"The Wishing Bear" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It is a half-hour long episode. It originally aired on December 10, 1988.
Plot
One night, Christopher Robin shows Pooh the Wishing Star. Christopher then asks Pooh to make a wish, but first saying "Flap like a bird, jump like a fish. Sit down, stand up, wish wish wish." Pooh does so and wishes for a pot of honey, then Christopher Robin gives him a pot of honey (most likely 'cause he knew what Pooh was going to wish for). Then Pooh starts to wish for pots of honey for everyone else in the Wood, but Christopher stops him before he gets too far, saying that the star was really small and couldn't fulfill all the wishes. Pooh and Christopher then decide to come tomorrow.
The next day, Pooh finishes the pot of honey he received that past night. He wants to get more from The Wishing Star, but he can't remember the special rhyme. He tries to remember, something he's not good at. Meanwhile, Piglet tries to make a snowman all by himself, but he's struggling to begin the snowman. While Pooh walks by the snow-covered wood, he tries to remember the rhyme by saying silly rhymes, but he realizes those aren't it. But then Piglet is rolling towards Pooh on the giant snowman's body and crashes into Pooh. Neither Pooh nor Piglet is harmed. Piglet tells Pooh he's trying to build his very own snowman, and Pooh says that that's a very big job for Piglet. While they talk, Piglet tries to continue building another snowman. Pooh mentions that he's trying to remember something, and Piglet asks what. Pooh tells Piglet he forgets, but it does have something to do with Christopher Robin's wishing star. Piglet gets excited over this news, thinking he could wish to actually build a snowman all by himself. Piglet joins Pooh on his walk around the Wood.
Tigger is then seen playing checkers with himself, but gets sad when he wins, saying he always wins and wants a playmate (preferably another Tigger) so he won't play checkers by himself. Pooh then walks by still trying to remember the rhyme ("Walk like a turtle, Dance like a worm"), but releases his idea is too obscure to be it. Then Tigger bounces Pooh, say hello and Tigger asks if Pooh and Piglet could play with him. Piglet says they can't because they're going to wish on the wishing star. This also excites Tigger, thinking he could wish for a second Tigger to play with. He asks if he could wish, too. Pooh tries to tell Tigger he can't remember the rhyme, but Tigger implies Pooh says yes and joins them.
Rabbit is then inside his house preparing vegetable soup. But outside his window, the bugs are watching him prepare are just as hungry as he is. They open the window and invade Rabbit's house, gobbling up Rabbit's carrots. Getting angry, Rabbit grabs a skillet and tries to swat the bugs. The bugs run outside, grab a hoe and try to give Rabbit a taste of his own medicine. Rabbit gets frightened over the sight of it. Meanwhile, Piglet and Tigger and Pooh continue the walk, with the bear continuing to remember ("Flap like an armadillo, Flap like a pig"), but that's the craziest rhyme yet. They see Rabbit fight the bugs and wonder what to do. Piglet suggests he builds a snowman. Then a giant rumbling is felt by Rabbit, it's Piglet riding downhill in a giant snowball heading towards Rabbit. The bugs retreat but Rabbit's caught in the crossfire of the snowman and it crashes into his house. Then, It's a mess, but Rabbit hits a low when he knows that they may be back and wishes there was some way to get rid of those bugs for good. Piglet notices that Rabbit used the word "wish" and explains about Christopher Robin's wishing star. This excites Rabbit knowing that that could be the answer to his prayers. But Pooh says there is one problem: He can't remember the rhyme. So, his friends volunteer to help him remember.
So it begins. Pooh is eating honey at Rabbit's table while the rest of the gang hide underneath the table. Rabbit has a paper bag with a scary face on it, saying that getting Pooh's memory back is like losing the hiccups: You have to scare the person. Pooh falls backwards over how scary Rabbit was but not only does it not work Pooh only states "Well I remember your house used to be a lot cleaner than this" Tigger tries to regain Pooh's memory via sticking Pooh upside down on his head, thinking that his memories are all stuck in his feet and this will put them back to their regular place. Tigger asks the upside down Pooh who he is. When Pooh says that Tigger's Tigger, Tigger at first celebrates, but when Pooh says that he always remembered who he is, Tigger stops and says he forgot about it. That causes a worry in Tigger thinking that Pooh's memory loss is contagious. Next, Rabbit tells Pooh to stand up and puts a hot water bottle on Pooh's head, which will warm up his memories. But Tigger insists that Pooh sits down and relax. This causes an argument between Tigger and Rabbit as to whether Pooh should sit down or stand up. But this inadvertently jogs Pooh's memories about the rhyme and is able to say the entire rhyme without hesitation. A brief celebration happens, but they realize it's half-past dark and Piglet, Tigger, and Rabbit rush to the location where the star is.
When Pooh walks over to the star to get his honey, he overhears his friends making their wishes. They walk back home and thank Pooh for being a thoughtful friend. Pooh then continues to walk toward the star, and get his wish. But when he makes his wish, the star goes behind the clouds. But Pooh thinks he wished the star out when he sees the sky is blank and a shooting star off in the distance. He gets really worried, thinking his friends wishes will never get fulfilled. Pooh then knows there's only one thing to do, he'll make his friends' wishes come true by himself. As he walks away, the cloud goes away revealing the star, but Pooh doesn't see this.
The next day, Pooh contemplates how to make a snowman for Piglet anonymously. Then Piglet tries to make a snowman again, and Pooh gets caught in the snowball's line of fire. Pooh crashes into a tree, but the tree branch which is full of snow plops onto Pooh and Piglet thinks that Pooh's the snowman he made. Piglet then runs off to show it to Pooh. As he runs off, Pooh shakes himself out and tries to fulfill Tigger's wish. As Tigger looks all over the Wood for the other Tigger, he sees Pooh shirtless with a long scarf for a tail and stripes all over his body. As Tigger inspects the "Tigger," he's a little skeptical and asks if he's for sure a T-I-Double Guh-Er. Pooh says he is because he has stripes. Tigger agrees and they begin a race to a faraway tree. As Tigger says "Go," Pooh ditches him to go fulfill Rabbit's wish. Tigger makes it to the tree, and wonders about how slow the "Tigger" is, or maybe he's so fast he's already at the tree and gone, so he tries to look for him. At Rabbit's house, the bugs are trying to enter Rabbit's house by a log and slamming it against Rabbit's front door. But before they can do it, they are interrupted by a whistle. It's Pooh to claims he knows where some really big vegetables are (they're actually just balloons). The bugs loyally follow the disguised bear and drop the log in front of Rabbit's door. The noise makes Rabbit open his door to see who's there, thinking someone knocked. Seeing the log, Rabbit thinks it's getting dark early. As the bugs follow Pooh disguised as a giant bug, they see the balloon vegetables and run towards them. When they bite into them though, they pop. Piglet then sees Pooh and asks him to see his newly made snowman. He says he'll be there in a moment and Piglet goes ahead. But before Piglet leaves, he asks about the makeshift bug costume Pooh has on. He says it's to ward sharks away. This scares Piglet, but Pooh tells him that he hasn't seen any all day. Then he leaves, thinking the sharks ate his snowman. As Pooh tries to run and try to cheer up Piglet, he is bounced by Tigger. Despite looking more like a Pooh Bear, Tigger doesn't buy the outfit and still thinks he's a Tigger. They then begin a game of "Hide-and-Don't-Speak." Pooh then volunteer to count while Tigger hides. Tigger hides and when he's out of sight, Pooh tries to catch up with Piglet.
Piglet is looking for his snowman, which he thinks is nowhere to be found. He's sad because of this. Pooh overhears, goes under a tree and knocks the snow off of the branch. Piglet then sees the snow-covered Pooh and believes he's the snowman. Seeing the snowman's teeth chatter, Piglet thinks the snowman's cold and runs back home to get some clothes for him to wear. Pooh shakes himself off as Piglet leaves and notices the bugs crawling around his feet. He them gets a basket of vegetables, leaves a trail of them and dumps the rest out on an a block of ice as it flows downriver. Then Tigger sees Pooh saying he found the other Tigger. When Tigger attempts to bounce on him, Pooh runs away leaving Tigger to faceplant into the snow and hit a rock. But Tigger thinks they're playing tag and shouts "Here I come, like it or not!" The bugs then are carrying Rabbit's vegetables over the edge and sees the ice block and jumps after it. Rabbit follows the trail of vegetables and is furious as to how the vegetables got there and over the fact that the bugs are following them. He then blames the Wishing Star and tries to find Pooh Bear to explain it to him why his wish didn't come true.
Piglet is continuing to look for the snowman, Pooh overhears. And overhears Tigger looking for his other Tigger. And overhears Rabbit looking for Pooh. He goes to a nearby tree and knocks the snow of a branch to disguise himself again. Piglet finds the "snowman" and dresses him up with an orange scarf, red hat and a fake mustache. Tigger sees Piglet and asks him where his other Tigger was, Piglet says he hasn't. Then, Rabbit arrives looking for Pooh. Piglet says he hasn't Pooh either, but as he's speaking the snowman's mustache starts shaking in front of everybody, Pooh's about to sneeze. Tigger notices and says "What's wrong with your snowman's schnauzola?" Pooh sneezes and it blows him away from the snowman, and the snowman falls apart. They see Pooh and say he has some explaining to do.
Next, it's dusk and Pooh is just finished explaining the problem. Piglet asks what will happen when Christopher Robin will see the starless sky that night. Pooh gets really worried that because of what he did, he'll never speak to him again. Pooh then volunteers to don a star outfit and get shot into the sky, then Christopher Robin will believe he's a star. This is a tremendous act of bravery and Piglet gets sad because he'll miss him. Pooh explains that he has to do this, or he'll let Christopher Robin down. As the gang says their last goodbyes the quote-unquote "new star in town," Tigger fires the tree catapult and Pooh is launched up into the sky. But instead high in the sky where Pooh hoped he'd land, his costume was caught by a branch on a nearby tree, like a hanging wedgie. Then, he got worried when he saw Christopher Robin coming Pooh's way. Pooh tries to tell Christopher that he is the Wishing Star. Christopher plays along, knowing it's Pooh and asks the star what he's doing there. "The star" says he came down for a closer look and the tree grabbed him. As Pooh's costume starts to rip under the weight of himself on the branch, Christopher gives a wish that his favorite bear would be beside him. As he wished, Pooh's costume ripped off of the branch and he fell right into Christopher's arms. Pooh is baffled as to how Christopher's wish came true when the star's been used up, explaining he wore it out and it fell. Christopher then explains that the clouds were just over the star and that the star never fell at all and that Piglet, Tigger, and Rabbit's wishes all came true. But Pooh thinks he made the one-em come true, but Christopher says he may have had a little help from the Wishing Star. Christopher and Pooh then go home, but before they do so, Pooh thanks the star for making his most important wish come true, Christopher Robin. They hug and the episode ends.
Characters
- Winnie the Pooh
- Piglet
- Tigger
- Rabbit
- Christopher Robin
- The Bugs
- The Bees (one only, mentioned)
Cast
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Jim Cummings | Winnie the Pooh |
| John Fiedler | Piglet |
| Paul Winchell | Tigger |
| Ken Sansom | Rabbit |
| Tim Hoskins | Christopher Robin |
| Frank Welker | The Bugs (uncredited) |
Trivia
- This episode was written by John Weidman and directed by Jon Stone.
- This was the first episode to be animated by Walt Disney Animation Australia.
- This is one of the 5 Season 1 episodes to not be animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. The others are "A Very, Very Large Animal", "Fish Out of Water", "The "New" Eeyore" and "Tigger, Private Ear"