As a fan of Winnie the Pooh, 'The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' was always one of my favourite shows as a child. Not all childhood favourites have held up, but 'The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' is one of the strongest examples of those that have.
While the original three 60s-70s short films ('Honey Tree', 'Blustery Day' and 'Tigger Too') and the 1977 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' are just a little better, 'The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' is one of the Winnie the Pooh franchise's high points. "How Much is that Rabbit in the Window" is one of the best of the show to me, and perhaps the second best Rabbit-oriented episode after "Find Her Keep Her".
The animation is very bright, well drawn and colourful, everything looking lush, detailed and smooth, with the insides of the shop at night having a slightly freaky edge. The music is playfully jaunty and beautifully orchestrated, enhancing scarier moments with hauntingly urgent and eerie scoring, sadder moments with poignant and particularly lush and emotional scoring and the more playful moments with a jaunty touch. The theme tune is very rousing and one of the catchiest theme songs of any animated show of the late 80s.
Writing has a perfect mix of whimsy, drollness, wit, charm and childhood innocence, with excellent writing and development for Rabbit, some freaky parts with the stuffed thuggish animal toys in a refreshingly darker and less magical depiction of toys and poignant moments like the whole of Rabbit's situation, Christopher Robin's attempts at getting Rabbit back and Rabbit's forgiving nature towards the toys causing him so much intimidation causing them to soften.
With the story, it's kept simple but is always interesting and sustains the length very well, the lengthy chase around the store not feeling that lengthy and has thrills and atmosphere. One really feels sorry for Rabbit here, along with "Find Her Keep Her" this sees him at his most likable and we identify every step of the way with his emotional plight. Although it revolves mainly around him, the rest of the characters have plenty of episode-time too and they have lost none of their charm and neither has their loyal and innocent chemistry.
Ken Sansom, in some of his best voice work of the show, is the standout of the uniformly excellent vocal cast.
In summary, one of the greatest episodes centred around Rabbit and one of the best of a show with not a bad episode in it. 10/10 Bethany Cox