The Book of Pooh
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| Book of Pooh (2001) | |
|---|---|
 adapted by = Mitchell Kriegman |
|
| Directed by | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Written by | Mitchell Kriegman Jymn Mogon Claudia Silver Mark Zaslove |
| Starring | Jim Cummings Peter Cullen Ken Samson John Fiedler Nikita Hopkins Kath Soucie |
| Music by | Brian Woodbury, Andrew Wyatt, Mitchell Kriegman |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Home Video |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Running time | 30 minutes (USA) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Book of Pooh is a puppetry show (and was in the United States) aimed at preschoolers that aired on the Disney Channel. 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 a British accent.
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.
The series received two Emmy Awards.
The characters who appear most regularly are:
