Saturday, October 31, 2009

Winnie-the-Pooh #1: The Stories Begin


Winnie-the-Pooh was written by British author and poet A. A. Milne in 1926. Milne was born in London in the late 19th century and during the Great War joined as an officer in the British Army. Although he wrote many books and plays (including a detective novel, The Red House Mystery) he is best remembered for his books about the adorable bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. This delightful character was first introduced to readers in the poem "Teddy Bear" (from the book of poetry, When We Were Very Young), in which he is called "Edward Bear". The boy Christopher Robin was based on Milne's real-life son; and all the animals are based on the toys he would play with. After the success of the first book, Milne published a sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, in 1928. Both books have been loved by millions of readers the world over ever since; and more recently, the estate of A. A. Milne authorised an official sequel to the classics: Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, written by David Benedictus (with illustrations by Mark Burgess), and published October 5th of this year.

No doubt many will be most familiar with the Disney interpretation of Winnie-the-Pooh, which has become quite commercialized, but how many have actually read the original stories? E. H. Shepard, the illustrator of the original books, called Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh a travesty. And indeed the movies have lost much of the wonderful magic of the books.


For the past year CTD Productions has been busy working on it's own adaptation of the first book. It has now been completed, and we hope you will enjoy it. BUT.... if you are expecting the voices to resemble the Disney version, you will most likely be disappointed. However, our voices are true to the way the characters are described in the book. For instance, in the books Pooh is said to have "a growly voice", and Piglet's voice is described many times as "high-pitched and squeaky" (very different from the soft-spoken Piglet in the Disney films). If you have not read the original stories, I would suggest you find one of the books and read several stories before you listen to our production.

Anyway, now that that's all been said, CTD Productions is very proud to present to you the first episode of A. A. Milne's classic book Winnie-the-Pooh!

WINNIE-THE-POOH #1: THE STORIES BEGIN
Starring Philip Thiessen



PROMO OF EPISODE #2



DOWNLOAD NOW!



DISCLAIMER: All images are copyright by E. H. Shepard's estate. I do not own any of the rights.

5 comments:

Josiah Coates said...

Hey that's pretty good! It really sounds like the original (Not the Disney) but the original from the book Pooh bear. And Piglet sounded very original. Wonderful production. 4 of 5 stars!! Keep up the good work Jacob!

Anonymous said...

8-9 out of 10! Like I said before the part where Winnie-The-Pooh falls out of the tree, if you didn't know what was actually happening there you would think he was falling to the ground over and over again. Maybe it would put someone to sleep easily... Lol :P I don't imagine Winnie-The-Pooh with a beard like Aaro... Um, Eric. I think Winnie-The-Pooh will be a bigger success when Kanga starts appearing in it... Piglet sort'a doesn't sound squeaky enough... But it was good. :)

Josiah Coates said...

Oooh! An anonymous person!!!! and I got messed up back there it was original Disney I meant. I was just not thinking straight. a glitch if you want to say.

Anonymous said...

Ooooohhhh..... Who could that Anonymous person be?!?! I have NO idea!

Josiah Coates said...

I think it might have been you Re... Violet.