The Book of Pooh – Wikipedia

Posted on by

US animated 2001-2003 TV-series

The Book of Pooh is an American children’s television series that aired on the Playhouse Disney block 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 to 1991. It premiered on January 22, 2001 and completed its run on November 29, 2004. It was repeated on Playhouse Disney until June 2, 2006 (May 2007 in the UK). The show is produced by Shadow Projects. Walt Disney Pictures released the first of two films, a direct-to-video spin-off film based on the puppetry television series titled The Book of Pooh: The Stories from the Heart in 2001.

The show became available to stream on Disney+ on its launch, November 12, 2019.

Overview[edit]

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 episodes “Find Her, Keep Her” and “A Bird in the Hand” 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 his backpack 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 can climb up—but more importantly climb down from trees and Christopher Robin’s face is never shown. Plus, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other adaptations.

Characters[edit]

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 production design 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:

The versions of Tigger and Pooh seen on this show later made an appearance in a music video by the We Are Family foundation.

Puppeteers[edit]

Style of puppetry[edit]

The style of puppetry is based on Japanese bunraku puppetry, and that — along with the cut-out-styled 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.

Main themes[edit]

  • “Everyone Knows He’s Winnie the Pooh” (opening theme) by Brian Woodbury
  • “Goodbye for Now” (closing theme) by Brian Woodbury and Mitchell Kriegman

Episodes[edit]

Series overview[edit]

Season 1 (2001)[edit]

Season 2 (2002–03)[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

The series received three Emmy Awards nominations,[1] and tied with Sesame Street for Outstanding Directing in a Children’s Series at the 29th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2002.[2]

The Book of Pooh: The 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 6 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.

Home media[edit]

Several VHS Tapes were released in 2001 and 2002:

Fun with Words

  • The Words Are Out
  • Brain Drain
  • I Could Have Laughed All Night
  • X Marks the Spot

Fun with Friends

  • You Can Lead Eeyore to the Books
  • The Spice of Life
  • Best Wishes Winnie the Pooh
  • The Double Time

A Valentine for Eeyore

  • My Gloomy Valentine
  • Mr. Narrator
  • Don Pooh Xote
  • The Beastly Burden

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]