On Monday, October 8th Disney officially took the cover off of what they've been building in Critter Country.over the past few months. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh will be coming to Critter Country in April 2003. In this article you'll find an interview by Michelle Smith (the Fabulous Disney Babe) with Kevin Raferty - Show Writer for the new attraction, pictures of the exterior, the ride vehicle and queue, and pictures from Walt Disney World's version of the attraction.

Facts about Pooh
From the release and interviews with Imagineers

• Opens April 2003
• 3 1/2 minutes long. A little longer than Walt Disney World's
• Similar scenes to Walt Disney World's but not in the same order
• The "hunny bee-hive" ride vehicles bounce
• Of course there will be a tribute to the Country Bears somewhere in the attraction. The Imagineers wouldn't tell us where

Interview with Kevin Rafferty

Fab: What are you doing on Pooh?

Kevin Rafferty: I'm the Show Writer. I worked on Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for Florida, which is as you know a very popular attraction. There's a different show team working on this. Bruce Gordon is show producing this one out here as you know, and we’ve added a few scenes, so there’s some things that are different in this attraction and some things that are the same. I was thinking about the voice of Tigger – Paul Winchell, he did the last voice for us, the last recording session that he ever did when he did the Tigger voice for Florida, so now we have Jim Cummings doing the voice for this one.

Fab: I understand that he (Paul) and April Winchell both okayed Jim Cummings to do the Tigger voice.

KR: Yes, yes, Jim is wonderful. So we just finished recording all the voices for Pooh.

Fab: And Jim Cummings looks a lot like Pooh.

KR: He does! He does! And when he jumps around like Tigger, he looks like Tigger, too!

Fab: Where did you do the recording?

KR: We did the recording at our studio, studio A, at Imagineering in Glendale, and the talent comes over and we record it there. And after Flik’s Fun Fair now, I’m going to start going over there, installing audio tracks and we’re editing the voices now – and it’s really going to be cute, you drive around in little beehives, and it’s more "Country Bear" – I’m a big Country Bear fan, so it’s kind of hard for me to do that.

Fab: I didn’t like the vacation show.

KR: Well, that’s not the original Country Bears show.

Fab: Right.

KR: They’re still playing that in Florida, as you know, and, so, I think it’s a really clever use of the facility, though, because the ride loads outside, and it will take you in the doors that were the entrance doors to Country Bear, then use the facility, then come out the exit doors. So that’s kind of a fun thing. It’s going to be really cute, and there’s going to be a few surprises that are here, but not in Florida, that I can’t tell you about. (laughs) I know that’s not what you want to hear.

Fab: Does it involve a VERY blustery day?

KR: Yes, some of them do.

Fab: About the Sherman Brothers…how involved were they with this project?

KR: Well, you know the Sherman Brothers wrote all the songs, but Buddy Baker did the arrangements, as he did in the movie. And the great thing about it is Buddy got to conduct the orchestra and it was an amazing thing, and a lot of the players who played in the orchestra – probably 60 to 70 percent – were the original players from the 1960s re-recording, The Many Adventures…in fact, they had a lot of the original instruments that you don’t usually find in an orchestra. In fact, Dick Sherman came to the recording when Buddy was directing, and we were there, and we were doing the Heffalumps and Woozles scene. And Dick Sherman said, "Hey, Buddy, what about the kazoos?"

Buddy said, "Oh! The kazoos!" and he stopped the recording orchestra and he said "Does anybody have a kazoo?"

And Dick said "No no no – we need TWO kazoos."

I said "Why two kazoos?"

And he said "Because two kazoos are funnier than one." And so one of the guys promised that he would bring kazoos the next day; we weren’t done with the recording session yet, he brought a couple of kazoos in, and Dick Sherman and Buddy both played the kazoo for the Heffalumps and Woozles scene. When you hear that in there, that’s those two guys.

Fab: That’s a beautiful piece of restoring Disney history there, guy. I thought I heard something about getting one of the songs from the Tigger movie in there, but they couldn’t.

KR: I don’t know much about that. I do know that the soundtrack is going to be very much the same as the Florida project. You know, in the queue line, the background music in the queue line, there’s about 40 – 45 minutes, it’s absolutely beautiful. And Buddy arranged all of that. He took the original lead sheets and arrangements from the film and condensed them down. He brought those to the meeting and said "Here they all are, and what do you guys want?" and he was just amazing. It was such a pleasure and honor to work with Buddy.

Fab: There have been some debates among fans about "How appropriate is Winnie the Pooh in Critter Country, and how does it fit into that backwoods American theme?"

KR: Weeelll, I don’t know. Just speaking for myself, yes, it’s a backwoods American theme. You know, Pooh is a bear, and so I get the connection of him going into Bear Country. He’s a very different kind of a bear, of course, but I think he’ll find a nice home there. I think his area will be a little bit separated out of it, and more Hundred Acre Woodish, and I think he’ll fit in there fine. He’s certainly not like Big Al and all those guys, this is a completely different kind of bear-

Fab: They’ve gone back home to Florida.

KR: Yeah. Exactly.

Fab: Thank you. Hey, you know Tomorrowland needs a lot of fixing and maybe Sonny (Eclipse)’s got a cousin or something that could come visit.

KR: Yeah, that’s a good idea! I’ll call him so he can call around the galaxy and see if any of them want to come out.

Hey, a girl can hope.