Some people out there know that I’m a confirmed Winnie-the-Pooh freak, so imagine my delight to find Fyodor Khitruk’s 1969 Russian version, Vinni-Pukh, had turned up online:



That’s Vinni-Pukh idet v gosti (“Winnie-the-Pooh Goes on a Visit”), from 1971. Khitruk was one of the first Soviet animation directors to break out of the rut of Socialist realism, and you can see the Russian folk influences in his Pooh films. Weinberg’s music is a perfect fit, vaguely folk-like but also sophisticated and scintillating, setting the mood with a stylish economy of means.