Winnie the Pooh-The Book of Pooh: Fun with Make Believe (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	46:47
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tom Guadarrama Dean Gordon
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Jeff Bennett Peter Cullen Stephanie D'Abruzzo John Fielder Roger Jackson Nikita Hopkins Ken Sansom Kath Soucie
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Julien Harris

    Winnie the Pooh-The Book of Pooh Fun with Make Believe is an educational release by Playhouse Disney, aimed at pre-schoolers. It uses the all-time favourite characters of Winnie the Pooh, Tiger, Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit and Roo to teach children how to pretend and use their imaginations to create their own stories. The disc contains four short episodes, each of which depicts a different character using their imagination to create an interesting story. Each episode also contains an original song performed by one of the characters.

    As with the other volume in this series, this is not a cartoon release. The story is performed using puppets with the animated background added using computer graphics during post production.

Episode Guide

Episode 1- The Case of the Disappearing Donkey

    Eeyore and Rabbit's picnic basket goes missing. Tigger, pretending to be detective Stripey Mc Snarl, starts an investigation to find the missing picnic basket.

Episode 2- The Littlest Dinosnore

    Pooh and friends, with the exception of Roo and Tigger, are about to embark on an expedition. Roo is too small to go and Tigger stays behind to cheer him up. They go on their own expedition and Tigger tells Roo tall tales about dinosnores. In particular, Tigger talks about the exploits of a small dinosnore named Roo'a'sorous.

Episode 3- Blue Ribbon Bunny

    Rabbit shares his vegetables with Pooh and all the friends. As a thank-you, Pooh and Piglet make him a ribbon that says 'gardener of the year'. Rabbit assumes the award is for real and it goes to his head. He imagines all sorts of scenarios for his assumed new-found fame.

Episode 4- Under the Pig Top

    Owl is reading Piglet a story. After the story is finished, Piglet decides to write his own exciting adventure story. The story just happens to be about a small pig who joins the circus. Rabbit sees the draft of Piglet's story and thinks it is real and that Piglet is running away to join the circus.

Video

    At first glance, the video appears quite good, and it is, but it does have a few flaws.

    The video transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame.

    The transfer is exceedingly clear and sharp, with absolutely no hint of grain. Low level noise was also well controlled with no noticeable occurrences.

    The colours are clear and constant from beginning to end, with no problems evident. The colours used are mostly bright and primary, to hold the attention of the intended pre-school viewers.

    There were no apparent MPEG artefacts. However, as in the previous volumes, there was a lot of aliasing. At times this was overly distracting, though in this volume it was not present in every scene. The major occurrences take place at 3:05, 7:42, 10:07, 10:30 and 17:39. As before, these are just the major instances. There are many more occasions when aliasing occurred. Video artefacts were non-existent.

    There are two subtitle options available; English and English for the Hearing Impaired. I sampled both the options and they appeared accurate and timely.

    As with others in this series, the cover claims this is an RSDL disc. This is incorrect. It's a single layered disc and therefore no layer change is present.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is acceptable, but could have been better.

    There is only one audio option: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). Unlike the previous volume I reviewed, it is not surround encoded.

    The dialogue is clear and easily understood at all times. The wording is concise and would be easily understood by pre-schoolers. Audio sync is not an issue with this disc.

    The musical score was once again written by Julien Harris, and the kids will love it. There is one original song in each episode. The background music is attention-grabbing and instantly sets the mood.

    Since the only audio track available is 2.0 stereo, the surround speakers and subwoofer remain silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Like the previous volume, there are no extras.

    This disc is not available in Region 1. The Region 2 release is identical to this offering.

    Winnie the Pooh-The Book of Pooh Fun with Make Believe is aimed at pre-schoolers. Playhouse Disney attempt to make learning fun and enjoyable, and to help parents keep their sanity. Any child with a love of 'Winnie the Pooh' will enjoy this DVD. It has a better than average video transfer, average audio, but once again no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall