The Book of Pooh

The Book of Pooh
Genre Children
Puppet
Created by A. A. Milne (Characters)
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
Composer(s) Brian Woodbury
Andrew Wyatt
Mitchell Kriegman
Sean Altman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 51 (list of episodes)
Production company(s) Shadow Projects
Playhouse Disney Original
Distributor Buena Vista Television
Broadcast
Original channel Playhouse Disney
Disney Channel
Original run January 22, 2001 – July 8, 2003

The Book of Pooh is an American children's puppet television series that aired on the 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.

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.

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 versions of the Winnie the Pooh stories where "Tiggers don't like honey!") and can climb up - but more importantly climb down from trees. In addition, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other versions save for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, where he also lives in a tree.

Episodes

No. Title Original Airdate
1"Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh/Double Time"
Pooh grants everyone's wishes as The Great Pooh Dini; Rabbit has to do double time after Pooh has X-ed his calendar to the next day.
2"Are You Me? / Rabbit's Happy Birthday Party"
Pooh and Piglet prepare for Rabbit's birthday party but got lost on the way to his house and end up in Scary Woods.
3"Circumference Equals Pirate 'Arrr' Squared / Pooh's to Do"
Pooh and his friends became 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"
5"I Came, I Sowed, I Conked It / I Get a Cake Out of You"
I Get a Cake Out of You is a story from The Book of Pooh. Songs: 'We're Making a Cake'
6"Whoo Dunnit? / Biglet"
7"I Could Have Laughed All Night / X Spots the Mark"
Kessie thinks Tigger has a funny laugh, he thinks that Kessie is teasing him so he votes 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 got to go find the X before they can find a treasure.
8"My Gloomy Valentine / Mr. Narrator"
Everyone has got 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 helps him so everyone in the world will read about them.
9"Vegetable of Contents / A Welcome to Beat the Band With"
10"Owl's Book / The Autobiography of Tigger"
11"You Can Lead Eeyore to Books / The Spice of Life"
Everyone got a book at the library except Eeyore, who can help Eeyore to pick out a book for him; The bees have gone for vacation, leaving no honey for Pooh. Can his friends find a way to get Pooh to eat?
12"Pleas and Thank-You's / The Rumor Millstone"
Tigger thinks please is magic word, he wants to fly like bird can Kessie stop Tigger for trying to fly; Rabbit gets upset with Tigger when he squish his spaghetti squish, so he told a lie and tell Tigger leave his garden because the monster can take away his bounce. Can Tigger and the others hide from the monster for taking everything since Rabbit told a fib?
13"The Wood Without Pooh / Friends of a Different Stripe"
21"The Words Are Out / Brain Drain"
Piglet wake up one morning with laryngitis and Pooh believes that his word are lost, so he promises Piglet he'll find those missing words; Eeyore forgets something he was trying to remember, and Owl comments that he's having a brain drain. That simple comment puts everybody in fear that they're all suffering from the brain drain and in danger of forgetting everything.
29"Piglet's Perfect Party / A Wood Divided"
Piglet is throwing a party, but he wants to make it perfect to his friends; Tigger and Rabbit have a big fight and decided divided up in the wood and won't talk each other again.
35"Blue Ribbon Bunny / Under the Pig Top"
The gang surprises Rabbit with a gardening award and he lets it go to his head; Piglet writes a story about to running away to the circusn and Pooh and his friends thinks he actually wanted do.
44"Could it Be Magic? / Diary of a Mad Gardener"
Tigger takes up a magic; The gang read Rabbit's garden diary and thinks he's criticizing their behavior, so they change accordingly to make him happy.
49"The Case of the Disappeared Donkey / The Littest Dinosnore"
Tigger becomes Stripey McSnarl and investigates a mystery when Eeyore can't be found; Roo is too little to join his friends on an expedition, so Tigger cheers him up with some tall tales about The Little Dinosnore and the big things he did.
50
Piglet is not sure this hat he found that makes him brave; Owl is putting Tigger in charge to watch over his house while he's away. When nighttime comes he, Piglet, and Rabbit hear some strange noises inside of Owl's house.
51"The Book of Boo"
On Halloween evening, everyone gathers at Owl's house and listens to a spooky story from The Book of Boo. Everyone is thrilled and spooked by the story except Eeyore, who seems to find the story rather boring and says nothing much scares him. Eeyore says that he doesn't understand all the fuss about Halloween and heads home. Later everyone heads for Kanga's house for a Halloween party and some people keep knocking over Eeyore's house on the way. There where Pooh and the others from the Hundred Acre Wood dress up in costumes for Kanga's Halloween party while Eeyore moves to the Scary Woods. Until irriated, Eeyore says he's moving to the Scary Woods because he knows nobody else goes there, but he's not scared. Where Eeyore chose to move his house of sticks into the Scary Woods because it kept on getting knocked over he was sure it would be safe in the Scary Woods as normal everyone else was afraid to go in there. When Piglet went to search for Eeyore in the Scary Woods until he finds himself a chance of winning it until Tigger finds his usually buoyant personality getting scared when he is Owl's scary treehouse with Rabbit, where Piglet gets worried about the constume contest. When Eeyore is getting nervous hearing voices, Piglet's mountain constumer is covered with sticks and leaves and scares Eeyore. When Eeyore laughs and thinks its fun. Kanga announced that Piglet won the constume contest for scaring Eeyore, and is Piglet to find his constume scary. And everyone is enjoining Halloween even Eeyore.

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 main A.A. Milne stories, excepting the characters.

The design and animation of the show was done by Chris Renaud, who would later become the co-director of Despicable Me.

The characters who appear regularly are:

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

Puppeteers

Awards and nominations

The series received Four Emmy Awards and won for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series Tied With Sesame Street in 2002.

See also

External links