Golden Book Video

Golden Book Video was a line of children’s animated videos marketed by Western Publishing, beginning in 1985. They featured characters and stories from Western's print publications, such as Little Golden Books, and were originally released on VHS video cassette for under $10.

The videos made use of limited animation techniques to add motion to original illustrations from Western's print books; Western called this approach "bringing storybooks to life". As production was carried-out by multiple companies (Animagination Inc. ,David Kallaher Inc., among others), contents of the videos varies. Typically, they featured a full voice cast, with background music sourced from production music libraries (the KPM/Associated Production Music library, for example), although original songs were recorded for some videos (typically done by Studio Consultants, Inc., but sometimes by Tarrytunes Productions and Universal Recording Corp., among others), occasionally with sing-along lyrics appearing on-screen. The video adaptions often carried original material that was not present in the original books. Some of their video releases were mastered with Dolby Stereo.

Random House bought out Golden Book Family Entertainment in 2001.

Since 2008, a group of amateur video comedians on YouTube have been showing a series entitled Golden Book Video Killers, featuring puppet versions of the cartoon stars Daffy Duck of Looney Tunes Fame and Grumpy Dwarf from Disney's Snow White And The Seven Dwarves (And on occasion, Yoshi from the Mario series), welcoming viewers to their secret fun house for a show packed with making fun of the classic Golden Book Videos (in a style similar to Mystery Science Theater 3000).

List of videos in series

Some of the videos titles, and the stories contained in them, are listed below:

• Favorite Stories : 3 Stories - Approx 30 minutes. (1985)

1. "Scuffy the Tugboat" (by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely)
2. "What Was That!"
3. "Theodore Mouse Goes to Sea"

-Re-released in 1988-1989 as "Scuffy the Tugboat and Friends"

• Favorite Stories: Five Sesame Street Stories (1985, re-issued in 1989)

1. "The Origins of Super-Grover"
2. "Super-Grover and the Speeding Sled"
3. "Super-Grover and the Three Bears"
4. "Super-Grover and the Hole Story" (AKA "Gone Fishing")
5. "Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street"

• Sesame Street : Three Stories, featuring Jim Henson’s Sesame Street Muppets - Approx 30 minutes. (1985, re-issued in 1990)

1. "Everyone Makes Mistakes"
2. "The City Worm and the Country Worm"
3. "Wanted: The Great Cookie Thief"

• 3 Richard Scarry Animal Nursery Tales - (a.k.a. Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales, 1985)

1. "The Gingerbread Man"
2. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
3. "The Three Little Pigs"

- Re-released in 1989/1990 as Richard Scarry's The Gingerbread Man and Other Nursery Stories

• 3 Mercer Mayer Stories - Approx. 30 minutes. (1985)

1. "Herbert the Timid Dragon"
2. "Just for You" (featuring Little Critter)
3. "How the Trollusk Got His Hat"

- Re-released in 1991 as Herbert the Timid Dragon and Other Tales

• Amye Rosenberg’s : 3 Stories

1. "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"
2. "Polly's Pet"
3. "The Little Red Hen"

• 3 Best-Loved Stories

1. "The Poky Little Puppy and the Patchwork Blanket"
2. "The Sailor Dog"
3. "Little Toad To The Rescue"

• 3 Richard Scarry Tales

1. "Old McDonald's Farm"
2. "The Wolf and the Kids"
3. "The Musicians of Bremen"

- Re-released in 1989 as Richard Scarry's Old MacDonald's Farm and Other Animal Tales

• Hugga Bunch: Meet the Hugga Bunch

1. "Hugs from the Heart"
2. "Huggins and Kisses"
3. "Hugs for Grandma"

• Masters of the Universe 1

1. "The Caverns of Fear"
2. "In the Land of the Shadows"
3. "The Sword of Knowledge"
4. "The Eye of Eternia"

• Masters of the Universe 2

1. "The Rock Warriors"
2. "Demons of the Deep"
3. "The Maze of Doom"

• Jungle Animal Tales: 3 Stories

1. "The Saggy Baggy Elephant" (written by Kathryn Jackson and Byron Jackson, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren)
2. "The Tawny Scrawny Lion" (by Kathryn Jackson and Gustaf Tenggren)
3. "Rupert the Rhinoceros" (by Carl Memling and Tibor Gergely)

-Re-released as Tawny Scrawny Lion's Jungle Tales in the Golden Book Video Classic series.

• 3 Tales from the Care Bears - 1986, Approx 30 minutes.

1. "The Trouble With Timothy"
2. "The Best Prize of All" (featuring the Care Bear Cousins)
3. "Being Brave is Best"

• Pound Puppies: 3 Stories - 1986, Approx 30 minutes.

1. "The Gate Crashers"
2. "Snowball the Wonder Dog"
3. "The Puppy Who Couldn't Remember"

• Favorite Fairy Tales : 3 Stories - Approx Running Time : 30 min

1. "Cinderella"
2. "The Elves and the Shoemaker"
3. "The Golden Goose"

Baby Songs series

1. Sing Together!
2. Hap Palmer's Follow along songs

• A Step Ahead Video - 1989, Approx 60 minutes.

1. "Working with Words!" - Groucho & Olivia discover making words & sentences can be a real adventure!
2. "Working with Numbers!" - Meggie and kids put on a snappy revue showing Math can be lots of fun in The Rainy Day Number Show
3. "Get Ready to Read"
4. "Know the Alphabet"

• History Rock : Schoolhouse Rock Video - 1987, ABC, Golden Book Video; Approx. 32 Minutes - Academy Award Winner Cloris Leachman and a group of young friends share a lively half hour of catchy songs & sketches that make learning about History fun and easy!

1. "No More Kings" - The Founding of America
2. "Fireworks" - Declaration of Independence
3. "The Shot Heard Round the World" - Start of the Revolution
4. "The Preamble" - The United States Constitution
5. "Elbow Room" - The pioneers opening the west
6. "Great American Melting Pot" - The ethnic diversity of America
7. "Mother Necessity" - Great American inventors
8. "Sufferin’ Till Suffrage" - Women's right to vote
9. "I'm Just a Bill" - How a bill becomes law

• Golden Book Music Video: Sing, Giggle, and Grin

• Golden Book Music Video: See, Sing and Play

• Golden Book Music Video: Songs from Mother Goose

• Golden Book Music Video: A Child's First Nursery Songs

• Golden Book Music Video: Sing, Stretch and Shape Up

• Campfire Thrillers

Non-animated video

• Kim & Jerry Brodey

"Hats on / Hats Off ...To a World of Music, Mime and Imagination with Kim & Jerry"

Live action/animation combined film

• Dinosaurs! - A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time!

Furthermore, Golden Book Video also released Canadian children's TV shows, such as Polka Dot Door (to name a few).

Golden Book Video Classic

There is also the series of videos entitled A Golden Book Video Classic. Some VHS videos in the series are entitled:

• The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas

• Three Sesame Street Stories

• Richard Scarry's Old MacDonald's Farm and Other Animal Tales

• Beauty and the Beast - Approx 30 minutes.

1. "Beauty and the Beast" - In order to save her father's life, the gentle Beauty must live in a castle of the ugly Beast. Through the Beast is kind, and tries in every way to make her happy, Beauty cannot bring herself to love him. Finally, as he lay dying, Beauty gives the beast a kiss which breaks the spell and magically transforms him into the handsome prince he once was.
2. "The Silver Pony" - A young farmboy daydreams about a beautiful, enchanted pony a pony with wings. The boy climbs upon his back, and they fly high above the treetops. Together, they bring happiness to four very different people. The boy's daydream is wonderful, but it ends all to soon, and the boy wakes up despondent and alone. But there is a wonderful surprise waiting for him as he approaches the once empty corral. Could it be that his day dream has come true?
3. "The Practical Princess"

• Merry Mother Goose - Approx 30 minutes.

1. "Merry Mother Goose"
2. "Mrs. Mooley"
3. "There's No Such Thing as a Dragon" (by Jack Kent)

• Bible Heroes - 1990, Approx 30 minutes.

1. "Noah's Ark"
2. "David and Goliath"
3. "The Story of Jonah"

External links

• The Official "Little Golden Books" Page