That silly old bear is back in old form

LOS ANGELES — “Winnie the Pooh” will be back to his old self again next year.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is returning the honey-loving teddy bear and his pals to their hand-drawn animated roots for a feature film dipping into theaters in July.

The new “Winnie the Pooh,” the first big-screen “Pooh” adventure from Disney animators in more than 30 years, will more closely resemble the classic short films from the 1960s and ’70s.

“We wanted to create a movie for the big screen that had the charm and wit of those original shorts,” said Peter Del Vecho, the film’s producer. “What originally endeared all of us — adults and children — to these characters was that they were stuffed animals that came to life in the imagination of a child. We wanted to rekindle that imagination in a big way.”

“Winnie the Pooh,” loosely based on five stories from A.A. Milne’s books, finds Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore and Christopher Robin searching for a new tail for Eeyore in a watercolor-drenched Hundred Acre Wood. The gang will also hunt for a mysterious creature called a Backson, briefly mentioned in 1928’s “The House at Pooh Corner.”

While this version of “Pooh” won’t be generated by a computer or projected in 3-D, Del Vecho cautioned it wouldn’t simply be a redux of past “Pooh” projects. He said the film, will feature five new original songs and a faster pace punctuated with humor that’s appropriate for modern audiences.