The Book of Pooh
| The Book of Pooh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre |
Adventure Children Puppetry |
| Created by | A. A. Milne (Characters) |
| Based on |
The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart by A. A. Milne |
| Directed by |
Mitchell Kriegman Dean Gordon |
| Voices of |
Jim Cummings John Fiedler Ken Sansom Peter Cullen Andre Stojka Kath Soucie Nikita Hopkins Stephanie D'Abruzzo |
| Narrated by | Roger L. Jackson |
| Opening theme | "Everyone Knows He's Winnie the Pooh" |
| Ending theme | "Goodbye for Now" |
| Composer(s) |
Brian Woodbury Andrew Wyatt Mitchell Kriegman Sean Altman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 23 (list of episodes) |
| Production company(s) |
Shadow Projects Playhouse Disney Original |
| Distributor | Buena Vista Television |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Playhouse Disney Disney Channel |
| Original release | January 22, 2001 – July 8, 2003 |
The Book of Pooh is an American television series that aired on Disney Channel. It is the third television series to feature the characters from the Disney franchise based on A. A. Milne's works; the other two were the live-action Welcome to Pooh Corner (to which this series bears resemblance) and the animated The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which ran from 1988–1991. It premiered on January 22, 2001, and completed its run on July 8, 2003. The show is produced by Shadow Projects and Playhouse Disney. Walt Disney Pictures released the first of two films, a direct-to-video spin-off film based on the animated television series, The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart, 2001.
Overview
The series appears to take place some time after the events of Milne's original stories since his son Christopher Robin Milne is clearly a sixth grader and 11 years old. The series departs from many of the established facts of Milne's books; for example, Tigger resides in the Hundred Acre Wood from the start, and Kanga and Roo are later introduced as newcomers. Neither Christopher nor his mother speak with an English accent, such is the case in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh where Christopher has an American accent. Kessie, the bluebird from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh episode, Find Her, Keep Her returns as a main character in this series.
Each show begins entering Christopher Robin's bedroom and hearing his mother say, "Christopher, time for school." Christopher Robin answers, "OK, Mom!", grabs a book and leaves. This is where the book with Pooh and his friends in it opens and the theme song begins. The show can be viewed as non-canonical in other ways. For example, Tigger likes - or at least is shown to eat - honey (compared with most other adaptations where "Tiggers don't like honey!") and can climb up - but more importantly climb down from trees. Plus, in this show as well as The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other adaptations.
Film
The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart is a direct-to-video animated spin-off based on the television series The Book of Pooh. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Television, produced by Shadow Projects and Walt Disney Television Animation and released on both VHS and DVD.
It contains six episodes, each of which focuses on one character. It is wrapped together by a loose plot in which the characters wait in Christopher Robin's room for his arrival. As is typical with the series, each episode features an original musical number. It is a compilation film of footage from the TV series.
Episodes
Season 1 (2001)
| No. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh / Double Time" | January 22, 2001 |
|
Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh: Pooh grants everyone's wishes as The Great Pooh Dini. | ||
| 2 | "Are You Me? / Rabbit's Happy Birthday Party" | January 22, 2001 |
| Pooh and Piglet prepare for Rabbit's birthday party but get lost on the way to his house and end up in Scary Woods. | ||
| 3 | "Circumference Equals Pirate 'Arrr' Squared / Pooh's to Do" | January 23, 2001 |
| Pooh and his friends become pirates; they think their stories are no longer interesting with Christopher Robin; Pooh is late for Rabbit's meeting, so Rabbit devises a schedule for him. | ||
| 4 | "Pigletry / Dinosnores" | February 26, 2001 |
| 5 | "I Came, I Sowed, I Conked It / I Get a Cake Out of You" | March 5, 2001 |
| 6 | "Biglet / Home Very Sweet Home" | March 14, 2001 |
| Piglet is sick of being small and wishes to be big; Pooh's scheme to steal honey results in a hive full of angry bees in his house. | ||
| 7 | "I Could Have Laughed All Night / X Spots the Mark" | April 22, 2001 |
| Kessie thinks Tigger has a funny laugh, Tigger thinks that Kessie is teasing him so he decides to never laugh again; The gang goes for a treasure hunt for one of Owl's relatives' treasures which is buried in the Hundred Acre Wood. They try to find the X that marks the spot before they can find the treasure. | ||
| 8 | "My Gloomy Valentine / Mr. Narrator" | May 30, 2001 |
| Everyone has a Valentine except Eeyore, so Pooh and his friends tried to get their gloomy friend a Valentine gift; Mr. Narrator thinks there are no stories for the day, Pooh and his friends help him so everyone in the world will read about them. | ||
| 9 | "Vegetable of Contents / A Welcome to Beat the Band With" | June 2, 2001 |
| 10 | "Owl's Book / The Autobiography of Tigger" | June 18, 2001 |
| Featuring Stripey McSnarl and a particularly nerdy-looking Rabbit. | ||
| 11 | "You Can Lead Eeyore to Books / The Spice of Life" | June 24, 2001 |
| Everyone got a book at the library except Eeyore, who will help Eeyore pick out a book for him? The bees have gone on vacation, leaving no honey for Pooh. Can his friends find a way to help Pooh eat? | ||
| 12 | "Mr. Narrator / Honey Gazed Hamlet" | July 9, 2001 |
| Mr. Narrator think there's no stories for a day, Pooh and his friends helps him so everyone in the world will read about them. | ||
| 13 | "The Words Are Out / Brain Drain" | September 23, 2001 |
| Piglet wakes up one morning with laryngitis and Pooh believes that his "word are lost" so he promises Piglet he'll find his missing words; Eeyore forgets something he was trying to remember, and Owl comments that he's having a "brain drain." That simple comment puts everyone in fear that they're all suffering from the "brain drain" and are in danger of forgetting everything. | ||
Season 2 (2002-03)
| No. | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | "Please and Thank-You's / The Rumor Millstone" | January 30, 2002 |
| Tigger thinks please is magic word and tries to use its magic to fly like a bird. Can Kessie stop Tigger from trying to fly; Rabbit gets upset with Tigger when he makes his spaghetti squish, so Rabbit tells a lie that a monster will take away his bounce. Tigger and the others hide from the monster. | ||
| 15 | "Over the Hill / Tigger's Replacement" | March 3, 2002 |
| At Owl's suggestion, Pooh decides to go over the hill in search for adventure. He gets distracted by a butterfly and unknowingly returns to the direction he had come from. Pooh believes he is exploring another land when he is actually still in the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger goes on journey to get in touch with his wild side and teaches Piglet to be his replacement while he is gone. When he comes back briefly after realizing he'd forgotten his toothbrush, Tigger overhears Rabbit saying that Piglet is an improvement over the old Tigger, and decides to leave permanently. | ||
| 16 | "The Wood Without Pooh / Friends of a Different Stripe" | April 1, 2002 |
| Pooh is worried about waiting for his friends because his special, "good" honey lives far away, Owl tells Pooh to leave a note for his friends. When Pooh is about to go he accidentally knocks his honey pot onto his note and doesn't realize it covers the word "honey." When Piglet, Rabbit, and Tigger arrived Pooh's house and found a note, it says "Gone for Good." Will they bring their friend back home? When Rabbit's house is flooded by the storm, Tigger invites him to spend the night at his place, Rabbit is not sure he will like because it is different. | ||
| 17 | "Mothers of Invention / Once Upon a Happy Ending" | April 27, 2002 |
| Rabbit babysits Roo for a day, only for Tigger to come along and wake Roo up during nap time. Now they must figure out a way to get bouncy, energetic Roo back to sleep. Mr. Narrator accidentally skips to the end of the story where we find Tigger stuck in a tree. In search for answers, he goes back to the beginning to find Tigger diligently chasing an acorn around the Hundred Acre Wood for Piglet. | ||
| 18 | "Piglet's Perfect Party / A Wood Divided" | May 9, 2002 |
| Piglet is throwing a party, but he wants to make it perfect for his friends; Tigger and Rabbit have a big fight and decide not to talk each other again. | ||
| 19 | "Bravehat / Scaredy Cat" | June 16, 2002 |
| Piglet is not sure the hat he found makes him brave; Owl puts Tigger in charge of watching over his house while he's away. When nighttime comes he, Piglet, and Rabbit hear some strange noises inside of Owl's house. | ||
| 20 | "Blue Ribbon Bunny / Under the Pig Top" | August 4, 2002 |
| The gang surprises Rabbit with a gardening award and it goes to his head. Piglet writes a story about running away to the circus and Pooh and his friends thinks he actually wants do. | ||
| 21 | "The Book of Boo" | October 25, 2002 |
| On Halloween evening, everyone gathers at Owl's house to listen to the spooky story, "The Goose Who Hated Halloween." Eeyore, however claims to not be scared of much, and doesn't understand the fuss of Halloween. He moves to the Scary Woods after people keep on knocking over his house of sticks. Piglet goes looking for Eeyore but winds up scaring him, and wins the scary costume contest. Everyone now enjoys Halloween in the Hundred Acre Wood, even Eeyore. | ||
| 22 | "Could it Be Magic? / Diary of a Mad Gardener" | June 17, 2003 |
| Tigger takes up magic. The gang read Rabbit's garden diary and thinks he is criticizing their behavior, so they try to change to make him happy. | ||
| 23 | "The Case of the Disappeared Donkey / The Littest Dinosnore" | July 8, 2003 |
| Tigger becomes detective "Stripey McSnarl" and investigates Eeyore's mysterious disappearance. Roo is too little to join his friends on an expedition, so Tigger cheers him up with some tall tales about "The Littlest Dinosnore" and the big things he did. | ||
Style of puppetry
The style of puppetry is based on Japanese bunraku puppetry, and this — along with the cut-out style backgrounds gives the show the look of a pop-up book — hence "The Book of Pooh". It was the first use of the Shadowmation process developed by creator Mitchell Kriegman which was later used in the PBS series, It's a Big Big World.
Characters
The characters in the show regularly sing and dance in ways that enhance the story being told. Many of the episodes do not have much basis in the original stories by A.A. Milne besides the characters.
The design and animation of the show was done by Chris Renaud, who would later become the co-director of the 2010 film, Despicable Me.
The characters who appear regularly and the actors who voice them are:
- Christopher Robin: Paul Tiesler
- Pooh Bear and Tigger: Jim Cummings (this is the first Pooh TV show where Cummings regularly voiced Tigger. In New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, he voiced Tigger in some episodes)
- Piglet: John Fiedler (speaking voice)/Andrew Sabiston, Jeff Bennett and Roger Jackson (singers voices)
- Rabbit: Ken Sansom
- Eeyore: Peter Cullen
- Owl: Andre Stojka
- Kessie: Stephanie D'Abruzzo
- Kanga: Kath Soucie
- Roo: Nikita Hopkins
- Christopher Robin's Mom: Vicki Kenderes Eibner
- Mr. Narrator: Roger L. Jackson
The versions of Tigger and Pooh seen on this show later made an appearance in a music video by the We Are Family foundation.
Main themes
- "Everyone Knows He's Winnie the Pooh" (opening theme)
- "Goodbye for Now" (closing theme)
Puppeteers
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Awards and nominations
The series received four Emmy Awards and tied with Sesame Street for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series 2002.