The Book of Pooh
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| Book of Pooh (2001) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Paula Armstrong |
| Written by | Paula Armstrong Jymn Mogon Claudia Silver Mark Zaslove |
| Starring | Jim Cummings Peter Cullen Ken Sansom John Fiedler Nikita Hopkins Kath Soucie |
| Music by | Brian Woodbury, Andrew Wyatt, Mitchell Kriegman |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Home Video |
| Running time | 30 minutes (USA) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Book of Pooh was (is in the United Kingdom) a puppetry show aimed at preschoolers that aired on the Disney Channel (now on Disney Channel UK). In the UK, the show now airs daily on the Playhouse 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 in the 1980s.
The series appears to take place some time after the events of Milne's original stories since Christopher Robin (whose face was never seen) is clearly a child of school age. 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.
Each show begins entering Christopher Robin's bedroom and hearing his mother say, "Christopher, it's 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. However it is explained why in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh .
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 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.
Design and animation of the show was done by Chris Renaud
The series received two Emmy Awards.
The characters who appear most regularly are:
