Disney's Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

Disney's Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

CD cover art
Developer(s) Media Station
Publisher(s) Disney Interactive
Series Disney's Animated Storybook
Platform(s) Windows, Macintosh
Release date(s) August 28, 1995
Genre(s) point and click adventure, interactive storybook
Mode(s) Single-player

Disney's Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is the second entry in the Disney's Animated Storybook point-and-click adventure interactive storybook PC game series, based on theatrical and home video releases. The story is based on the 1966 short film Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and the game was the first of two Animated Storybook titles based on films included in 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The game was developed by Media Station and published by Disney Interactive. It was released on August 28, 1995.[1]

Background and development

The vision of Marc Teren, VP of entertainment for Disney Interactive, was to create games with a "true and fair representation of the original property",[2] and aim to capitalise as "ancillary products to successful theatrical and home video releases".[3] To achieve this, Teren helped ensure the games were animated by Disney animators.[2] From December 1994 to February 1995, the company had hired 50 new employees.[4] Children's Business suggests the series came into fruition because in the contemporary entertainment market, it was "customary now for entertainment companies to release CD-ROMs to support a film or TV show".[5]

Disney and Media Station collaborated to create more than 12,000 frames of digital animation for each game, as well as 300 music and vocal clips. Digital music and sound effects were composed, orchestrated, arranged, edited, mixed and synchronized at Media Station.[6] The games had hundreds of clickable hotspots that produced animated gags, as well as many mind-challenging interactive games.[7] The voice cast sometimes consisted of actors from the films reprising their roles;[8] meanwhile, at other times voice soundalikes were used.[9]

Promotion

Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was demonstrated at the 1995 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).[10] The game's release was part of a year-long, company-wide celebration of Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, which included cross-promotion with Disney Interactive, Disney Licensing, Buena Vista Home Video, Walt Disney Records and Disney Press.[11] Purchases of Toddler, Preschool, or Kindergarted Winnie the Pooh video games resulted in a free copy of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.[12] The game was part of a "comprehensive advertising campaign in trade and consumer publications targeting family and home PC audiences".[11] Sunday Mirror and Nestle offered tickets for a free demo CD of the game; customers had to collect two tickets and pick up the CD from Tesco branches.[13]

Reception

Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
AllGame[14]

Together, The Lion King and Winnie the Pooh In the Honey Tree grossed between $1 million and $2 million in the fourth quarter of 1994.[15]

Allgame gave Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree a score of 3.5/5 stars.[14] The Mirror called the game "delightful", "film-quality", and "colorful", while suggesting that young players would be "entranced" by the animated storybook.[16] Knight Ridder Tribune said the game's "lush animation" suceeded in "capturing the warm and fuzzy texture" of the source material, and commented that despite the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise's "omnipresent commercial persona", the game would be "pure honey" to children and parents alike.[17] The Columbian writer Mike Langberg wrote that the game "faithfully reproduces the story, visual style, voices and music" of the short.[18] The Beacon News reported that a three year old girl "already knows more about computers than people several times her age" because the game reads to her and lets her interact with the story.[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc (1995-02-18). "Billboard": 69.
  2. 1 2 Nielsen Business Media, Inc (1995-02-18). "Billboard": 69.
  3. ↑ "Disney jumps into interactive software: McBeth to lead new unit with ambitious CD-ROM, game plans. (Steve McBeth, president of Disney Interactive) (Telemedia Week: The Interactive World of Video, Voice and Data)". 1994-12-12.
  4. ↑ "MOVIE STUDIOS FOCUS ON BUILDING INTERACTIVE DIVISIONS". 1995-02-13.
  5. ↑ "E3 preview: state of the edutainment market. (educational entertainment)". 1997-06-01.
  6. ↑ "Media Station develops "Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King" for Disney Interactive. – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  7. ↑ Media, Working Mother (July–August 1996). "Working Mother".
  8. ↑ "CD-ROM ROLES PULL STARS INTO CYBERSPACE. – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  9. ↑ Bob Strauss (1996-05-17). "Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story Review". EW.com. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  10. ↑ Disney's+Animated+Storybook%3A...-a016004141 "Media Station develops captivating Disney's Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh CD-ROM title for Disney Interactive. – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  11. 1 2 "'DISNEY'S STORYBOOK: WINNIE THE POOH AND THE HONEY TREE' SHIPS TO STORES FOR APRIL 1995 RELEASE AS PART OF DISNEY'S COMPANY-WIDE POOH PROMOTION – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  12. ↑ "Pooh, I Spy among latest worthy titles.(VARIETY)". 1999-10-02.
  13. ↑ "FREE! A fabulous Hercules CD for every reader. – Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  14. 1 2 Karen, Lisa (2010-10-03). "Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree Animated Storybook [Jewel Case] – Overview". allgame. Archived from the original on 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  15. ↑ "Grumbles about CD-ROM Painful for Michigan Firm. (Originated from Detroit Free Press)". 1995-01-30.
  16. ↑ "Nice little learner.(News)". 1996-09-14.
  17. ↑ "Disney's Pooh Makes Successful Transition to PC.". 1999-03-23.
  18. ↑ "'IT'S GOOOOD, BUT IT COULD BE BETTER'". 1995-11-15.
  19. ↑ "COMPUTER BABIES | SOFTWARE AIMING AT YOUNGER AND YOUNGER USERS". 1998-08-28.
  20. ↑ "COMPUTER BABIES SOFTWARE AIMING AT YOUNGER AND YOUNGER USERS". 1998-08-28.
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