Another middling adaptation of a really bad episode from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a 1980s television series.

In this one, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Gopher are playing pirates, but they rudely dig for treasure in Rabbit's garden, so Rabbit decides to teach them a lesson by playing a prank on them. He fills a treasure chest with rocks and makes a map to it that he claims was drawn by his great-great-great-uncle, Long John Cottontail. He's sure they'll feel bad once they find the worthless booty, but then he starts to feel bad about them feeling bad and wants to undo the treasure hunt, but events are no longer in his control. The writers try to force in some zaniness before an even more forced heartwarming finale and a totally stupid and nonsensical twist at the last second.

You'd think a 44-page picture book adaptation of a 10-minute cartoon would be pretty faithful, but the uncredited writer of this adaptation adds a couple scenes that aren't in the cartoon. The uncredited artist has completely changed all the pirate costumes Pooh and his friends are wearing, which is a shame because I was hoping to discuss the significance of Piglet having a single earring in his right ear in the cartoon according to certain cultural practices of the 1980s. But maybe that is why the costumes were changed, to avoid any implications the animators were accidentally or even intentionally invoking.

FOR REFERENCE:

Picture book adaptation of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh animated segment "Rabbit Marks the Spot," from Season 2, Episode 8; first aired September 16, 1988 (listed on Disney+ as Season 1, episode 24); directed by Terence Harrison and Karl Geurs; story by Mark Zaslove and Bruce Talkington; teleplay by Carter Crocker.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )