Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo

British author A.A. Milne's endearing Hundred Acre Woods animal characters enjoy an Easter-themed outing in this program that shines a spotlight on adorable Roo, a young marsupial who resides with his mother Kanga (the only female Winnie the Pooh character to date). Roo loves Easter, and is extremely egg-cited (sorry!) when Tigger (who acts as a sort of surrogate father to little Roo) picks him up on the way to Rabbit's for the annual egg-hunt and other celebratory activities. Joining puffy Pooh Bear, meek Piglet, and gloomy Eeyore (who's actually in a pretty good mood for once) at the bunny's house, the gang is absolutely shocked to find that cantankerous Rabbit has plans for his guests all right: however, he says it's spring cleaning day and assigns tasks to everyone to spic n' span his house (cleaning from “page 122 to a rather immaculate page 127”). Everybody's dejected (especially little Roo), but they ultimately discover that Rabbit is torqued because last year the gang engaged in activities out of order from Rabbit's carefully-structured checklist. After an A Christmas Carol-like interaction with the narrator (Tigger says cheekily “What the dickens…and I do mean Dickens…is going on here?”), Rabbit is shown the error of his ways and provides Roo and the rest with a fun time after all. DVD extras include a “Sounds of Spring” game, a “Decorating Rabbit's House” activity, and instructions for a butterfly mobile art project. Not in the same league with Piglet's Big Movie, this direct-to-video, not-quite-feature-length Disney release is optional. Aud: K, P. (J. Williams)[Blu-ray Review—Mar. 11, 2014—Walt Disney, 65 min., G, Blu-ray: $29.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2004's Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo features a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include the “Get Up and Dance!” song (2 min.), trailers, and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: sporting less extras than the DVD release, this is still an optional purchase.]