Il libro di Pooh

My little brother LOVED this show as a little guy. He's 8 years younger than me so while I grew up on The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, he grew up on this. And, while it's not nearly as good as New Adventures,which was written for an older audience to begin with, it's a good show. I watched it again pretty recently and it still holds up. The stories can be a little bland at times, but it's also a show for pre-k so I'm sure kids would love it all the same. But it also retains some of what's good about the cast of characters. While it's not brilliant, it's a lot of fun for little kids and it won't bore parents who have to watch it with them. So I'd say, if your kid is a Pooh fan (or if you're like me and you're an adult Pooh fan), it's definitely worth checking out alongside New Adventures.

The only thing about the Book of Pooh that resemble Milne's series is the looks of the characters. None of the personalities are transferred over to the puppets. Instead of the classic relationships such as Rabbit vs. Tigger we are given sappy, cute, supportive clones. All of this translates to an unwatchable perversion of the classic series. No, this is not Pooh.

"The Book of Pooh" is the second live-action TV adaption of A.A. Milne's beloved character Winnie the Pooh and friends have gotten by Disney. The first was "Welcome to Pooh Corner" some years back, which featured full-body costumes and not so much puppets, as this one does.

I love puppetry, a big fan of Sesame Street and the Muppets myself, but I have a feeling that the move to puppets was made to crank out more of the popular 'Pooh' faster than is possible with animation. Here, the foam and fleece characters don't have much restriction to their movements. The backgrounds are all punched in on a blue screen, so it seems the puppeteers were free to move about the stage.

I guess kids who like Pooh can be happy because their pushing out tons of these, but theres nothing special about the stories and the presentation is a bit fluffy.

Die-hard fans of the books or the cartoons might not take so kindly to it. But at the very least you have to appreciate the work that goes into making this show. It's an ancient form of Japanese puppetry, and is filmed with a green screen with computer-generated backgrounds added later, making it interesting to watch. The storylines are, as one reviewer put it, rather "fluffy," but you were expecting Shakespeare? The show is targeted at preschoolers. (Actually, there was one episode about Shakespeare, in which the gang put on a play for Owl.)

There are some of differences between "Book of Pooh" and the books and cartoon series. Kanga and Roo were missing for several months, although they do show up in newer episodes. And they brought back Kessie the blue bird, who appeared in two of the cartoon episodes. And I must agree that Rabbit is, for some reason, a lot more bossy than he was in the cartoon series.

Overall, it's a cute show, and little kids will probably like it, although it might be a little too different for those who don't like change.

This film is excellent and my son loves it. Makes a real change from the usual cartoon characters. Education seems to be a key point in this series of films, teaching kids about respect and manners. The DVD contains a series of short episodes so that it becomes unnecessary to have your children sit for hours until it is finished. Certain types of kids with disabilities respond really well to this, my son has cerebral palsy and isn't interested in regular cartoons but is uncontrollably excited when this is played for him. I would rate this as 10/10, and all the better it is available on on-line auctions for a fraction of the price in the shops.