The Book of Pooh
| The Book of Pooh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Adventure Children Puppetry |
| Created by | Mitchell Kriegman A. A. Milne (Characters) |
| Based on | Winnie-the-Pooh (book) by A. A. Milne |
| 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 |
| Narrated by | Roger L. Jackson |
| Opening theme | "Everyone Knows He's Winnie the Pooh" |
| Ending theme | "Goodbye for Now" |
| Composers | Brian Woodbury Julian Harris |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Production companies | Shadow Projects Playhouse Disney Original |
| Original release | |
| Network | Playhouse Disney Disney Channel |
| Release | January 22, 2001 – November 29, 2004 |
The Book of Pooh is an American children's television series that aired 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 1988–1991. It premiered on January 22, 2001 and completed its run on November 29, 2004. It was repeated on Playhouse Disney until September 4, 2005 (May 2007 in the UK). The show is produced by Shadow Projects and Playhouse Disney. Walt Disney Pictures released the first of two films, a direct-to-video spin-off film based on the puppetry television series, The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart, 2001.
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 sixth 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, 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 episode, Find Her, Keep Her 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 "OK, Mom!", 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 likes—or at least is shown to eat—honey (compared with most other adaptations where "Tiggers don't like honey!") and can climb up—but more importantly climb down from trees. Plus, in this show as well as The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other adaptations.
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 original stories by A.A. Milne besides the characters.
The design and animation 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:
- Christopher Robin: Paul Tiesler
- Pooh Bear and Tigger: Jim Cummings
- Piglet: John Fiedler (speaking voice)/Jeff Bennett (singing voice)
- Rabbit: Ken Sansom
- Eeyore: Peter Cullen
- Owl: Andre Stojka
- Kessie: Stephanie D'Abruzzo
- Kanga: Kath Soucie
- Roo: Nikita Hopkins
- Christopher Robin's Mom: Vicki Kenderes Eibner
- Mr. Narrator: Roger L. Jackson
The versions of Tigger and Pooh seen on this show later made an appearance in a music video by the We Are Family foundation.
Puppeteers
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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
- "Everyone Knows He's Winnie the Pooh" (opening theme)
- "Goodbye for Now" (closing theme)
Episodes
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 26 | January 22, 2001 | April 3, 2002 | |
| 2 | 25 | May 19, 2001 | November 29, 2004 | |
Season 1 (2001-02)
| No. | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh / Double Time" | January 22, 2001 | |
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"Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh": Pooh grants everyone's wishes as The Great Pooh-Dini. "Double Time": Rabbit thinks he has to do double time after Pooh has X-ed his calendar to the next day. | |||
| 2 | "Are You Me? / Rabbit's Happy Birthday Party" | January 22, 2001 | |
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Pooh and Piglet prepare for Rabbit's birthday party but get lost on the way to his house and end up in Scary Woods. | |||
| 3 | "Circumference Equals Pirate 'Arrr' Squared / Pooh's to Do" | January 23, 2001 | |
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Pooh and his friends become pirates; they think their stories are no longer interesting with Christopher Robin; Pooh is late for Rabbit's meeting, so Rabbit devises a schedule for him. | |||
| 4 | "Pigletry / Dinosnores" | January 24, 2001 | |
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Piglet tries reading a poem he wrote, but his friends keep making changes to it; Owl reads a book about dinosaurs to the gang and they then go to search for a dinosaur, or "dinosnore," as they call it. | |||
| 5 | "My Gloomy Valentine / Mr. Narrator" | January 25, 2001 | |
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Everyone has a Valentine except Eeyore, so Pooh and his friends tried to get their gloomy friend a Valentine gift; There's no story today in The Book of Pooh! Mr. Narrator tries making up a story of his own to compromise, but he gets the characters' personalities all mixed up. | |||
| 6 | "Whooo Dunnit / Biglet" | January 26, 2001 | |
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One of Pooh’s honey jars goes missing and mystery-loving Owl decides to take on the case and interrogates everyone; Piglet is sick of being small and wishes to be big. | |||
| 7 | "I Could Have Laughed All Night / X Spots the Mark" | January 27, 2001 | |
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When Kessie says she thinks Tigger has a funny laugh, Tigger thinks that Kessie is teasing him so he decides to never laugh again; The gang goes for a treasure hunt for one of Owl's relatives' treasures which is buried in the Hundred Acre Wood. They try to find the X that marks the spot before they can find the treasure. | |||
| 8 | "I Came, I Sowed, I Conked It / I Get a Cake Out of You" | January 28, 2001 | |
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Tigger accidentally messes up the signs in Rabbit's garden when he bounces Piglet and tries to fix them. But then the wrong plants begin growing at the wrong signs; the gang decides to celebrate reaching page 100 of the book by baking a cake. However, nobody listens completely to Owl’s instructions. | |||
| 9 | "Vegetable of Contents / A Welcome to Beat the Band With" | January 29, 2001 | |
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Rabbit is unable to tend to his garden due to his physical condition, so he calls upon Pooh and Piglet to do the work for him; Rabbit recruits his friends to perform as a band to welcome Kessie back to the Hundred Acre Wood but becomes too obsessed with a 'perfect' performance. | |||
| 10 | "Owl's Book / The Autobiography of Tigger" | January 30, 2001 | |
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Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and Tigger think they've accidentally taken all the words out of one of Owl's books and decide to rewrite it themselves - with mixed results; Tigger wants to write the story of his life. | |||
| 11 | "You Can Lead Eeyore to Books / The Spice of Life" | March 12, 2001 | |
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Everyone got a book at the library except Eeyore, who will help Eeyore pick out a book for him? The bees have gone on vacation, leaving no honey for Pooh. Can his friends find a way to help Pooh eat? | |||
| 12 | "Mr. Narrator / Honey Gazed Hamlet" | March 19, 2001 | |
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There's no story today in The Book of Pooh! Mr. Narrator tries making up a story of his own to compromise, but he gets the characters' personalities all mixed up; Owl is hit with nostalgia when he rediscovers his old Shakespeare book. Pooh and the gang try to "cure Owl of his nostalgia" and make him happy again. | |||
| 13 | "Bee-Friended / The Nightmare" | March 26, 2001 | |
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A bee gets lost, so Pooh and Piglet try to help it find its way back home; Piglet recruits his friends to help him stop having nightmares. | |||
| 14 | "A Win Who Won Situation / Best Wishes, Winnie the Pooh" | April 2, 2001 | |
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Tigger and Rabbit compete to see who's faster; Pooh grants everyone's wishes as The Great Pooh-Dini. | |||
| 15 | "Biglet / Home Very Sweet Home" | April 9, 2001 | |
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Piglet is sick of being small and wishes to be big; Pooh's scheme to steal honey results in a hive full of angry bees in his house. | |||
| 16 | "Don Pooh-Xote / Beastly Burden" | April 16, 2001 | |
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Pooh and Piglet role play their own spin on the classic tale of Don Quixote and search for the Land "Bee-yond"; Eeyore feels like he lacks a purpose so his friends set out to figure out what Eeyores do best. | |||
| 17 | "It's a Bird? Yes! / A Breezy Little Story" | April 23, 2001 | |
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Kessie's debut as a superhero proves that heroes don't just fly around looking cool; Piglet and Tigger attempt to construct a kite without the instructions on a breezy day in the woods. | |||
| 18 | "The Small Wonders / Are You Me?" | April 30, 2001 | |
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Kessie and Piglet perform in a talent show; Pooh receives a note from someone called "Me" and tries to figure out who sent it. | |||
| 19 | "Night of the Brussels Sprout / I Could Have Laughed All Night" | May 7, 2001 | |
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An unidentified object lands in Rabbit's garden; Kessie says she thinks Tigger has a funny laugh, but Tigger thinks that Kessie is teasing him so he decides to never laugh again | |||
| 20 | "Kessie Wises Up / Eeyore's Tailiversary" | May 14, 2001 | |
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Upset about her limited knowledge, Kessie asks Owl to teach her everything so she will be better able to help her friends when they need it; Rabbit sets the gang in pairs to make a surprise party for Eeyore to commemorate his Tailiversary – the anniversary of the day he got his tail. | |||
| 21 | "The Words Are Out / Brain Drain" | May 21, 2001 | |
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Piglet wakes up one morning with laryngitis and Pooh believes that his "word are lost" so he promises Piglet he'll find his missing words; Eeyore forgets something he was trying to remember, and Owl comments that he's having a "brain drain." That simple comment puts everyone in fear that they're all suffering from the "brain drain" and are in danger of forgetting everything. | |||
| 22 | "Pleas and Thank-You's / The Rumor Millstone" | May 28, 2001 | |
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Tigger thinks please is a magic word and tries to use its magic to fly like a bird. Can Kessie stop Tigger from trying to fly?; Rabbit gets upset with Tigger when he makes his spaghetti squish, so Rabbit tells a lie that a monster will take away his bounce. Tigger and the others hide from the monster. | |||
| 23 | "Busy as a Spelling Bee / Up in the Air Junior Bird Donkey" | June 4, 2001 | |
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A bee stings Piglet; Kessie thinks Eeyore looks especially gloomy so she tries to teach him how to fly. | |||
| 24 | "Over the Hill / Tigger's Replacement" | April 1, 2002 | |
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At Owl's suggestion, Pooh decides to go over the hill in search for adventure. He gets distracted by a butterfly and unknowingly returns to the direction he had come from. Pooh believes he is exploring another land when he is actually still in the Hundred Acre Wood. Tigger goes on journey to get in touch with his wild side and teaches Piglet to be his replacement while he is gone. When he comes back briefly after realizing he'd forgotten his toothbrush, Tigger overhears Rabbit saying that Piglet is an improvement over the old Tigger, and decides to leave permanently. | |||
| 25 | "Take Me to What River? / My Gloomy Valentine" | April 2, 2002 | |
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Pooh and Piglet decide to name the river in the Hundred Acre Wood; Everyone has a Valentine except Eeyore, so Pooh and his friends tried to get their gloomy friend a Valentine gift | |||
| 26 | "Greenhorn with a Green Thumb / Night of the Waking Tigger" | April 3, 2002 | |
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Tigger learns about gardening from Rabbit; Tigger resolves that he is wasting too much fun time by sleeping through the night so he tries to stay up constantly. | |||
Season 2 (2001–04)
| No. | Title | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | "The Wood Without Pooh / Friends of a Different Stripe" | July 14, 2001 | |
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Pooh is worried about waiting for his friends because his special, "good" honey lives far away, Owl tells Pooh to leave a note for his friends. When Pooh is about to go he accidentally knocks his honey pot onto his note and doesn't realize it covers the word "honey." When Piglet, Rabbit, and Tigger arrived Pooh's house and found a note, it says "Gone for Good." Will they bring their friend back home?; When Rabbit's house is flooded by the storm, Tigger invites him to spend the night at his place, Rabbit is not sure he will like because it is different. | |||
| 28 | "Mothers of Invention / Once Upon a Happy Ending" | July 15, 2001 | |
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Rabbit babysits Roo for a day, only for Tigger to come along and wake Roo up during nap time. Now they must figure out a way to get bouncy, energetic Roo back to sleep; Mr. Narrator accidentally skips to the end of the story where we find Tigger stuck in a tree. In search for answers, he goes back to the beginning to find Tigger diligently chasing an acorn around the Hundred Acre Wood for Piglet. | |||
| 29 | "Piglet's Perfect Party / A Wood Divided" | July 16, 2001 | |
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Piglet is throwing a party, but he wants to make it perfect for his friends; Tigger and Rabbit have a big fight and decide not to talk each other again. | |||
| 30 | "Day of the Knights / Come as Eeyore" | July 23, 2001 | |
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The story of King Arthur inspires the gang; Eeyore starts to think that he is too boring to show up at Tigger's party. | |||
| 31 | "Bravehat / Scaredy Cat" | July 30, 2001 | |
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Piglet is not sure the hat he found makes him brave; Owl puts Tigger in charge of watching over his house while he's away. When nighttime comes he, Piglet, and Rabbit hear some strange noises inside of Owl's house. | |||
| 32 | "On a Clear Day You Can Bounce Forever / The Best Day Ever" | August 6, 2001 | |
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When Rabbit tells Tigger he is reading a book about a rabbit who wants to eat carrots forever, Tigger gets the idea that he wants to bounce forever; Pooh and Piglet plan to have the perfect day with all of the activities that they enjoy doing together. However, they face a problem when they realize that things aren't going the way they planned. | |||
| 33 | "Roo Sticks / The Hundred Acre Scrapbook" | August 13, 2001 | |
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Tigger finds a stick which reminds him of the day that Kanga and Roo first moved in; When Piglet goes on a trip, he tells Pooh to tell him all about what happened while he was gone. But Pooh can't figure out exactly how to do it. | |||
| 34 | "Where the Heffalumps Roam / And a Good Time Was Had By All" | August 27, 2001 | |
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Piglet wonders what Heffalumps look like, so he and Pooh go on a safari to find out for themselves; Owl lends Pooh a watch that needs winding. | |||
| 35 | "What's News, Tigger Cat? / Pooh's 24 Hour Bug" | September 28, 2001 | |
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Rabbit decides to start a newspaper business after he and Tigger learned about it from Christopher Robin, though Tigger has a hard time trying to come up with a good story; Pooh has come down with a case of the Sneezles, and Tigger, Rabbit, and Piglet have 24 hours to find everything on Owl's list for a cure. | |||
| 36 | "Blue Ribbon Bunny / Under the Pig Top" | December 26, 2001 | |
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The gang surprises Rabbit with a gardening award and it goes to his head; Piglet writes a story about running away to the circus and Pooh and his friends thinks he actually wants to do it. | |||
| 37 | "The Best Laid Planets / Happy Harvest Hare" | November 13, 2001 | |
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Kanga reads Roo and Tigger a story about a space adventure; Piglet finds Rabbit dancing after his harvest has finally been completed. | |||
| 38 | "Bounce of a Lifetime / Hare and Share Alike" | May 19, 2001 | |
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Tigger says to everyone that he can leap over the Scary Woods in a single bounce. But is that really possible?; Rabbit tries to keep his best harvest ever to himself rather than share it with his friends. | |||
| 39 | "The Terrific Talking Tomato / Kessie flies for a Spell" | March 3, 2003 | |
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Tigger tricks everyone by making it appear that one of Rabbit's tomatoes can talk. Owl hurts his wing whiling teaching Kessie some flight tricks. He reminisces about his glory days as an air show star, and Kessie gets inspired to put her own air show to cheer up Owl. | |||
| 40 | "The Book of Boo" | October 1, 2001 | |
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On Halloween evening, everyone gathers at Owl's house to listen to the spooky story, "The Goose Who Hated Halloween." Eeyore, however claims to not be scared of much, and doesn't understand the fuss of Halloween. He moves to the Scary Woods after people keep on knocking over his house of sticks. Piglet goes looking for Eeyore but winds up scaring him, and wins the scary costume contest. Everyone now enjoys Halloween in the Hundred Acre Wood, even Eeyore. | |||
| 41 | "Kessie Gets the Message / Map of the Wood" | March 10, 2003 | |
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Kessie feels left out of what the gang is doing, so Rabbit tells her she can help deliver messages to the others, but when everyone gives her a lot of messages, she gets tired and has a hard time remembering them; Pooh gets lost and he misses lunch time at Rabbit's house, so his friends help him make a map of the Hunded Acre Wood so he'll never get lost again. | |||
| 42 | "The Stickiest Glue of All / A Smackeral in Every Pot" | March 17, 2003 | |
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Pooh borrows Piglet’s friendship plate and accidentally breaks it. Thinking the friendship plate represents their own friendship, Pooh believes that their friendship is broken; Tigger hits the campaign trail when the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood get hit by election fever. | |||
| 43 | "Do the Roo / Buck-a-Roo" | March 24, 2003 | |
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Roo wants to dance for his mother Kanga on her birthday, so he asks his friends for help; Roo is sick in bed, so in order to make him feel better Kanga tells him a story about him as a cowboy. | |||
| 44 | "Could it Be Magic? / Diary of a Mad Gardener" | November 1, 2004 | |
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Tigger takes up magic; The gang read Rabbit's garden diary and thinks he is criticizing their behavior, so they try to change to make him happy. | |||
| 45 | "I Was King of the Heffalumps / Tigger's Club" | November 8, 2004 | |
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Piglet dreams of having the ability to talk to Heffalumps; Tigger starts a fan club for himself and invites everyone to join in. However, that soon evolves into a lot of trouble. | |||
| 46 | "Chez Piglet / Pandora's Suggestion Box" | March 15, 2003 | |
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Piglet decides to open his own restaurant; Rabbit has an idea for a suggestion box, but it doesn't work out the way he expected. | |||
| 47 | "Enter Braying / Weather or Not" | November 15, 2004 | |
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Rabbit stages a play which Eeyore wrote; Rabbit needs rain for his garden, so Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger try to find a way to make it rain. | |||
| 48 | "The Case of the Disappeared Donkey / The Littest Dinosnore" | November 22, 2004 | |
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Tigger becomes detective "Stripey McSnarl" and investigates Eeyore's mysterious disappearance. Roo is too little to join his friends on an expedition, so Tigger cheers him up with some tall tales about "The Littlest Dinosnore" and the big things he did. | |||
| 49 | "Piglet's Inadvertent Adventure / Power of the Pencil" | March 15, 2003 | |
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Piglet ends up having an adventure, even though he was just going to his mailbox; It's Owl Appreciation Day, and Pooh and his friends have to get ready for it. | |||
| 50 | "The Wishing Tree" | December 3, 2001 | |
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Roo sets out on a Christmas Eve adventure with Pooh, Piglet and Tigger in search of a tree that grants wishes, while Rabbit follows a magazine's step-by-step instructions for the perfect holiday party. | |||
| 51 | "The Great Honey Pot / Paging Piglet" | November 29, 2004 | |
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Pooh goes on a search for a honey pot called "The Great Honey Pot."; Pooh and Piglet are flying a kite when Piglet becomes attached to it and blows away. Pooh asks around for help but nobody seems to know where Piglet is, and it isn’t until Mr. Narrator suggests Piglet might be in an entirely different story that the search really picks up... | |||
Awards and nominations
The series received three Emmy Awards nominations,[1] and tied with Sesame Street for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series at the 29th Daytime Emmy Awards in 2002.[2]
Film
The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart is a direct-to-video animated spin-off based on the television series The Book of Pooh. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. 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 six 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.
See also
References
- ^ Craig Offman (March 13, 2002). "Daytime Emmy noms announced". Variety. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
- ^ "PBS, ABC top Emmy nods". Variety. May 12, 2002. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
External links
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Categories:
- 2001 American television series debuts
- 2003 American television series endings
- 2000s American television series
- Winnie-the-Pooh television series
- Disney Channel shows
- Television series by Disney
- Television programs featuring puppetry
- American television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Television programs based on children's books
- Winnie the Pooh (franchise)
- American children's fantasy television series
- American children's musical television series
- Television series based on Disney movies