Winnie the Pooh

Exercise 7

• Field notes

• Peer assessment

• Structural Analysis

Scene	What happens
Outside	Pooh is thinking (indicated by poking himself in the head with his paw saying “think, think, think”) when Tigger jumps on him, they talk and Tigger leaves.
Somewhere else outside	Tigger knocks piglet down, they talk and Tigger leaves.
Rabbit’s garden	Rabbit is singing to himself while gardening; Tigger knocks Rabbit down, destroying his garden and knocking over his wheelbarrow. Rabbit gets upset.
Rabbit’s home	Rabbit calls a meeting with Pooh and Piglet to do something about Tigger. Pooh sleeps and is not listening. Piglet suggests getting the bounce out of Tigger. They take a vote but pooh doesn’t know what he is agreeing to as he was asleep. They decide to take Tigger somewhere and lose him for a while so he will be sorry and lose some of his bounce.
Misty woods	All four walk in the misty woods but Tigger goes ahead. Rabbit, Pooh and Piglet hide in a log to lose Tigger. Rabbit, Pooh and Piglet try to find their way home but are lost and go in circles, repeatedly ending up back at a sand pit.. Pooh suggests looking for the sand pit and then they might find home, as they keep finding the sand pit when they are looking for home. Rabbit sets out to prove that Pooh is wrong, leaving Pooh and Piglet to fall asleep in the pit. When Pooh’s tummy rumbles they decide to follow Pooh’s nose home. On their way Tigger jumps on them. When Pooh and Piglet mention that Rabbit is lost, Tigger goes to find Rabbit.
Another part of Misty woods	Rabbit is lost and scared. Noises from a bullfrog and caterpillar make him run. Tigger jumps on him and when Rabbit says that he, Tigger, is supposed to be lost, Tigger says “Tiggers never get lost”. Tigger drags Rabbit home.
Book	Narrator indicates a change in chapter.
Snowy scene outside Kanga’s house	Roo sits on a letterbox waiting for Tigger while Kanga sweeps the snow. Tigger knocks Roo off and lands on him. Kanga puts a scarf on Roo before he and Tigger leave.
A frozen pond	Rabbit is happily skating on the pond when Tigger, who thinks he can skate, loses control and collides with Rabbit shooting him into his nearby house with Tigger landing in a pile of snow. Rabbit is upset again and Tigger is not happy, saying that Tiggers don’t like ice skating.
A tall tree	Tigger and Roo find a tall tree and Tigger bounces up to the top of the tree with Roo hanging on his tail. Roo swings happily on Tigger’s tail but Tigger gets scared and holds on tight to the top of the tree.
Snowy ground around a patch of bushes	Pooh is following some tracks around a patch of bushes when Piglet arrives and asks what he is doing. Pooh explains he is tracking the creatures who made the tracks. As they walk around the bushes they find their own tracks and think they are now following more creatures. Tigger calls out from the tree and Pooh thinks it is a ‘Jagular’ and is scared. Roo calls out and now Piglet and Pooh know it is just Tigger and Roo at the top of the tall tree. Tigger says they need Christopher Robin’s help and Pooh goes to get him. Christopher Robin, Kanga and Rabbit all arrive back with Pooh and Piglet. They hold out Christopher Robin’s coat and catch Roo who jumps down happily but Tigger is too scared to jump. He says Tiggers can’t Jump, bounce down or climb down. Tigger promises to never bounce again.
Book	Narrator talks to Tigger and turns the book sideways so he can step onto the words and then slide down to the ground.
On the ground	Tigger is so excited to be saved that he almost bounces but Rabbit reminds him of his promise. Tigger walks away very sadly. Rabbit smiles but everyone else is sad. They say they like the old Tigger better, and ask Rabbit repeatedly until finally Rabbit agrees. Tigger turns and happily bounces back, grabbing Rabbit’s paw and taking him for a bounce. Rabbit bounces off fairly happily

Characters – all are stuffed animals with the exception of Christopher Robin and possibly Rabbit who may represent a real animal, although all move, talk and act as though they are alive.

Pooh is a central character who is a yellow bear with a slow, low voice that suggests a gentle, relaxed character. He sleeps a lot and is focussed on food and eating. Pooh uses some words that are not real but in a way that suggests he thinks he is an expert, eg talking about the Jagular. While this portrays a lack of knowledge, he often solves problems with his very simple thinking.

Tigger is a tiger who is orange and black striped with a tail like a spring that he bounces on. His exuberance often gets him into trouble but he is generally oblivious to the feelings of others. He has a cache of catchy songs and sayings that are repeated often such as “T I double ‘g’ UR” and “TTFN” (ta ta for now). This makes his character memorable and gets the watcher humming or singing along. Tigger also has a bit of a lisp suggesting he is quite young. Tigger uses extremes when he speaks e.g. “That’s what Tigger’s do best” and “Tiggers never get lost”. Tigger holds no bad feelings toward anyone and immediately forgives rabbit at the end of the story.

Piglet is a small pink pig who has a corresponding small high pitched voice. Piglet thinks Pooh is very smart and generally agrees with anything any of the characters might say. Piglet’s striped torso suggests a body suit which in turn suggests that he is very young. His voice and his size support this suggestion.

Rabbit is a yellow rabbit who talks a lot and who thinks he knows a lot. He is impatient and easily annoyed, most often by Tigger and his bouncing. He works in his garden and likes to call meetings, both of which suggest that he may be adult, or older than the other characters.

Roo is a small brown kangaroo. He is the youngest character in the story, he lives with his mother, Kanga, and idolises Tigger.

Kanga is Roo’s mother, a larger brown kangaroo. She plays a classic mother role, cleaning and taking care of Roo. She fusses over him and makes him wear a scarf to keep warm.

Christopher Robin owns the toys and is considered an authority on most subjects. He is a boy of about nine or 10 and he is called in when there is a problem that the toys can’t solve.

Narrator Each time the narrator speaks we see the words on the page as well as the moving pictures of the characters. This clearly places the reader in the position of observer of the story and reminds us that this story is from a book, not just a movie. The characters even refer to the book eg “I almost bounced clear out of the book”.

The age and gender of the characters is not made entirely clear. Most appear to be children due to their language and voices, although Kanga, as a mother figure, appears to be adult. Apart from Kanga, the characters appear to be male, probably because they are modelled after the toys of a little boy – Christopher Robin.

Music is used to introduce the feeling of each scene or to add to the drama – Gentle, calm music plays as the first scene begins to get the watcher into a whimsical, pleasant space, but deep, dramatic, faster paced music plays when Rabbit is lost in the woods. Music is repeated in similar scenes to relate different scenes.

The environment is used to support the story line. For instance, Snow falls on Tigger when he is sad and walking away but as soon as Rabbit admits he likes the old, bouncy Tigger, the snow stops falling. Another example is how the forest gets dark when Rabbit is lost and scared.

Emotion is further depicted through the use of exaggerated movement, placing emphasis on certain moments in the story. For example, when Tigger is calling into the log and Pooh, Piglet and Rabbit are in the log, they shake in an exaggerated way from the loud noise and when Rabbit is lost and the noises are scaring him we get a close up of his eyes that move quickly from right to left and then spin. These exaggerated movements are in contrast to the smooth style of animation of the rest of the movie. These assist the watcher to connect with the emotion while also adding humour.

• Personal evaluation

I disliked watching the video due to over-saturation of childhood cartoons thanks to my four children and found it very trying, however that was no reason for my apparent lack of analysis skills. I struggled to find themes and analogies at all and while I did come up with some of the points made in the model answer I was not nearly as successful in linking them directly to the story. I think I need to do some more practice in this area.

I struggled without a pattern or example of structural analysis to follow, not having had any experience with structural analysis reports and having had difficulty finding relevant examples. Having now read the model answer I see the value of keeping the details concise and have a better idea of what is relevant to the structural analysis. An example of how interpretation/analysis can be incorporated in the report alongside the presentation of the 'data' was also really insightful. I had thought that as much detail as possible was the aim (thus I included physical descriptions of individual characters, etc), but now see that this may not be necessary or ideal. I think that this will vary depending on the situation, but would need to be assessed on a case by case basis.

In general, this learning points out the value of finding models of my chosen methodology and having a familiarity and certain level of confidence in the way a particular methodology should be approached, focused and ultimately presented.

I found this exercise a test of my ability to restrict my comments to what had been observed in the time frame, and not bring in information known from previous experience with Winnie the Pooh stories. I think I did quite well, choosing several times to change comments and words as I recognised that they were built on prior knowledge, but on reflection I see a few comments that are influence by prior knowledge that I didn't notice (e.g. suggesting that rabbit likes calling meetings when there is only one meeting in the story).

I think I did well in keeping my language neutral and relatively value-free, and havehad a lot of practice with this in the 'non-judgmental' environment of a counselling session. However I see that this is hugely important when analysing data - as this is where your filters or lenses will probably come in the most.