over the credits, this segment fared poorly. However, given that this part only lasted two minutes, it became a brief concern.

Jagged edges and moiré effects caused no issues, and I also noticed no signs of edge haloes. As for print flaws, they seemed almost absent from the film.

Colors consistently came across as rich and vibrant. The cartoons displayed nicely vibrant and accurate tones, and they displayed no signs of bleeding, noise or other concerns.

Black levels were deep and dense, while shadow detail looked clean and appropriately opaque. Even with the overuse of grain reduction, this became a pleasant presentation.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it worked fine for its age. For the most part, it presented “broad mono”, as the audio remained pretty heavily anchored in the center channel.

However, the track did start to expand as the cartoons became more modern. This meant “Honey” showed the weakest soundfield, while “Tigger” broadened things to a decent degree.

Music demonstrated adequate stereo spread throughout the shorts, while effects offered reasonable but unexceptional presence. Again, the later programs worked best, as they demonstrated some acceptable movement and spread.

The surrounds remained somewhat passive throughout the program. They never did more than provide general reinforcement of the front spectrum.

Audio quality appeared fine for its age, so speech seemed acceptably distinct and natural. The lines were somewhat flat and stiff, but they showed no signs of edginess and they always remained intelligible.

Music presented limited range but appeared reasonably bright and vivid. Effects also were somewhat thin, but they lacked distortion, and they also added some modest low-end response at times.

For example, the crash of Owl’s house demonstrated fair bass. In the end, Adventures offered a decent soundtrack that was adequate for the material.

How did the Blu-ray compare to those of the 2007 DVD? The lossless BD track felt slightly more vibrant compared to its lossy DVD counterpart, but the age of the material restricted improvements.

As for visuals, the Blu-ray offered a format-related boost. Honestly, I suspect that it used the same scan as the DVD, for I doubt Disney invested new effort into this affair. Still, the stronger capabilities of Blu-ray meant an uptick in quality.

The Blu-ray mixes old and new extras, and The Story Behind the Masterpiece brings a 25-minute, five-second program about the film. It provides fairly contemporary interviews with Director of the Walt Disney Archives Dave Smith, storyman X. Atencio, animators Ollie Johnston, Burny Mattinson and Frank Thomas, songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman, and voice actors Paul Winchell and John Walmsley.

While not a tremendously deep piece, “Story” offers a lot of good facts about the series’ origins, Walt’s plans for it, and a variety of aspects of the production.

From the songs to the animation to the casting, we learn quite a lot of good notes about the films. Overall, “Story” gives us a fun and informative look at Pooh.

Next we see Winnie the Pooh and a Day For Eeyore, a 25-minute, 23-second animated short from 1983. This short covers Eeyore’s birthday, which finds him especially depressed because no one remembers it.

Actually, I don’t think any of the other critters ever knew when Eeyore’s birthday occurred, but he’s even mopier than usual nonetheless. Pooh and the gang try to make the day special for Eeyore, and they succeed in that realm.

Unfortunately, this results in a very bland cartoon that doesn’t succeed well. The filmmakers execute the story in a flat and lifeless manner, and the animation appears surprisingly weak.

Colors suffer in particular, so at times, Pooh’s body parts change hue simultaneously, and Rabbit takes on an unpleasant shade of pea green. I appreciate the inclusion of Eeyore, but I didn’t much enjoy the short itself.

In a music video-style presentation, Carly Simon performs The Winnie the Pooh Theme Song. This clip combines shots from the movie with images of Simon as she lip-synchs the tune. She offers version of the number.

The Blu-ray also comes with some new features, and Pooh Play-Along offers a one-minute, 48-second segment. It basically encourages the kids to exercise along with Pooh and pals. “Play-Along” seems utterly inconsequential.

Five clips show up under Mini-Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. With a total running time of 11 minutes, 55 seconds, these offer short animated tales.

Narrated by John Cleese and sometimes accompanied by more Simon tunes, these offer minor entertainment value, though their quality varies, as some inevitably fare better than others. None seem especially memorable, unfortunately.

First used on the Blu-ray for 2011’s The Muppets, Disney Intermission delivers an unusual component. If you activate this feature, every time you pause the movie, you’ll see some short clips with Pooh and pals. It becomes an innocuous addition.

The disc opens with ads for The Little Mermaid, Planes and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Sneak Peeks adds promos for Sophia the First, “Disney on Ice”, and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Never Beast. No trailer for Adventures appears here.

A second disc offers a DVD copy of Adventures. It includes one of the five “Mini-Adventures” and the Carly Simon version of the Pooh theme but it lacks any other extras.

This continues a maddening trend from Disney in which their Blu-rays drop features from pre-existing DVDs. Rather than simply toss in said pre-existing DVD and give fans those exclusive extras, the BDs come with different DVDs that also omit those old extras.

Why not just toss in the existing DVD so fans can enjoy all the existing extras in one package? Greed, I suspect, but it bugs me.

During a weak period for Disney animation, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh offered some of the best work from the studio. 45 years later, the program seems inconsistent but generally charming and winning. The Blu-ray provides generally good picture and audio along with minor bonus materials. Despite some misgivings, this becomes a mostly positive rendition of a largely enjoyable compilation.

To rate this film visit the 25th Anniversary Edition review of THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH