As they search high and low, several of them craft alternatives for a tail. Among the things that hang on Eeyore's backside are a balloon with a long string, a chalkboard, a dartboard, and a bell. But Eeyore wants his real tail back.

Then, Christopher Robin disappears and Owl misreads a note that says he will be "back soon" to mean that he has been taken by a creature known as the "Backson." Now, Pooh and his friends must bravely set a trap to try and catch the monster, which doesn't really exist. At the same time, Pooh has a "rumbly tumbly" and his craving for honey sometimes gets in the way of his common sense.

Furthermore, there are no big, hired-gun Hollywood stars slipped into the recording booth to pick up a paycheck for an hour's work and lend the film some needless Tinseltown cachet. There is no Robin Williams or Will Ferrell or Julia Roberts to be found. About the biggest names are TV talk-show host Craig Ferguson as Owl and "Monty Python" vet John Cleese as the film's narrator. Finally, this is NOT in 3-D. And to that, I say, yahoo! Your child's eyeballs are safe for another week.

"Winnie the Pooh" is a lovely storybook tale well-told. Actually, it's three lovely storybook tales well-told, according to the press notes. But they form a cohesive whole that inches barely past the one-hour mark, the perfect pace for kids 6 and under and their moms and dads wishing they were two theaters down seeing something more age appropriate for them.

Eeyore the depressed donkey (voice of Bud Luckey) has lost his tail, and it's up to pals Winnie the Pooh, Tigger (both voiced by Jim Cummings), Rabbit (voice of Tom Kenny) and the other members of the Hundred Acre Wood to find it. But then Owl misreads a note from their mutual friend, the human boy Christopher Robin (voice of Jack Boulter), who has conjured all these characters up in his imagination. When Christopher writes that he will be "back soon," Owl thinks it reads that he has been captured by the fabled "Backson" monster (only fabled in Owl's mind, mind you). So, now, not only must Pooh and Co. search for Eeyore's tail, they must now find their friend and capture the beast.

Very young kids who don't realize that the Backson is an imaginary creature might be scared that such a monster is indeed out in the Hundred Acre Woods and licking its chops for fresh bear, piglet, and roo meat. If you explain it to them quietly that it's just Owl and his lack of basic reading skills, they'll have a much easier time with the second half of the film. And there are some really lovely, wonderful moments in that second half, not the least of which is a scene where Rabbit, Pooh, and the gang have fallen into a trap they set for the beast and get into a wonderful play on words.

The film begins and ends with a couple of lovely live-action sequences in Christopher Robin's real-world bedroom where the boy's stuffed animals stand ready for imaginary adventures. The two sequences are basically slow pans around the room with no actors. But it'll remind you of the very best qualities of the "Toy Story" trilogy. I also liked the sequence where Pooh, ever the binge eater, imagines a world made completely of honey and there for his consumption. I had forgotten how lazy the silly old bear could be, and a couple of sequences where he pawns various activities and responsibilities off on poor Piglet kind of makes ol' Pooh rather unlikable for a moment or two.

But it's all played with gentle, good humor. And the overall experience benefits greatly from a particularly playful short animated film about the origins of the Loch Ness Monster that precedes the movie, and from two songs crooned by actress Zooey Deschanel that bookend the main feature that sound as smooth as...well, honey. You won't find much objectionable here, moms and dads, unless it's the explosions and thundering bass of the third "Transformers" flick coming from the theater next door. I rate it a 7.5 out of 10 (T. Durgin).