Disney Storybook ArtistsReseñas

Fantasy

I'm not a fan of the Pooh books in the Disney Baby series because they generally don't bother with stories and the art is often copy and pasted from a clip-art library, so the same pictures appear over and over in each book.

I've seen this image of Eeyore shrugging way too many times and the coloring of his front legs still makes no sense -- the dark grey outer hair means he has to be in some sort of messed-up "Walk Like an Egyptian" pose with his light-grey inner hair palms-down.


https://i.imgur.com/hS2iK1E.jpg

(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... )

Pooh and Roo investigate a mysterious "boing-boing" sound, making the rounds of all the Hundred-Acre residents one by one to get their guess as to what might be making the sound. Little ones will probably enjoy pressing the button to make the "boing-boing" sound and searching for a ceratin orange-and-black tail hiding on each page.

(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... )

A brief adaptation of a short sequence from the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie has Pooh and friends offering Eeyore some silly substitutes for his missing tail. Eeyore's sad little rejections make the book fun to read aloud. And there are touch-and-feel activities for toddlers.

Nice!

FOR REFERENCE:

Original Disney animated film directed by Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall; story by Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall, Brian Kesinger, Clio Chiang, Don Dougherty, Kendelle Hoyer, Nicole Mitchell, and Jeremy Spears; and adapted in turn from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter Four: In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One
.

(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.)

A cute little run through the roster of the residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood as we try to figure out which one could possibly love honey and which ones do not.

(Pooh Project: Phase 2! I've managed to catalog all the shorter Pooh projects 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.)

Another book in the series that refuses to let Pooh look toward the reader. He's always looking up, down, left or right.

This time, Pooh and Piglet take a nature walk, appreciating all the colors of fall. But the stream seems to be full of unnatural colors, and they have to track the source of pollution and clean up the mess. And yet, the pollution still comes off as more fun than bad. This book was originally sponsored by Kohl's, but perhaps Norfolk Southern will commission a new edition to remind the folks of Ohio how harmless chemical spills can be.

(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... )

This is an adaptation of Winnie the Pooh: The Sweetest of Friends, using the same art but with a re-written script with simplified vocabulary to make it appropriate for beginning readers.

Since Disney is recycling, I'm going to recycle my review from the Winnie the Pooh Storybook Collection where I first read the story:

Pooh and Piglet are practically inseparable friends, but one day they end up losing each other for a short while, which the story would have us believe somehow puts their friendship in danger? Well, they cope, so no problem . . . and really no point either.

(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... )

The Pooh friends are used in turn to highlight a body part, and each page has a button a reader can match and push to hear a little girl's voice say the name of the body part. On the last page all the friends show up for the "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" song, which can be played in electronic instrumental form with another button.

I suppose the youngest ones being read to will enjoy the buttons, but the sound might irritate parents in short order.

(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... )

3.5 Stars
A good choice for newer art students who either have some natural ability or have taken a class or two. A few more pages/subjects would bump it up to a 4 Star book. I have little to no drawing skills and I managed better than I thought, although a few more textual instructions may have helped.

Net Galley Feedback½

Roo's whining about how bored he is, but Kanga's not having that crap today so she kicks his little butt outside where he finds his friends and some fun things to play with in nature.

A bland story with art that seems a little off in places, like Roo's eyes having white around them, Rabbit looking downright evil, and Pooh's face always looking down or away from the reader.

(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... )

The Hundred-Acre Wood is experiencing a bit of a drought, and Pooh's favorite tree starts turning brown, so he rallies his friends to help water it. In a forced coincidence, everyone else loves that particular tree too for different reasons, so they're eager to assist . . with a touch of slapstick clumsiness.

It's a fairly bland story, but it might have won me over except for the artists' insistence on drawing Pooh's head in unflattering angles, always have him looking down or slightly away from the reader. There's not a single straight-on Pooh grin or a joyful smackerel of honey to be found in the book. Gimme the honey shot! Show me the honeyyyyyyy!

(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... )

Rabbit teaches Pooh and Piglet how to garden for the umpteenth time. This rhyming iteration only uses twelve words so there is a lot of Rabbit simplistically correcting with, "No, no, no," and "Sun, sun, sun," and "Rain, rain, rain."

Super cute pictures.

Bonus: The seemingly random order of the vocabulary list at the end makes another odd poem if read with regular pauses:
weeds pull seeds
plant will grow
no need sun
more rain have

(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... )

Little spinning blocks are built into this board book so a child can use them to match the different patterns given on each page by Pooh and his friends.

There's not much else to it, and the last page just tells you to go back to the first and do it again and who wants to get stuck in an infinite loop? Well, maybe if it's with Pooh . . .

(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... )

This is the third of the My Very First Winnie the Pooh books I ordered in special from Australia for Christmas, and boy is it giving me some regrets.

Rabbit's titular bad mood is caused by his garden vegetables turning out poorly: the carrots are shrunken the lettuce is wilted, the "raddish [sic]" he just bit into is too hot and spicy, and the turnips never grew at all.

After imagining that Rabbit's bad mood is a storm behind his eyes to be calmed or a cloud over his head to be blown away, Piglet and Pooh fetch some friends to fix Rabbit's mood. Owl and Tigger quickly start gaslighting him, positing that Rabbit forgot to water or even plant the seeds. And when they have Rabbit on the ropes and starting to doubt himself, they switch stories to an excess of rain ruining the garden. That's the ticket!

Once again, the art seems to have been produced in France as Pooh lives under the name "M. Sanders" (for Monsieur Sanders) instead of the "Mr. Sanders" (for Mister Sanders) found in E. H. Shepard's illustrations. And apparently, the French artists, the American writer and the Australian editors do not know the difference between moles and gophers, as Gopher will attest below:


https://i.imgur.com/WvGN2yC.png

This egregious offense brings my rating down to one star. And don't get me started on the gibberish printed on the last page when Eeyore suddenly shows up to share his previously unsought insight.

(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... )

Roo refuses to take a nap because FOMO! But his friends all assure him they will just be doing boring chores. And, gee willikers a good nap may just give Roo the energy he needs to win the big sack race later in the book.

Heavy-handed nap propaganda for parents whose tots just won't settle down.

(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... )

This is a slapdash collection of three other coloring/activity books. While there is a copyright for Disney Enterprises, the name of the publisher is not anywhere on the book that I could find.

• Piglet's Big Movie: The Littlest Helper / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators

For some reason all the text of the original coloring book adaptation of the 2003 film has been omitted, so only the nice illustrations remain. It was sort of interesting to review the movie in pantomime, but anyone unfamiliar with it would be quite lost I assume.

• Winnie the Pooh: Nighttime Noises / Helena Winston, author; Darrell Baker, illustrator

Once again, all the text of the original story has been omitted. I'm not familiar with the original tale, but from what I can suss out from the images, Pooh and Piglet are scared of noises in the night, but wander around in the dark and figure out they're mostly coming from their friends or harmless creatures in the Hundred-Acre Wood

• Winnie the Pooh: Let's Go on a Picnic / Janet Halfmann, author; Angel Rodriguez, illustrator

Arbitrarily the text is included in the final story. But it is also the least interesting story as the friends just gather supplies for and frolic at a picnic.

(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... )

Pooh finds a giant pumpkin, and everyone has an opinion about what he should do with it. I don't understand why the story continued past Rabbit mentioning 20 pumpkin pies. Full stop right there.

It's pie time!

(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... )

I'm reading this as part of my Pooh Project as there are several Pooh stories herein.

This collection is full of not very scary stories targeted at very young children. Many of the stories are adaptation of Disney animated features, shorts, or TV episodes, but there are quite a few original stories also. It's bland, corporate creativity, but kids will probably like it. As for me, the Pooh stories were the best part, of course.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Story / Tennant Redbank, author; adapted from the story by Tim Burton, adaptation by Michael McDowell, and screenplay by Caroline Thompson
~ 2 stars ~
I've never watched this movie. This adaptation seems pretty bare bones (see what I did there?), but it makes me think I should finally give the movie a try.

Winnie the Pooh: Frankenpooh / Bruce Talkington, author; John Kurtz, illustrator; adapted from the teleplay by Mark Zaslove and Carter Crocker
~ 3 stars ~
This adaptation of an episode of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" actually amused me with it's meta bits as Tigger injects horror into Piglet's happy and cheerful story, turning it into a Frankenstein homage. And there's a fine twist ending. I immediately pulled up the show on Disney+ (season 2, episode 2) and rewatched it.

Mickey and Friends: Haunted Halloween / Diane Muldrow, author; Tilley Scott, illustrator
~ 2 stars ~
A storm and unreliable electricity cause Mickey Mouse and his friends to be briefly scared in turn by a series of mild misunderstandings. Super tame.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: The Headless Horseman / Jasmine Jones, author; adapted from the short film with story by Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, and Harry Reeves; adapted from the short story by Washington Irving
~ 2 stars ~
This adaptation strips away too much to just get to the slapstick of Ichabod Crane riding fearfully down the dark road on Halloween. The romantic triangle and the implications of Brom Bones involvement with the Headless Horseman are just gone, leaving a pretty thin and too straightforward ghost story.

Winnie the Pooh: Pooh's Bad Dream / Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, author; Robin Cuddy, illustrator
~ 3 stars ~
I already reviewed this story earlier in the Pooh project when I read the original book:

It's "A Nightmare in Elm Tree" as a dream fiend comes for Pooh's true lifeblood -- his honey!

Or rather Pooh and friends provide comfort to young readers about bad dreams. After Pooh has a heffalump nightmare, he gets some reassurance from Christopher Robin and Piglet and is able to immediately master lucid dreaming (much to the jealousy of my daughter) and confront his fears. Nice.

It totally reminds me of the third Elm Street, "Dream Warriors" and the classic line, "In my dreams I can walk. My legs are strong. In my dreams I am the Wizard Master."

And, hey, since it's Pooh, I don't even mind putting up with dream sequences, which I usually hate.

Mickey Mouse: Runaway Brain / Kathryn Cristaldi, author; adapted from the animated short film directed by Chris Bailey from a story by Tim Hauser
~ 2 stars ~
Mickey forgets an anniversary with Minnie and accidentally promises an expensive gift to make up for it. To earn cash, he answers an ad in the paper from a mad scientist and ends up swapping brains with a monster. Very dull shenanigans ensue.

I was going to watch the original short film on Disney+ to see if this adaptation was really bad or if the source material was the problem. But it turns out the film isn't on Disney's streaming service, and this article claims Disney is intentionally suppressing the Oscar-nominated short because of internal disapproval of it:
https://www.polygon.com/features/22738384/runaway-brain-evil-mickey-short-stream...

Winnie the Pooh: Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh! / Bruce Talkington, author; Robin Cuddy, illustrator; adapted from the teleplay by Carter Crocker
~ 2 stars ~
It's all pratfalls and misunderstandings in a story that isn't nearly as funny as it wants to be. Piglet is scared of Halloween, but ends up being braver than he thinks and saves it from being a Hallowasn't. I'm not a fan of the TV special upon which this is based either. Very meh.

Donald Duck: Donald Duck and the Witch Next Door / [originally an uncredited Little Golden Book]
~ 3 stars ~
Donald learns you shouldn't start feuds with your neighbor, especially if she is the witch Madam Mim. I quickly bored of Donald acting the ass, but I did like how Huey, Dewey, and Louie made the most of the situation in the end.

Aladdin: Who's that Ghost? / Kim Ostrow, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
On a rainy day, the Genie decides to spice things up with a prank that turns the palace into a haunted house. Dull.

Tarzan: One Brave Gorilla / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
A trio of gorillas don't want young Tarzan tagging along with them, so they try to scare him off and get him lost, but it all backfires predictably in the end.

Peter Pan: Captain Hook's Shadow / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Michael Darling gets a bit of a solo story as he learns that some nighttime shadows are more ominous than others. I was almost liking it until it turns out the whole story happens because Peter Pan is a dick . . . which I guess is the point of Peter Pan. I really should try to read that book again some day.

The Little Mermaid: The Sunken Ship / Kathryn Cristaldi, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 1 stars ~
Ariel hears a mysterious sound in a shipwreck that gives her a nightmare, but she confronts her fears and finds the source. But the source is one of those things only a really bad author would come up with: a small child's wind-up toy that can run continuously underwater for 24 to 48 hours. I'll suspend disbelief for mermaids but not for that crap.

Beauty and the Beast: The Haunted Castle / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
One of those tired tales where a misunderstanding makes a character think something scary is happening when rather a very good thing is happening. Meh.

Toy Story and Beyond!: Where's Woody? / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Woody falls out the window, so Jessie and Buzz set out to rescue him. Once again, nothing is as scary as it seems.

Monsters, Inc.: The Spooky Slumber Party/ Kim Ostrow, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Mike gets stuck in the human world when a transporting door malfunctions, so Sulley sets out to rescue him. Once again, nothing is as scary as it seems.

(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... )

A collection of four stories for beginning readers. The sentences are too simple and repetitive for a reader just out for entertainment, and the stories are 40 pages each so they just seem to go on forever.

"Pooh's Kindness Game"
After Pooh has helped various friends around the Hundred-Acre Wood, he starts a "kindness game" so everyone takes turns helping someone else.

"Who Cares? Pooh Cares!"
Pooh and Piglet find a duckling and take care of it until they can find its mother.

"The Forgiving Friend"
Someone has taken the produce from Rabbit's garden. Tigger makes the rounds trying to get the thief to confess.

"What Good Friends Do"
Piglet's fears are getting the better of him as he starts and hides at every little sound. Pooh tries to comfort him and show him how the sounds are perfectly normal. This story also appears in World of Reading: Disney's Lots of Love! Three Sweet Stories with the same pictures and general story but a completely re-written script by the same creative team. Which -- why? Why rewrite every sentence when both books are both Level One in the same World of Reading series?

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Pooh's Kindness Game -- Who Cares? Pooh Cares! -- The Forgiving Friend -- What Good Friends Do

"What Good Friends Do" is adapted by Kelsey Sullivan from a story by Nancy Parent, originally published in World of Reading: Disney's Lots of Love! Three Sweet Stories, 2019, with the same illustrations used here, credited to Alan Batson and Andy Grey.

The title "Who Cares? Pooh Cares!" has also been used for a book in the Pooh Adore-ables series, but the two stories are completely unrelated except for the title.

(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... )

The 2011 Winnie the Pooh animated movie is fairly strong based on the sheer amount of wordplay, visual gags, and slapstick crammed into its mere 63 minutes. With eight credited writers, I get the feeling it was like a sitcom writers' room where everyone was brainstorming jokes and situations both cheap and clever. It helps that this is another Pooh film that actually draws on the original A. A. Milne source material, loosely adapting three different chapters (see below) wherein Eeyore's loses his tail, a busy Backson may have made off with Christopher Robin, and a pit dug to capture the beast captures Pooh instead. (In a bit of Disney recycling, the Backson chapter was also the very loose starting point for a previous film, Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.) My only disappointment with the film is that the songs are simply good, not nearly as catchy as the stuff written by the Sherman Brothers or Carly Simon.

This adaptation by Lisa Ann Marsoli is a serviceable, giving a faithful rendition of the story even if it doesn't quite capture the humor and zest of it. Mario Cortes, Valeria Turati, and the Disney Storybook Artists provide some fine art, though they fall a little short in showing how the literal text of the story interacts with the characters in the film.

A nice effort, overall.

FOR REFERENCE:

Original Disney animated film directed by Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall; story by Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall, Brian Kesinger, Clio Chiang, Don Dougherty, Kendelle Hoyer, Nicole Mitchell, and Jeremy Spears; and adapted from A. A. Milne's:
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter Four: In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter Five: In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump
• The House at Pooh Corner Chapter Five: In Which Rabbit Has a Busy Day, and We Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the Mornings.

(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... )

My favorite Pooh movies are the ones that actually adapt sections of A. A. Milne's original book, but this one is actually pretty darn good despite being a mostly original work. It has a nice lesson about prejudice, xenophobia, and preconceptions, and Lumpy (a/k/a Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump IV) is a delightful addition to the canon. Pooh's barely in it, since it is really a Roo movie, but when he does show up he's adorable in his little aviator's cap. The film is a good follow-up to the terrific Piglet's Big Movie, with the same screenwriter and more catchy songs by Carly Simon.

This third adaptation I own is by Apple Jordan and the Disney Storybook Artists. It's a Step Into Reading book so it has been drastically simplified, but incredibly it still manages to tell the whole movie quite effectively in less than 30 sentences by honing in on the "just like me" theme.

As always, it's funny to see the publisher keep reusing the same illustrations that can be seen in all the other Pooh's Heffalump Movie adaptations I'm reading this week. They must have had a studio of artists churning out these images on spec and then bundling them up for the writers and/or editors to pick and choose which ones best inspired or fit the text of their adaptation. Is this like an attraction at Disney World? Watch the artists in a fishbowl drawing Pooh picture after Pooh picture?

FOR REFERENCE:

Pooh's Heffalump Movie was directed by Frank Nissen from a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the characters created by by A. A. Milne.

My favorite Pooh movies are the ones that actually adapt sections of A. A. Milne's original book, but this one is actually pretty darn good despite being a mostly original work. It has a nice lesson about prejudice, xenophobia, and preconceptions, and Lumpy (a/k/a Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump IV) is a delightful addition to the canon. Pooh's barely in it, since it is really a Roo movie, but when he does show up he's adorable in his little aviator's cap. The film is a good follow-up to the terrific Piglet's Big Movie, with the same screenwriter and more catchy songs by Carly Simon.

This second adaptation I own is by Kelli Kaufmann and the Disney Storybook Artists and features an electronic component you can use to make sounds throughout the story. Unlike the Piglet's Big Movie Interactive Play-a-Sound from last week, none of the recorded components are actual voices of the characters or lines from the movie; all we get are really silly sound effects that tend to go on a bit too long.

While the art is fine, the writing of the adaptation is weak. Too much of the movie's action and themes are dumped by the wayside in order to have characters do things like trudging around that will result in the opportunity to press a button and get the tinny little sound of footsteps.

FOR REFERENCE:

Pooh's Heffalump Movie was directed by Frank Nissen from a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the characters created by by A. A. Milne.

My favorite Pooh movies are the ones that actually adapt sections of A. A. Milne's original book, but this one is actually pretty darn good despite being a mostly original work. It has a nice lesson about prejudice, xenophobia, and preconceptions, and Lumpy (a/k/a Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump IV) is a delightful addition to the canon. Pooh's barely in it, since it is really a Roo movie, but when he does show up he's adorable in his little aviator's cap. The film is a good follow-up to the terrific Piglet's Big Movie, with the same screenwriter and more catchy songs by Carly Simon.

This adaptation by Laura Driscoll and the Disney Storybook Artists -- the first of a half-dozen I'll be reviewing this week -- is a Random House Pictureback Book. It dumps the movie opening and jumps right into the heffalump hunt, giving it a little more energy right away. It trims out a ton more, but keeps the spirit and humor of the film. A fun reminder of the movie.

Disney recycling alert!
Many of the illustrations in this adaptation were also used in Disney Winnie the Pooh CD Storybook: The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh / Piglet's Big Movie / Pooh's Heffalump Movie / The Tigger Movie with a different adaptation written by Karen Comer.

FOR REFERENCE:

Pooh's Heffalump Movie was directed by Frank Nissen from a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the characters created by by A. A. Milne.

(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... )

Piglet's Big Movie is my second favorite Disney Pooh movie, right after The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was so refreshing to have direct adaptations of chapters straight out of the Milne book after the previous two films -- Pooh's Grand Adventure and The Tigger Movie -- went so far afield from the canon. Also, the Carly Simon soundtrack is plain wonderful, and I have it on regular rotation in my music mix slipping in between Metallica, Mozart, and Johnny Cash.

My fifth adaptation of Piglet's Big Movie by writer Jasmine Jones and the Disney Storybook Artists is a 64-page coloring book tells the story of the film in the simplest manner. It scores a bonus star for showing the advancement my daughter had made since she had colored in the book I reviewed just yesterday -- Piglet's Big Movie: Hip, Hip Hooray!

FOR REFERENCE:

The original film was directed by Francis Glebas, with a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld, additional screenplay material by Ted Henning, and based on Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. The film and its many adaptations contain a framing sequence around segments adapting A. A. Milne's:
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter 7. In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter 8. In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole
• The House at Pooh Corner Chapter 1. In Which A House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore.

(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... )

Piglet's Big Movie is my second favorite Disney Pooh movie, right after The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was so refreshing to have direct adaptations of chapters straight out of the Milne book after the previous two films -- Pooh's Grand Adventure and The Tigger Movie -- went so far afield from the canon. Also, the Carly Simon soundtrack is plain wonderful, and I have it on regular rotation in my music mix slipping in between Metallica, Mozart, and Johnny Cash.

My fourth adaptation of Piglet's Big Movie by writer Jasmine Jones and the Disney Storybook Artists is a coloring book that still sorta kinda manages to tell the story in spite of its very terse sentences. My favorite: "Pooh is in danger! But Piglet appears and saves him -- hooray!" That sentence and revisiting my daughter's pitiful 3-year-old attempts at coloring rate a bonus star.

FOR REFERENCE:

The original film was directed by Francis Glebas, with a screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld, additional screenplay material by Ted Henning, and based on Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. The film and its many adaptations contain a framing sequence around segments adapting A. A. Milne's:
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter 7. In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath
• Winnie-the-Pooh Chapter 8. In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole
• The House at Pooh Corner Chapter 1. In Which A House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore.

(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... )