Pooh Wanders, Finds Wonders

Video

The Book of Pooh: Stories From the Heart. Playhouse Disney/Walt Disney Home Video. 77 minutes. Ages 2 to 8. $16.

Not enough Eyore. Other than that one oversight--the melancholy, adorable little donkey deserves more screen time than he’s given here--this 3-D, puppet and computer-imaged new release based on A.A. Milne’s timeless characters is an unexpected charmer.

Waiting for Christopher Robin to come home, Pooh and friends ask “Mr. Narrator” to read some of their own stories aloud: Pooh goes looking for adventure and thinks that he’s come upon twins of all his friends, not realizing that he’s home again; bouncy Tigger tries to find company for some nocturnal playtime; Piglet puts springs on his feet and spends a day shyly taking Tigger’s place.

Each simple and gentle-spirited tale comes to colorful life with the cozy-familiar Disney-fied personalities, songs and messages of friendship.

Jim Cummings’ voicing of Pooh is spot-on.

Audio

Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant & The Nightingale and the Rose. Teldec. Ages 9 to adult. $16. (Available at such online sources as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

Two of Oscar Wilde’s poignant fairy tales are tenderly narrated by Vanessa Redgrave and Stephen Fry and woven into expressive classical compositions by Debbie Wiseman (she wrote the score for the film “Wilde”; Fry played the title role). Performed by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, directed by Sir Neville Marriner, the music captures Wilde’s little nightingale and her bittersweet self-sacrifice in the name of love, and the selfish Giant, with his garden of endless winter, who is redeemed by a mysterious little child.

Childlike in the simplicity of their telling, the tales are not childish. Adults, too, can appreciate Wilde’s soulful, rich language and the music so lovingly created to complement it.

Brown Girl in the Ring. Music for Little People. CD: $16; cassette: $10. Ages 5 to adult. (800) 409-2457, https://www.mflp.com.

The Music for Little People label has made a specialty out of pulling together compilations of well-chosen songs from top-notch family recordings. This rich and playful musical trip around the world is another winner.

A celebration of the differences and the universal similiarities of childhood games and dreams, its 18 tracks include Lalo Guerrero and Los Lobos with a festive “La Bamba”; Papillion’s toe-tapping “Down on the Bayou,” Bob Marley’s mom, Cedella Marley-Booker, doing the title track; “Silkie Song” by Karan Casey (formerly with the Celtic group, Solas); and Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s stunning rendition of “Wimoweh (Mbube) The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”