Margaret Ann Hughes

A fine adaptation of the 1974 Disney animated short film of the same name. It's truncated by necessity, but between the book and the included audio track, the spirit and tone of the movie is there, even if it's a quite lacking compared to the original Milne chapters on which the film was based.

This is one of those Disney cataloguing nightmares though. There have been multiple variant editions of this work -- usually a 24-page booklet -- with the exact same art (produced by or under the direction of Paul Wenzel) but with slight differences in text and the cast of performers of the audio track since the first version was produced in 1974 with a record. Subsequent editions have had audiocassettes and compact disks. Versions of this book has been issued by multiple publishers under many different series names: Disneyland Story Tapes, Disney Read-Along, Disney Music & Stories, SEE the pictures HEAR the record READ the book, Disney Audio Entertainment, Disney Storyteller, etc.. The first audio cast included narrator Sebastian Cabot and Pooh voice actor Sterling Holloway from the film. With a rewrite of the text, a newer audio version was recorded with narrator Laurie Main and Pooh voice actor Jim Cummings.

Here are some text comparisons between the copy I bought new in 2005 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbVyoLJVN-g ) and an online copy of the 1974 book that I found on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw4Oar0xwRo ):

First page:
This is Winnie the Pooh, a teddy bear who belongs to a boy named Christopher Robin. Pooh has many friends in the hundred acre wood. One of them is Tigger -- who is sitting on Pooh's tummy in this picture.
[Disneyland Record and Book version, 1974]

Winnie the Pooh lived in an enchanted place called the Hundred Acre Wood. One day, while he was thinking in his thoughtful spot, he was bounced by a springy character with stripes.
[Walt Disney Records version ca. 2005]

Chapter 2 opening lines:
Some days later, the first snowfall had covered the hundred acre wood. Roo was waiting with his mother, Kanga, for Tigger to come play with him. He was bouncing so much Kanga could barely get his scarf on. Tigger promised to "take care of the little nipper" and to have him home by nap time.
[Disneyland Record and Book version, 1974]

Before long, winter came and transformed the Hundred Acre Wood into a playground of white fluffy snow. Roo was so anxious to play with Tigger that his mother, Kanga, barely had time to tie a scarf around his neck. "Have him home by nap time, Tigger."
[Walt Disney Records version ca. 2005]

Last page:
And his friends decided they had made a mistake. Even rabbit admitted he "liked the old Tigger better." They told their friend he could have his bounce back. A Tigger without a bounce was no fun at all.
[Disneyland Record and Book version, 1974]

Roo tugged at Kanga's arm. "Mama, I like the old bouncy Tigger best.
And everyone agreed. so they gave Tigger his bounce back and he leaped for joy. Even Rabbit had to admit it. "Yes, I quite agree. A Tigger without his bounce is no Tigger at all."
[Walt Disney Records version ca. 2005]

(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... )… (més)

A collection of straightforward but serviceable adaptations of the original four Winnie the Pooh animated short films with some nursery rhyme interstitials that have been modified slightly to include the names of Pooh characters.

In coordination with reading this book I rewatched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which combines the first three short films into one feature film through the addition of some short transition scenes and an extra chapter at the end where Christopher Robin tries to tell Pooh that a day is coming when he might outgrow his teddy bear. It's a 5-star movie for me.

The fourth animated short, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is included as a bonus feature on my DVD of the movie. I had to dig the disk out because Disney+ does not have have it available to stream, which brings to mind an Eeyore quote, "Pathetic . . . That's what it is. Pathetic." The donkey gets no respect. I guess that's fitting for a story where he is bullied by Tigger and everyone else forgets his birthday.

My edition of this Winnie the Pooh DC Storybook has no creator credits, but in reading it this week with all my other adaptations I recognized that it uses the same text from the Pooh adaptations in the Disney Read-Along series that are written and/or edited by Margaret Ann Hughes. The CD cleverly integrated into the cover has the same audio from that series, with Laurie Main narrating and Jim Cummings providing the voice of Winnie the Pooh. But for some reason the illustrations originally produced under the art direction of Paul Wenzel have been discarded in favor of new but perfectly suitable illustrations by what looks like several different anonymous artists working in the Disney style.

(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... )… (més)