Search - Many Adventures of Winnie Pooh, Read-Along :: Many Adventures of Winnie Pooh / Read-Along

For The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh read-along, Disney dug deep in the Hundred Acre Wood and resurfaced with a plucky, honey-dipped package to please preschoolers and old-school Pooh fans alike. Here, Owl and Eeyore, et al., look their long-lost old selves, set in scenes so sparse and simple you want to crawl in and cuddle up. Cordial, grandfatherly narration by the crisp-voiced Christopher Plummer complements the old-fashioned, vaguely British flavor, and the tales are familiar to everyone, if briefer than we remember. First comes the quintessential Pooh quandary, wherein the bottomless honey pit of a bear humps it over to fidgety friend Rabbit's hole for a spot of lunch, only to fatten himself so unforgivably he can no longer fit through the front door. Next, but with nothing in the way of an audio segue or new chapter break, Wind's-day flies in, turning tiny Piglet into a porcine kite and crashing Owl's tree house to the ground. Meantime, Tigger terrifies the bear of little brain with his tales of heffalumps and woosels, and a torrential rainstorm washes Piglet and Pooh out of their homes and into a waterfall. Pooh rescues Piglet with a honey pot, Christopher Robin throws a hero's party, and Eeyore announces he's found a new nesting spot for Owl, but inadvertently renders Piglet homeless in the process. A happy ending's in store, but not before pauses in the action deliver us a pair of much-loved ditties, "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" and "The Rain, Rain, Rain Came Down, Down, Down." Spin it as an audio CD, slip it in the computer to read along onscreen, or dodge the digital scene altogether with the cassette--these sweet escapades, sewed up in 32 pages, zip along merrily, leaving not a sense of "O, bother" but the feeling you're glad you did. --Tammy La Gorce