Springtime with Roo


Springtime with Roo is a 2004 American animated direct-to-video Easter musical film produced by Disneytoon Studios, and animated by Toon City Animation.
The film features the characters from Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, based on the original characters from the books by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard. The story is loosely based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.
Unlike the previous Winnie the Pooh direct-to-video animated films A Very Merry Pooh Year and Seasons of Giving, Springtime with Roo does not reuse any footage from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Plot

On Easter day in the Hundred Acre Wood, Roo and his friends Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore visit Rabbit's house, where they expect to celebrate Easter. Upon arrival, the friends discover that Rabbit has replaced the Easter celebration with a Spring Cleaning Day.
In Rabbit's absence, the group discover that all of their Easter ornaments had been hidden in Rabbit's closet. Assuming that Rabbit had simply forgotten about Easter, the gang decide to surprise Rabbit by decorating his house with the ornaments, but once Rabbit discovers this, he angrily kicks everyone out of his home for disobeying his orders.
Seeing Roo saddened over the events, Tigger returns to Rabbit's house to try reasoning with him. Still upset with his friends, Rabbit insists that Easter will never be celebrated in the Hundred Acre Wood again. Confused as to why Rabbit no longer likes Easter, Tigger and the story's narrator take Rabbit back through the book to last Easter's celebration, which was sometime after Kanga and Roo had moved to the Hundred Acre Wood.
On that day, Rabbit had insisted on an organized Easter party, but his strict behavior annoyed everyone to the point that Tigger led the group into sneaking away to celebrate Easter without Rabbit, leaving him feeling left out. Embittered by the past, Rabbit continues to disallow Easter.
Tigger returns to the present and informs his friends of the reason behind Rabbit's banning of Easter, causing Roo to sympathize with Rabbit. Meanwhile, Rabbit also returns to the present, but the Narrator purposefully stops on the wrong page, where Rabbit finds Kanga and Roo's house and overhears Roo stating his wish to cheer Rabbit up, though this fails to change Rabbit's mind. Frustrated with Rabbit's stubbornness, the Narrator transports him to the future, where Rabbit's Spring Cleaning Day celebration has been organized just as he wanted. However, Rabbit is horrified to learn that all of his friends have left the Hundred Acre Wood, causing him to realize the consequences of his selfishness.
Rabbit wakes up the next morning to realize that the events were just a dream and that he still has a chance to change the future. Meanwhile, Roo decides to cheer Rabbit up by repairing his Easter hat, which the latter had damaged yesterday in his frustration. While Roo and his friends work on their surprise, Rabbit arrives at Roo's house to reveal that he has prepared a bigger and better Easter celebration, thrilling everyone as they all participate in the festivities.

Voice cast

The film was produced by Disneytoon Studios, and its animation was outsourced to Toon City in Manila, Philippines.

Home media

The film was released on direct-to-DVD and direct-to-VHS on March 9, 2004. It included the theatrical trailer for Pooh's Heffalump Movie and two episodes from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The film was later released on Blu-ray on March 11, 2014 as the Hippity-Hoppity Roo edition. The film is a part of Disney Movies Anywhere program.

Songs