| Disney Learning: Winnie the Pooh | |
|---|---|
 Winnie the Pooh preschool game | |
| Genre(s) | Educational |
| Developer(s) | Disney Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Disney Interactive |
Disney Learning: Winnie the Pooh comprises three titles: Winnie The Pooh Toddler, Winnie the Pooh Preschool and Winnie The Pooh Kindergarten. They are point-and-click educational video games developed and published by Disney Interactive and based on the Winnie the Pooh franchise. The titles were shipped by BAM! Entertainment. [1] [2] [3]
The games were designed to emulate the plots of the television series and films, while adding an adventure game interface that allowed players to complete educational activities to advance the story. Some games intended to teach kids about languages other than English. For instance, Owl's Magnificent Machine in Toddler taught players the Spanish and French equivalent of the objects they identified. [4] BusinessWire reported that "parents who register their purchased titles can unlock add-on packs from Disney Interactive", which included additional activities. [4] Printable activities included coloring book pages, cutouts, name tags, bookmarks and flashcards. [4]
The game begins with Winnie the Pooh meeting up with his friends under a tree to decide what to do. Aside from the intro, there is actually no storyline as players can play the five available activates for as long as they like.
Pooh wakes up one morning and believes that today is Eeyore's birthday. He goes around the Hundred Acre Wood to tell everyone all about this, all while helping them with their errands. Once the player completes all six main activates, the party begins, but Eeyore reveals that today isn't really his birthday, making Pooh realize his mistake. They decide to instead have a party to celebrate their friendship.
The story begins with Pooh and Piglet in front of Pooh's house waving goodbye to Christopher Robin as he leaves for school. When Pooh also wishes to attend school too, Piglet suggests having school here. Owl, who was listening nearby, also agrees with this idea. The game has up to six activates (eight in the special edition). Each character hosts an activity, except for Piglet, Gopher, and Kanga. Piglet instead serves as the game's main host, Gopher has a minor role in the game, and Kanga only appears in the ending. Completing an activity rewards the player with a gold star. Some activities have up to three levels, each requiring a star to complete. Once the game is fully complete, the ending shows all the characters (including Christopher Robin, who had just returned from school) presenting Pooh with a graduation cap.
The games were included in the mobile showroom Disney Big Rig, which toured Southern and Northern California Wal-Mart stores in September and October 2000, along with Disney's Mickey Mouse Toddler , Disney's Mickey Mouse Preschool , Disney's Mickey Mouse Kindergarten , Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear 1st Grade, Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear 2nd Grade. [5] Disney's Winnie the Pooh Kindergarten was included in Disney Interactive Channel. [6] Toddler was included in the Disney Learning Toddler set, along with the Mickey Mouse Toddler game. [7]
PC Mag praised the series for its "cinematic animation", "creative story lines", "characters that exude personality", and a "fun-filled curriculum". [8] The Washington Times said that the three titles taught "age-appropriate skills that emphasize creativity, discovery, working together and active participation". [9]
Edutaining Kids thought the game's graphics were "rich", and that it would add variety to a toddler's video game collection. [10] In a preview, Kid's Domain gave the game an 8/10. [11] The Boston Herald thought the game was good, though noted there was other, better toddler edutainment. [12] New Straits Times' favourite part of the game was a karaoke-style activity. [13] Jinny Gudmundsen of Choosing Children's Software thought the game was part of an era of "lapware", in which there was a focus on cause and effect; when the player moves the mouse or uses the keyboard they get an immediate response. [14]
DiscoverySchool gave Preschool Plus a 9 out of 10, noting that the engaging story adds to its replayability. [15] SuperKids said the title wasn't "innovative", though recommended it as a solid educational game featuring a popular cast of characters. [16] Ouders Online thought the game was entertaining, but not original. [17] Allgame gave the title a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5, commenting that the graphics matched those of the TV series and movies. [18]
Superkids deemed the game "fast-paced", light-hearted", "easy to use", and "sure to please". [19] The Cincinnati Post thought the game was "cute", but ultimately unable to capture the attention of young players for long stretches of time. [20]
Tigger is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection The House at Pooh Corner, the sequel to the 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed toy animals. He appears in the Disney animated versions of Winnie the Pooh and has also appeared in his own film, The Tigger Movie (2000).
JumpStart was an educational media franchise created for children, primarily consisting of educational games. The franchise was developed by JumpStart Games and expanded beyond games to include workbooks, direct-to-video films, mobile apps, and other media. It was officially launched on March 10, 2009, offering a blend of educational content and entertainment experiences.
Winnie the Pooh is a fictional bear and the main character in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, based on the character Winnie-the-Pooh created by English author A. A. Milne and English artist and book illustrator E. H. Shepard, being one of the most popular characters adapted for film and television by The Walt Disney Company. Disney first received certain licensing rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, characters, and trademarks from Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and the estate of A. A. Milne in 1961.
Steve Schatzberg was an American voice actor, best known as the singing voice of Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh franchise from the 1990s until his death, Tyg Tiger in Shirt Tales, Matt in The Gary Coleman Show and Arvind Lavie in Planetes.
Nikita Matthew Hopkins is an American screenwriter, visual artist, and former child voice actor and singer who had a career for seven years as the singing and speaking voice of young Roo in six movies and videos of Winnie the Pooh.
Reader Rabbit Preschool: Sparkle Star Rescue is a game in the Reader Rabbit series by The Learning Company. The title was released in 2001. The game is recommended for ages 3–6. The game teaches "shape and size recognition, letter recognition and listening", among other skills, including maths-related ones. The game was also released for the Nintendo Wii by Graffiti Entertainment, simply titled Reader Rabbit Preschool.
Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.
Disney's Activity Center is a series of PC and PlayStation games released by Disney Interactive with each title consisting of various activities and minigames to be completed, using aspects of their licensed property.
Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Early Learning House or simply the House Series is a collection of four main educational video games and two compilations for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, developed by Theatrix Interactive, Inc. and published by Edmark software. Each different game focuses on a particular major learning category with selectable skill settings for preschooler, kindergarten and elementary learners. Millie's Math House (1992) on mathematics, Bailey's Book House (1993) on language, Sammy's Science House (1994) on science, and Trudy's Time and Place House (1995) on history and geography. A spin-off, Stanley's Sticker Stories (1996), sees players create animated storybooks with the series' characters. Millie & Bailey Preschool and Millie & Bailey Kindergarten each contain the combined activities from two of the four software products. In addition the programs can be configured by an adult mode to suit students with special needs. Most of the activities in every game have two modes, one to allow learners to explore and try it out for themselves and the other for learners to follow specific tasks set by the game characters. Learners also have the option to print pictures of creative activities and record sounds in phonics activities. Later the games were re-developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology and re-published by The Learning Company with newer graphics and additional activities.
The Arthur video games franchise was a series of learning and interactive story video games based on the American-Canadian children's TV show Arthur. The games were released in the 1990s and 2000s for PlayStation and Windows and Mac OS computers.
The massive success and popularity of Blue's Clues, a children's educational television series by Nickelodeon, has led to a variety of educational video games and web browser games based on the show. Most of the PC CD ROM-format titles were developed and published by Humongous Entertainment.
Mickey Mouse Toddler, Mickey Mouse Preschool, and Mickey Mouse Kindergarten are three sister educational video games by Disney Interactive. They are part of the Disney Learning Series, alongside similar Winnie the Pooh games, Mathquest With Aladdin, Reading Quest with Aladdin and Ready to Read with Pooh.
Reader Rabbit Toddler is a 1997 educational video game developed by KnowWare and published by The Learning Company. It is part of the Reader Rabbit series.
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten is a video game within the edutainment series Reader Rabbit, published by The Learning Company in July 1997. A new version of the game was developed in-house by Graffiti Entertainment, and was released in 2009.
JumpStart Preschool is a 1995 educational video game and third installment of the JumpStart franchise by Knowledge Adventure, after JumpStart Kindergarten (1994) and JumpStart 1st Grade (1995). It would later be re-released as JumpStart Preschool on August 26, 1998 and superseded by a new title JumpStart Advanced Preschool in 2002. It is also known as Jump Ahead Preschool in Europe.
JumpStart Toddlers is a 1996 educational video game, the fourth within the JumpStart franchise. An enhanced version was released in 2000.
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