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Owl Feathers

Season 1, Episode 18b, Overall 27
Production Information
Director Karl Geurs
Terence Harrison (Animation Director)
Writer Mark Zaslove (story)
Stephen Sustarsic (teleplay)
Prod code 118b
Airdate January 14, 1989
Episode Chronology
Previous My Hero
Next A Very, Very Large Animal

Owl Feathers is the second segment of the eighteenth episode of the first season of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It originally aired on January 14th, 1989.

Synopsis

While walking along a trail, Rabbit, Pooh, Tigger and Piglet find a trail of feathers, and when Owl falls from the sky and lands on Rabbit they believe that the feathers belong to Owl and that he is going bald. Owl falls to despair because of this, and Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore try to help him. Meanwhile, Piglet’s having trouble trying to learn to do magic tricks.

Plot

This article/section features spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk.

Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Rabbit are walking through the forest collecting feathers. Pooh and Tigger wonder about where the feathers came from, and Piglet offers to demonstrate a magic trick. He is dismissed by Tigger and ignored by Rabbit, but Pooh is amazed at the thought of Piglet doing magic, and so Piglet gets a chance to perform. He attempts to make a rabbit appear out of his hat, but winds up finding Gopher instead. Piglet gets frustrated. The scene changes, and we find Owl running into a duck while flying across the sky. Owl lectures the duck about having the right of way, and a flock of ducks flies past, knocking Owl out of the sky. He lands on top of Rabbit and says “good day” to everyone. Rabbit accuses Owl of being the source of the mysterious feathers and Pooh suggests that they can “put (the feathers) back where they belong”. Rabbit agrees, and they try to stick the feathers back onto Owl using Pooh’s honey, making a horrible mess of things. Rabbit tells everyone present that Owl is going bald; Owl expresses shock and disbelief at this statement. Rabbit explains the seriousness of the situation, in that Owl will soon lose all of his feathers, and without his feathers he will be unable to fly. Owl argues that he can fly perfectly; Rabbit reminds him that he crashed very recently, and Owl is forced to acknowledge this. Piglet wonders aloud if having crashed into numerous ducks could have caused Owl’s crash; Tigger dismisses this idea. Pooh and Tigger tell Owl that they are very sorry about his situation, and Rabbit suggests that he has to go home and get some rest. Owl agrees, and goes home.

Owl paces back and forth. He looks at himself in the mirror and, seeing all the feathers that have fallen off of him, comes to agree with Rabbit that he is losing his feathers. Owl falls into despair, and sits in his armchair. Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet and Eeyore arrive and announce that they have come to cheer Owl up. Owl thanks them but says that he is too miserable for their plan to work. Piglet offers to perform a magic trick, an idea that is dismissed by Eeyore, But Piglet starts to perform the trick anyway. He is trying to make flowers appear, and he is successful, except that there is a Bee in the flowers, which stings Owl and sends him flying out of the roof of his house, only to come crashing down onto his armchair, which breaks it. Rabbit says that they must find a way to help Owl, and Pooh agrees.

Later, Pooh and Owl are seen high up on the branch of a very tall tree; Owl has badminton racquets strapped to his wings. Pooh tells Owl that he will be flying again in no time; Owl asks him if he is “quite certain that badminton racquets are a suitable substitute for wings”. Pooh assures him that the racquets have never failed him before, but after Owl attempts to fly and crashes to the ground Pooh reveals that he has never actually tried it. The scene changes and we find Tigger yelling encouragements at Owl, who is walking on enormous stilts. Owl is very happy with this solution until one of the stilts falls into Gopher’s hole, and Owl goes plunging into the darkness. Later, Piglet is performing another magic trick for Rabbit and Pooh. He is attempting to make Tigger disappear, and asks the audience to cover their eyes, which they do. Piglet fails to make Tigger vanish, but Pooh, having never opened his eyes, believes that Piglet has not only made Tigger disappear, but himself and Rabbit as well. After Rabbit uncovers Pooh’s eyes, Pooh believes that Piglet has made everyone reappear, and he is amazed. Eeyore appears, and Rabbit tells him that he is supposed to be cheering up Owl. Eeyore says that Owl is too depressed for him to be able to do such a thing. Piglet wonders why Owl is unable to fly, and suggests that it may just be in his head. Piglet expresses a belief that Owl needs him, and wonders what he could do to help.

Owl sits alone by a pond, staring dejectedly into the water. Piglet enters the scene and offers to show Owl a magic trick, which Owl declines. Piglet proceeds to do the trick anyway, and he succeeds in flying (he is attached to a rope that is hung over a tree branch, and Pooh is pulling the rope on the other side). Piglet comes back to the ground and Owl, having believed Piglet’s trick, asks Piglet is he could make him fly as well. Piglet says that he could, and asks Owl to repeat the magic spell after him. They do this, and Owl, after flapping his wings, begins to fly. Pooh congratulates Piglet on his work.

Later on, Pooh lies with Christopher Robin on a hill, finishing the story of what has happened in the episode, which he is telling Christopher Robin. Christopher Robin explains to Pooh that the mysterious feathers are not Owl’s, they are from Christopher Robin’s pillow, and he reminds Pooh of the pillow fight they had a few days prior to the events of the episode. Pooh remembers this, and Christopher Robin says “silly old bear”.

The episode appears to be over, but then Piglet appears suddenly and offers to perform a magic trick, claiming that he can now truly pull a rabbit out of his hat. Christopher Robin accepts the offer, and Piglet does the trick. However, instead of finding a rabbit, he finds a clone of himself, another Piglet, which he pushes back into the hat. Piglet suggests that he may want to take up something “less confusing” than magic, and the episode ends.

Characters

Locations

Interval Title Card

Cast

Credits

Produced by

WALT DISNEY

TELEVISION ANIMATION

Producer/Director

KARL GEURS

Story Editor

MARK ZASLOVE

“MY HERO”

Story by

MARK ZASLOVE

and

STEPHEN SUSTARSIC

Teleplay by

STEPHEN SUSTARSIC

and

BRUCE TALKINGTON

“OWL FEATHERS”

Story by

MARK ZASLOVE

Teleplay by

STEPHEN SUSTARSIC

With the Voice Talents of

JOHN FIEDLER

KEN SANSOM

HAL SMITH

PETER CULLEN

MICHAEL GOUGH

TIM HOSKINS

FRANK WELKER

JIM CUMMINGS

as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger

and

PAUL WINCHELL

as

Tigger

Animation Director

TERENCE HARRISON

Assistant Producer

BARBARA FERRO

Assistant Story Editor

CARTER CROCKER

Art Director

ED GHERTNER

Storyboard Designers

GEORGE GOODE

LIN LARSEN

Character Design

LEONARD SMITH

Background Stylist

PARO HOZUMI

Color Stylist

JILL STIRDIVANT

Timing Directors

DAVE BRAIN

BRAD CASE

JOAN CASE

RICK LEON

MIRCEA MANTTA

JAMES T. WALKER

Track Reader

SKIP CRAIG

Overseas Animation Supervisors

KEN KESSEL

JAMIE MITCHELL

Talent Coordinator

OLIVIA MINER

Archives Administrator

KRISTA BUNN

Artwork Coordinator

KAREN SILVA

Post Production Manager

SARA DURAN

Post Production Coordinator

BARBARA BECK

Production Assistants

JEFFREY ARTHUR

PEGGY BECKER

STEPHANIE ELLIOTT

LEONA JERNIGAN

VITELLO & ASSOCIATES:

Supervising Editor

ELEN ORSON

Sound Effects Editor

ROY BRAVERMAN

Music Editor & Re-recording Mixer

ED BARTON

Songs Written and Produced

by

STEVE NELSON

Music by

STEVE NELSON

&

THOM SHARP

Animation Production by

TMS ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

THIS PICTURE MADE UNDER

THE JURISDICTION OF

*.

AFFILIATED WITH

A.F.L. C.I.O.

©1989 THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Quotes

  • Pooh - “I wonder where all these feathers came from. The clouds, do you think?”
    Tigger - “Nah! My guess is that they’re... horse feathers!”
    Rabbit - "Tigger, horses don't have feathers.”
    Tigger - “Yeah. That’s because they all fell off.” (laughs)
  • Owl - “Pooh, are you quite certain that badminton racquets are a suitable substitute for wings?”
    Pooh - “Oh, they’ve never failed me before.”
    (Owl tries to flap his wings with the racquets attached, but only falls)
    Pooh - But then, I've never tried them before.
  • Pooh: “Hmm... Aren’t rabbits supposed to have longer ears?”
    Piglet: (to Gopher) “Oh, dear. You’re not a rabbit.”
    Gopher: “Hmph! You're darn tootin’!” (Piglet lets go of Gopher as he falls down his hole through Piglet’s hat)
    Tigger: “I think you need a little more hocus in your pocus, buddy-boy!”

Gallery

Trivia

  • Kanga and Roo are the only characters who don’t make an appearance in this episode.
  • Piglet trying to make a rabbit come out of his hat but fails is almost quite similar to the running gag in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show where Bullwinkle tries to make a rabbit come out of his hat but fails.

VHS Releases