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
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	51
Production company(s)	Shadow Projects
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Broadcast
Original channel	Playhouse Disney Disney Channel Disney Junior (Fall 2012)
Original run	February 9, 2001 (2001-02-09) – July 8, 2003 (2003-07-08)

The Book of Pooh is an American 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 February 9, 2001, and completed its run on July 8, 2003. The show is produced by Shadow Projects, and Playhouse Disney. This is the first Pooh show where Jim Cummings voices Tigger filling in for the late Paul Winchell.

It was shown in U.K on a Channel 5 Block known as 'Milkshake!' as well as Playhouse Disney. It's run on Milkshake! ended around 2006 to 2007.

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 fifth 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, however in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 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. However, it is explained why in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Episodes (Shown lower)

No.	Title	Original Airdate
1	"Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh/Double Time"
Pooh grants everybody's wishes as The Great Pooh Dini; Rabbit has to do double time after Pooh has X-ing his calender to the next day.
2	"Are You Me? / Rabbit's Happy Birthday Party"
3	"Circumference Equals Pirate 'Arrr' Squared / Pooh's to Do"
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"
8	"My Gloomy Valentine / Mr. Narrator"
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"

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

The characters who appear regularly are:

• Winnie-the-Pooh: Jim Cummings
• Piglet: John Fiedler
• Rabbit: Ken Sansom
• 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)
• Eeyore: Peter Cullen
• Owl: Andre Stojka
• Kanga: Kath Soucie
• Roo: Nikita Hopkins
• Kessie: Stephanie D'Abruzzo (later replaced by Amanda Maddock)

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

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

• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

External links

• Uk Playhouse Disney Official Site
• The Book of Pooh at the Internet Movie Database
• The Book of Pooh at TV.com
• Usa Playhouse Disney Official Site