Pooh-ing into the future.

About 80 years ago, before Walt Disney got his commercializing hands on the character, the author A.A. Milne created one of the most recognized and beloved characters in history - Winnie the Pooh Bear. Now, besides the fact that no one quite knows what a Pooh Bear may be, Winnie was one of the first "gangsters" of children's fiction. He was all about the honey. He was also one of this centuries earliest fashionistas, representing that short red sweater way before the Saved By the Bell girls could steal his style. Close to eight decades later, the bear is back, and ready to regain his crown as the Prime Minister of the Hundred Acre Wood. The follow up to the 1926 and 1928 classics, respectively, has the full blessing of both A.A. Milne, and E.H. Shepard, the original artist for the books. This revisiting of a classic piqued my interest because it shows that even in an age where all is a follow-up, (i.e. - Depp's Charlie the Chocolate Factory, good production, but was it necessary, really?) some depth still lies in the classic nature of childish fun. Due to the nature of the new author and illustrator's nationality, BBC got first notes on this story, and the book, Return to Hundred Acre Wood, has a release date of October 5th, 2009 worldwide.