Lopez to Write Songs for New 'Winnie the Pooh' Film

The Walt Disney company will be releasing a new hand-drawn 'Winnie the Pooh' animated movie on July 15, 2011, jimhillmedia.com has reported.  The movie will be called 'Winnie the Pooh' and will feature songs by Robert Lopez, who collaborated on the score for AVENUE Q, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.  The story will be based on five stories from the original Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne.

The film, which was originally pitched as a direct-to-video release, will be directed by Steve Anderson and Don Hall, and the lead story artist will be Burny Mattinson, who worked on the original Winnie the Pooh animation.  Mattinson will be joined by various accomplished animators, including Mark Henn, Andrea Deja, Glen Keane, and Tony Bancroft.

The voice talent for 'Winnie the Pooh' will include Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh, Tigger), Tom Kenny (Rabbit), and Craig Ferguson (Owl). 

The film will share a release date with 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II,' the final installment in the Harry Potter film series.

Robert Lopez collaborated with Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty on AVENUE Q, a raunchy story of puppets trying to make it in New York City, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2004.  His other credits include FINDING NEMO: THE MUSICAL and several episodes of the Nickelodeon show 'Wonder Pets,' for which he shared a Daytime Emmy for composing.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski