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555 reviews

villemezbrown 8,850 reviews

Rabbit Marks the Spot (The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) by Disney Enterprises Inc.

Another middling adaptation of a really bad episode from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a 1980s television series.

In this one, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Gopher are playing pirates, but they rudely dig for treasure in Rabbit's garden, so Rabbit decides to teach them a lesson by playing a prank on them. He fills a treasure chest with rocks and makes a map to it that he claims was drawn by his great-great-great-uncle, Long John Cottontail. He's sure they'll feel bad once they find the show more worthless booty, but then he starts to feel bad about them feeling bad and wants to undo the treasure hunt, but events are no longer in his control. The writers try to force in some zaniness before an even more forced heartwarming finale and a totally stupid and nonsensical twist at the last second.

You'd think a 44-page picture book adaptation of a 10-minute cartoon would be pretty faithful, but the uncredited writer of this adaptation adds a couple scenes that aren't in the cartoon. The uncredited artist has completely changed all the pirate costumes Pooh and his friends are wearing, which is a shame because I was hoping to discuss the significance of Piglet having a single earring in his right ear in the cartoon according to certain cultural practices of the 1980s. But maybe that is why the costumes were changed, to avoid any implications the animators were accidentally or even intentionally invoking.

FOR REFERENCE:

Picture book adaptation of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh animated segment "Rabbit Marks the Spot," from Season 2, Episode 8; first aired September 16, 1988 (listed on Disney+ as Season 1, episode 24); directed by Terence Harrison and Karl Geurs; story by Mark Zaslove and Bruce Talkington; teleplay by Carter Crocker.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) show less

Jan 17, 2024

villemezbrown 8,850 reviews

Paw and Order (The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) by Walt Disney Productions

This adaptation is of one of my least favorite episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

The framing sequence has the Pooh friends putting on a play for Kanga and Roo, then it segues to an Old West tribute with Piglet becoming sheriff of a town needing protection from some horse thieves -- horses that are thieves, that is. The head horse, Nasty Jack, is voiced in the cartoon with a pathetic Jack Nicholson imitation (at least we are spared that in the adaptation). Pooh does a little show more Lone Ranger cosplay as the battle against Nasty Jack goes back and forth before the happy ending.

The episode is twice as long as regular segments in the show, so it drags on forever. While the adaptation cuts out the fat as it condenses the story, it just emphasizes how weak the tale is.

FOR REFERENCE:

Picture book adaptation of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh animated segment "Paw and Order," from Season 1, Episode 12; first aired April 3, 1988; directed by Karl Geurs; story by Len Uhley and Mark Zaslove; teleplay by Len Uhley.

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh books my family owns (see the list here). While I work through few remaining longer Pooh books we own, I'm missing my daily dose of Pooh, so I'm going to start seeking out some of the Pooh books I don't own – yet – from libraries IRL and online. See the reviews here.) show less

Aug 27, 2023

villemezbrown 8,850 reviews

Disney Winnie the Pooh Telling Time by Walt Disney Productions

Ooh, this is an exciting Pooh book!

Well, I should clarify that the story is a complete nothing tale about Pooh waking up with a craving for cake and passing every single hour of the day impatiently -- but giving kids the chance to move the attached clock hands -- until he can have cake. My two-star rating reflects this.

No, what's exciting for me is that this is another example of Disney book recycling -- one of my favorite sub-topics in the Pooh Project!

When I went to log this book on show more LibraryThing and Goodreads I saw that it was attributed to writer Hallie Marshall even though her name appears nowhere on the book I have in hand despite its having full credits for the four illustrators. When I searched for the book title online I did find that there were some versions of the cover where Marshall's name appears and some like mine, where it does not.

At first it appeared that there were two different editions of the same book: a hardcover edition where Marshall's name appears and a board book edition where it doesn't. But I searched the hardcover ISBNs and found some interior pages and was surprised to find that the hardcover had twice as many pages as the board book with many extra illustrations, illustrations in a different order, and words that were completely different. The hardcover has a story about Rabbit's birthday, whereas the board book is just about Pooh wanting cake.

Hardcover first words:
It was nearly eight o'clock. Pooh rolled out of bed. "Time for my stoutness exercises!"

Board book first words:
Late one night, Winnie the Pooh lay cozily in his bed. He was dreaming of cakes and snacks and smackerels of honey. He was a hungry bear -- even when he was sleeping.

Hardcover last words:
By nine o'clock, Pooh was in bed and dreaming. He dreamed of birthday cakes. He dreamed of snacks and smackerels and honeypots and pots of honey!
Sweet dreams, Pooh!
(The hardcover ends with the illustration of Pooh dreaming that opens the board book with the first words above.)

Board book last words:
"I believe this is the best cake I have ever eaten," declared Pooh.
Everyone at the table agreed, and no one noticed how much time had passed because they were all too busy having fun.

I couldn't resist tracking down a cheap copy of the hardcover on eBay, and I'll review that separately when I receive it next week.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) show less

Oct 12, 2022

villemezbrown 8,850 reviews

Pooh: Sweet Dreams (Good-night Board Books) by Disney Enterprises Inc.

Pooh sleeps and dreams. I hate dream sequences, but thankfully the book is only 10 pages long so the suffering was over quickly.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
show more target="_top">https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) show less

Apr 10, 2023

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