Kim Ostrow

I'm reading this as part of my Pooh Project as there are several Pooh stories herein.

This collection is full of not very scary stories targeted at very young children. Many of the stories are adaptation of Disney animated features, shorts, or TV episodes, but there are quite a few original stories also. It's bland, corporate creativity, but kids will probably like it. As for me, the Pooh stories were the best part, of course.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Story / Tennant Redbank, author; adapted from the story by Tim Burton, adaptation by Michael McDowell, and screenplay by Caroline Thompson
~ 2 stars ~
I've never watched this movie. This adaptation seems pretty bare bones (see what I did there?), but it makes me think I should finally give the movie a try.

Winnie the Pooh: Frankenpooh / Bruce Talkington, author; John Kurtz, illustrator; adapted from the teleplay by Mark Zaslove and Carter Crocker
~ 3 stars ~
This adaptation of an episode of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" actually amused me with it's meta bits as Tigger injects horror into Piglet's happy and cheerful story, turning it into a Frankenstein homage. And there's a fine twist ending. I immediately pulled up the show on Disney+ (season 2, episode 2) and rewatched it.

Mickey and Friends: Haunted Halloween / Diane Muldrow, author; Tilley Scott, illustrator
~ 2 stars ~
A storm and unreliable electricity cause Mickey Mouse and his friends to be briefly scared in turn by a series of mild misunderstandings. Super tame.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: The Headless Horseman / Jasmine Jones, author; adapted from the short film with story by Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, and Harry Reeves; adapted from the short story by Washington Irving
~ 2 stars ~
This adaptation strips away too much to just get to the slapstick of Ichabod Crane riding fearfully down the dark road on Halloween. The romantic triangle and the implications of Brom Bones involvement with the Headless Horseman are just gone, leaving a pretty thin and too straightforward ghost story.

Winnie the Pooh: Pooh's Bad Dream / Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, author; Robin Cuddy, illustrator
~ 3 stars ~
I already reviewed this story earlier in the Pooh project when I read the original book:

It's "A Nightmare in Elm Tree" as a dream fiend comes for Pooh's true lifeblood -- his honey!

Or rather Pooh and friends provide comfort to young readers about bad dreams. After Pooh has a heffalump nightmare, he gets some reassurance from Christopher Robin and Piglet and is able to immediately master lucid dreaming (much to the jealousy of my daughter) and confront his fears. Nice.

It totally reminds me of the third Elm Street, "Dream Warriors" and the classic line, "In my dreams I can walk. My legs are strong. In my dreams I am the Wizard Master."

And, hey, since it's Pooh, I don't even mind putting up with dream sequences, which I usually hate.

Mickey Mouse: Runaway Brain / Kathryn Cristaldi, author; adapted from the animated short film directed by Chris Bailey from a story by Tim Hauser
~ 2 stars ~
Mickey forgets an anniversary with Minnie and accidentally promises an expensive gift to make up for it. To earn cash, he answers an ad in the paper from a mad scientist and ends up swapping brains with a monster. Very dull shenanigans ensue.

I was going to watch the original short film on Disney+ to see if this adaptation was really bad or if the source material was the problem. But it turns out the film isn't on Disney's streaming service, and this article claims Disney is intentionally suppressing the Oscar-nominated short because of internal disapproval of it:
https://www.polygon.com/features/22738384/runaway-brain-evil-mickey-short-stream...

Winnie the Pooh: Boo to You, Winnie the Pooh! / Bruce Talkington, author; Robin Cuddy, illustrator; adapted from the teleplay by Carter Crocker
~ 2 stars ~
It's all pratfalls and misunderstandings in a story that isn't nearly as funny as it wants to be. Piglet is scared of Halloween, but ends up being braver than he thinks and saves it from being a Hallowasn't. I'm not a fan of the TV special upon which this is based either. Very meh.

Donald Duck: Donald Duck and the Witch Next Door / [originally an uncredited Little Golden Book]
~ 3 stars ~
Donald learns you shouldn't start feuds with your neighbor, especially if she is the witch Madam Mim. I quickly bored of Donald acting the ass, but I did like how Huey, Dewey, and Louie made the most of the situation in the end.

Aladdin: Who's that Ghost? / Kim Ostrow, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
On a rainy day, the Genie decides to spice things up with a prank that turns the palace into a haunted house. Dull.

Tarzan: One Brave Gorilla / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
A trio of gorillas don't want young Tarzan tagging along with them, so they try to scare him off and get him lost, but it all backfires predictably in the end.

Peter Pan: Captain Hook's Shadow / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Michael Darling gets a bit of a solo story as he learns that some nighttime shadows are more ominous than others. I was almost liking it until it turns out the whole story happens because Peter Pan is a dick . . . which I guess is the point of Peter Pan. I really should try to read that book again some day.

The Little Mermaid: The Sunken Ship / Kathryn Cristaldi, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 1 stars ~
Ariel hears a mysterious sound in a shipwreck that gives her a nightmare, but she confronts her fears and finds the source. But the source is one of those things only a really bad author would come up with: a small child's wind-up toy that can run continuously underwater for 24 to 48 hours. I'll suspend disbelief for mermaids but not for that crap.

Beauty and the Beast: The Haunted Castle / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
One of those tired tales where a misunderstanding makes a character think something scary is happening when rather a very good thing is happening. Meh.

Toy Story and Beyond!: Where's Woody? / Jasmine Jones, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Woody falls out the window, so Jessie and Buzz set out to rescue him. Once again, nothing is as scary as it seems.

Monsters, Inc.: The Spooky Slumber Party/ Kim Ostrow, author; Disney Storybook Artists, illustrators
~ 2 stars ~
Mike gets stuck in the human world when a transporting door malfunctions, so Sulley sets out to rescue him. Once again, nothing is as scary as it seems.

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... )… (meer)