British author A A Milne started to write a series of books about Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends -- Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo -- at 100-Aker-Wood in his country home Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest, Sussex.

Winnie-the-Pooh was published by Methuen on October 14, 1926, the verses Now We are Six in 1927, and The House at Pooh Corner in 1928.

In 1977 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the first feature-length animated film of Pooh was released by the Walt Disney Company.

In 1997, thirty years after the release of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Disney released Pooh's Grand Adventure.

Pooh doesn't owe his success to a blockbuster movie alone. With his image emblazoned on millions of pajamas, backpacks and lunch boxes, he doesn't really need the big screen.

Disney executive Sharon Morril and Winnie the Pooh attend the premiere of the Walt Disney film 'Piglet's Big Movie' at the El Capitan Theatre on March 16, 2003 in Hollywood, California.

Photograph: Vince Bucci/Getty Images

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