Everything about Eeyore totally explained
Eeyore is a character in the
book series Winnie-the-Pooh by
A.A. Milne. He is a
pessimistic, gloomy, old, depressed, grey
stuffed donkey who is a friend of Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore's name is a phonetic representation of the donkey's bray: an
onomatopoeia, possibly derived from the
baby talk name for the animal.
Physically, Eeyore is described as an "old grey donkey." In
Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, he appears to be about shin-high to
Pooh and about hip-high to
Christopher Robin. He has a long tail, of which he's very fond, but also prone to losing because it's a string and bow pinned onto him with a thumb tack. (
Owl once mistakes it for a bell-pull.) Christopher Robin is able to reattach the tail with a thumbtack. Eeyore is commonly characterized by his walking style with his head down suggesting a constant depressed state.
Eeyore is apparently able to write, or at least recognize letters such as the letter A that he teaches to
Piglet in the fifth chapter of
The House at Pooh Corner. He spells his own name "eoR" when signing the "rissolution" that the animals give to Christopher Robin as a farewell present in the final chapter of
The House at Pooh Corner. Eeyore also wrote the awkwardly-rhymed poem called, "POEM", which appeared on the "rissolution", making him the only character in the Winnie-the-Pooh books other than Pooh himself who attempts to write poetry. Eeyore is also surprisingly good at the game
Poohsticks, winning more times than anyone else when it's played in the sixth chapter of
The House at Pooh Corner.
Eeyore lives in the southeast corner of the
Hundred Acre Wood, in an area labeled "Eeyore's Gloomy Place: Rather Boggy and Sad" on the map in the book. He has a stick house there in which colapses rather much, called the House at Pooh corner, which Pooh and Piglet built for him after accidentally mistaking the original house that Eeyore built for a pile of sticks.
Eeyore's favorite food is
thistles.
Eeyore appears in chapters 4, 6, 8, and 10 of
Winnie-the-Pooh, and is mentioned in a few others. He also appears in all the chapters of
The House at Pooh Corner except chapter 7.
Eeyore's "birthday" is
May 10 1871, the date when he was made.
Disney cartoon version
Eeyore also appears in the Winnie-the-Pooh
cartoons which were popularized by
Disney studios. In the Disney's cartoon, he was originally voiced by
Ralph Wright (who was also a major writer for Disney); his current voice actor is
Peter Cullen. In
Kingdom Hearts II, he's voiced by
Gregg Berger.
Eeyore is often used as a beast of burden in the cartoons, most notably when he was ridden by Rabbit in his search for train "borrowers" in
The Tigger Without A Name and
The Pooh With A Name. Nearly all of Eeyore's houses in the cartoons have been bounced down. Eeyore isn't good at rebuilding the houses; woozles bounce on them. Yet he soldiers on and rebuilds them time after time. Despite his depressive nature, Eeyore is capable of great compassion, which is shown when he grows a plant that
Rabbit, a master gardener, was unable to grow, just by showing the plant a little love.
Eeyore has also been featured in a number of movies:
Piglet's Big Movie,
The Tigger Movie and
Pooh's Heffalump Movie. He appears at the
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for meet and
greets. His catchphrases are "Thanks for noticin' me" and "Ohhh-kayyy."
In merchandise by
The Walt Disney Company, Eeyore sometimes has an uncharacteristic smile. Also, he's somewhat less caustic and sarcastic in the Disney version than in Alan Milne's original stories. His tail wasn't always fixed to him by a
draw knuckle, although Disney has chosen this as part of his permanent image. Eeyore lost his tail in the Hundred Acre Wood. Owl found it and used it as a bell-pull beside his door, before
Winnie-the-Pooh found it for Eeyore.
Christopher Robin then pinned it back on. According to
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, this was possible because Eeyore is full of
clay. Also, when Eeyore appears in animation he's colored his natural grey, though he's coloured blue with a pink muzzle in merchandising.
The difference between Milne's and Disney's portrayals of Eeyore may be due to a difference between British and American culture. The original Eeyore is very British, embodying as he does a mixture of pessimism, stoicism, sarcasm and cynicism, all qualities common to the stereotypical British character. Moreover he expresses these attitudes in dry, deadpan humour, again typically British. In her book
Watching the English, author
Kate Fox lists "Eeyorishness" as a fundamental English characteristic.
Eeyore was featured as one of the guests in
House of Mouse and .
Kingdom Hearts version
Eeyore also appears as a character in the game
Kingdom Hearts and
its sequel. is a depressed donkey who lives in the 100 Acre Wood. He has no permanent dwelling, and his only shelter is an arranged set of sticks that are always being knocked down. He also puts on his tail, which is only attached to him by a small nail that keeps on slipping out day after day. He goes about with a pessimistic attitude, never really seeing the bright side. However, he's never unwilling to help and he takes life almost
stoically in stride. He doesn't have a speaking role in
Kingdom Hearts, but in
Kingdom Hearts II, he's voiced by
Gregg Berger in the English version and
Taro Ishida in the Japanese version.
Influence on popular culture
In more cynical workplaces such as newspaper newsrooms or universities, a co-worker who is constantly a source of depressing and incongruous commentary is sometimes secretly referred to as an "Eeyore." Eeyore is also the subject of a long-standing celebration in
Austin, Texas called
Eeyore's Birthday Party.
In the episode of
Pinky and the Brain, "Brainy the Poo",
Al Gore is parodied in the episode with the animators drawing him imposed on Eeyore's body; thereby making the satirical parallel that Al Gore is just as monotonous, pessimistic and depressing as Eeyore. He is also shown to be full of hot air.
In music,
Slipknot recorded a song called "Eeyore" although the song appears to have little to do with Eeyore or any of his character traits.
Eeyore is also mentioned in the solo album by
Roger Waters (formerly with
Pink Floyd) in
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. In the track titled: "4:50 am [GoFishing]", Waters sees himself in a negative light and the cause of the breakup of his relationship. He is reading an excerpt of
Winnie the Pooh to his children, while smoking marijuana, and suddenly realizes or associates himself with a passage concerning Eeyore the Old Grey Donkey. "Chapter six. In which Eeyore has a birthday and gets two presents...Eeyore the old grey donkey stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. Pathetic he said, that's what it is."
In the
Vicar of Dibley episode "The Handsome Stranger", the Vicar sets up a book club, but no one reads the selected book. In an attempt to stop the evening from being a total disaster, the Vicar decides to discuss the one book that everyone has read:
The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. The discussion seems to centre around Eeyore and his depressive nature.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Eeyore'.
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