The Book of Pooh

The Book of Pooh is an American television series that aired on the 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 July 8, 2003. The show is produced by Shadow Projects, Sirius Thinking Ltd. and Playhouse Disney. This is the first Pooh show where Jim Cummings voices Tigger for the entire series, taking over from the late Paul Winchell.

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 fifth 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, however in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher has an American accent.

Each show begins entering Christopher Robin's bedroom and hearing his mother say, "Christopher, time for school." Christopher Robin answers, "OK, Mom!", grabs a book 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 versions of the Winnie the Pooh stories where "Tiggers don't like honey!") and can climb up - but more importantly climb down from trees. In addition, Rabbit lives in a tree, as opposed to living in a burrow in other versions. However, it is explained why in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Style of puppetry
The style of puppetry is based on Japanese bunraku puppetry, and this - along with the cut-out style 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".

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 main A.A. Milne stories, excepting the characters.

The design and animation of the show was done by Chris Renaud

The series received two Emmy Awards.

The characters who appear regularly are: The versions of Tigger and Pooh seen on this show later made an appearance in a music video by the We Are Family foundation.
 * Winnie the Pooh: Jim Cummings
 * Piglet: John Fiedler
 * Rabbit: Ken Sansom
 * Tigger: Jim Cummings (this is the first Pooh TV show where Cummings regularly voiced Tigger. In The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, he voiced Tigger in some episodes)
 * Eeyore: Peter Cullen
 * Owl: Andre Stojka
 * Kessie: Stephanie D'Abruzzo and Tara Strong (later replaced by Amanda Maddock)
 * Christopher Robin: Paul Tiesler (his face was never shown until My Friends Tigger & Pooh)
 * Christopher Robin's Mom: Vicki Kenderes-Eibner
 * Kanga: Kath Soucie (later reappeared in season 3)
 * Roo: Nikita Hopkins (later reappeared in season 3)

Puppeteers

 * Jennifer Barnhart
 * Carol Binion
 * Ron Binion
 * Matthew Brooks
 * Tyler Bunch
 * Todd Coyle
 * Sophie Doyle
 * Vicki Kenderes Eibner
 * Eric Englehardt
 * Preston Foreder
 * James Godwin
 * B.J. Guyer
 * Robin Howard
 * Eric Jacobson
 * Liz Joyce
 * Jim Kroupa
 * Tim Laggasse
 * Peter Linz
 * Jon Ludwig
 * Rick Lyon
 * Lara MacLean
 * Noel MacNeal
 * Amanda Maddock
 * Cathy McCullough
 * Paul McGinnis
 * Anney McKilligan
 * John Pavlik
 * Robin Walsh
 * Victor Yerrid
 * Bryant Young