The Book of Pooh is an American preschool educational 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 July 8, 2003. 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: Stories from the Heart in 2001.

Overview

The series takes place after the events of Milne's original stories since his son Christopher Robin is clearly an 11 year 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 "Okay, mom!", closes his book, 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 and his mother's faces are never shown. Plus, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other adaptations.

Cast

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 show's versions of Tigger and Pooh later made an appearance in a music video by the We Are Family foundation.

Puppeteers

Style of puppetry

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

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2001)

Season 2 (2002)

Awards and nominations

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

Film

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. 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

Several VHS Tapes were released in 2001 and 2002: Fun with Words Fun with Friends A Valentine for Eeyore Fun with Manners Fun with Make-Believe The show became available to stream on Disney+ on its launch, November 12, 2019.