On Friday, Disney releases Christopher Robin, a live-action Winnie the Pooh film. Hearing the voice of Jim Cummings, who has voiced Pooh for 40 years, creates a jarring time-warp effect: When a weathered Pooh peeks out from behind that park bench to surprise the adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor), even the most cynical among us will be transported back to simpler times. I’m not going to say it’s the same exact situation as when A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh storybooks delivered comfort and joy to a PTSD-rattled England in the aftermath of World War I, but it’s not not that.
Commenters online generally have swooned over this sentimentality, and a few new side convos and riffs based on the film’s trailer—Doesn’t Pooh look a little too much like Ted? Why does Tigger look like he’s been ripping cigs for 20 years?—have presented themselves. But those commentaries had nothing on the elephant in the room, a pop-culture conundrum that has generated controversy since Disney’s earliest adaptations of Milne’s stories:
Should Pooh be wearing pants?
First, some context about Pooh’s pants, or lack thereof: In E. H. Shepard's illustrations in Milne’s 1920s Pooh storybooks, Pooh is generally not wearing any clothes at all. If you go visit the original Pooh bear doll at the New York Public Library, where all of Christopher Robin Milne’s refurbished toys are on display, you’ll notice that the proto-Pooh is shirtless.
Even though a shirted Pooh does make an appearance in two stories—“In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a woozle” and “In which a house is built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore”—that shirt appears to be more of a button-up vest, a garment well-suited to a chilly evening in the English countryside. But Pooh’s creators, Milne and Shepard, aren’t the parties responsible for the current red-polo-shirt situation; that would be Stephen Slesinger, an opportunistic artist and marketer who licensed the Pooh characters for American and Canadian consumption in 1930. In lieu of using Shepard's illustrations, which Slesinger opted not to license, he drew his own—possibly basing his new Pooh off of Shepard's shirted illos. Hence, shirt. By the early ’30s, Slesinger’s Pooh was one of the most popular characters in America. And while he was wearing a shirt, pants were conspicuously absent.
For some, Pooh’s outfit is a non-issue—this is the Pooh we’ve grown up with, and refuting any aspect of that experience is not an option. But to others, it’s a question that arises every time they come across an image of Pooh.
So I decided to find an answer.
“Should is a tough word,” says author and 2017 ASME Columns and Commentary finalist Jayson Greene. “Since Pooh’s paunch and underside are so very naked, I think I would be more comfortable if he wore shorts.”
“But that likely says more about me than him,” Greene adds. “This is some body shit of mine. We all see the Pooh bear we want to see.”
“I think Pooh should be either wearing pants or not be wearing a shirt,“ says poet and commentator Hanif Abdurraqib, who knows his way around an electric Pooh riff. He found the tactile, 3-D nature of Pooh’s live-action rendering unsettling. But if he were to start from scratch on Pooh’s outfit, Abdurraqib would advocate for a “loose-flowing chino pant” or a jogger.
Two critics, two circular answers. The pants question within the HACU—Hundred Acres Cinematic Universe—presents conflict. So I decided to extend my search. I reached out to a few folks who have skin in the pants game.
“Pooh is living the Outlier dream of reducing his wardrobe to one absolutely essential item, a poorly fitting red shirt cropped above his well rounded belly,” writes Abe Burmeister, whose Outlier line delivers extremely sturdy staples. “Pants are always optional in this world, but it takes considerable social skills and confidence to pull off the looks as well as Pooh does, and because of this we are in awe of him.”
“He is a hero and deserves all of the honey,” says Burmeister.
His sentiment is echoed by an American institution:
“We believe in authentic self-expression and support whatever fashion choices Winnie the Pooh makes,” writes Tracey Panek, Levi Strauss & Co.’s resident historian. “That being said, he would look amazing in a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans.”
Even GQ’s own style editor, Mark Anthony Green, took a hard line on this issue. When asked via e-mail whether Pooh should be panted, he wrote back a definitive one-word answer: “YES.”
However, it wasn’t all about the pants to everyone. Some polled took more issue with the shirt.
“The real question is: Should Pooh be wearing a shirt?” writes HQ host Scott Rogowsky, adding “#FullNudePooh.”
Some big fashion houses declined to comment, likely due to the enormity of the question itself. “Unfortunately we will not be able to provide comment – so sorry!” responds a Gucci spokesperson.
Most everybody surveyed agreed on one major point: that it’s too late to change the way that this Pooh, the one depicted in Christopher Robin, looks, because that would strip away all of the appealing nostalgia. What translates best across generations in the Pooh stories is their melancholy—the balance of happiness and sadness—and also the fact that one of their major and most enjoyable characters is more or less a manic-depressive. Milne took his trauma and made emotional art that has given millions comfort, and he went on to become a prominent and influential anti-war activist. That legacy transcends the pants issue currently on the table.
So Pooh is riding with that red shirt for the foreseeable future. Personally, I’m strongly against the notion of Poochie-fying Pooh. I’m not trying to see Pooh in SK8-His. But a complete reversion to the Shepard Pooh feels too drastic.
While Disney’s Pooh lives an even more Nerf-ed out life than Milne’s Pooh, whose entire world is built around its own safety, it’s the same Pooh. His energy is continuous, eternal, relatable, comfortable. The shirt is a side conversation, and pants are out of the question. Pooh cannot be contained.