Leofwine_draca A BEAR NAMED WINNIE is a cheap and sentimental Canadian TV movie about the true-life origins behind A.A. Milne's WINNIE THE POOH. It turns out that the original Winnie - aka Winnipeg - was originally a Canadian black bear, saved by a Canadian soldier and eventually transported to London Zoo during WW1, which is where Milne saw her. This low budget production is interesting for the cast alone, although it's very cheaply staged and unconvincing at times. Michael Fassbender puts in a good effort early in his career and Gil Bellows, Aaron Ashmore, Stephen Fry and David Suchet all offer their contributions.

Clem MSL It all starts in a world war environment, guys ready to serve their country, kill and be killed. Then as he is taking a walk in the local town, this soldier comes across a bear killer's shop, with bear skins everywhere. Then that little cub makes herself heard, and the soldier can't bear (haha!) the idea of the little one being skinned so buys it and tells his soldier unit this should be their mascot, their buddy, the little thing that could guide them and give them some warmth in the eve of a potential big fight. All fall in love with the cub, now named Winnie, and as weeks go by, all protect her and look after her. The key-soldier and his new best friend share a tent with Winnie at night. She is so cute and full of surprises, everybody falls in love with her. Difficult times and events follow, both for the army guys and Winnie, and then her destiny wraps up, as well as theirs. Not a blockbuster, but a very nice movie to watch on a Sunday afternoon, and one that makes you think again, in a nice way, about how animals can affect our lives. I recommend this film, if you are emotional, get some tissue. :-)

tollini I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2005. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture "…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life." The film centers around a Canadian army veterinarian, who buys a bear cub from a hunter while on a train ride east across Canada with his army comrades. They are going to a training camp, and from there they are going to Europe to fight in World War I. For a while, the bear cub becomes an army mascot. However, the bear becomes too troublesome and the order comes down to get rid of the bear. And that is where the story gets interesting.The young army men have a boring, uneventful life as they train for war. The bear becomes one of their centers of interest. Their other center of interest is developing relationships among each other as they prepare for the then unknown-to-them horrors of war. It becomes obvious that the real purpose of training is to develop loyalty and friendship among each other so that they can rely on each other in stressful war times.The film has wonderful art direction and costuming and you are truly placed into the early part of the 20th century.A.A. Milne learned of this true story and this became the basis for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Crystal Heart winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

rps-2 I've already nitpicked about a few minor errors. But on the whole this is a pretty accurate, well produced and heart tugging movie that explores a little known tidbit of Canadian history. CBC hopes it will become an annual Christmas favourite. Interesting they cast David Suchet and Christopher Fry rather than Canadian actors. Do they perhaps want star names to help foreign sales? Okay, the ending is a little drippy. But again, this isn't a documentary but a fuzzy feel good animal movie and in that genre, it works well. Again hats off to CBC for fulfilling its mandate to produce original Canadian drama. (FYI-I meant to vote 8 but accidentally hit 9. It's very good but not that good.)