''Golden Book Video'' was a line of children/family animated and live-action videos marketed by
Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was a Racine, Wisconsin, firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and ...
, beginning in the holiday season of 1985. They featured characters and stories from Western's print publications, such as
Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942.
''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...
, and were originally released on
VHS video cassette for under $10.
[Two Companies Introduce Video Titles for Under $10](_blank)
Billboard Magazine, Jan. 26 1985
The videos made use of
limited animation
Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation.
Early history
The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...
techniques to add motion to original illustrations from Western's print books; Western called this approach "bringing storybooks to life".
[Low Video Prices](_blank)
Billboard Magazine, Jan. 26 1985 As production was carried-out by multiple companies (usually Studio Consultants Inc., Universal Recording Corp. and Animagination Inc., among others), contents of the videos varies. Typically, they featured a full voice cast, with background music sourced from
production music
Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries.
Background ...
libraries (the
APM Music
Associated Production Music, LLC (commonly known as APM Music) is an American production music company headquartered in Hollywood, California, initially as a joint venture between Zomba/Jive Production Music and EMI Production Music. APM Music' ...
library, in most cases), although original songs were recorded for some videos, occasionally with sing-along lyrics appearing on-screen. The video adaptions often carried original material that was not present in the original books. Some of their video releases were mastered with
Dolby Stereo
Dolby Stereo is a sound format made by Dolby Laboratories. It is a unified brand for two completely different basic systems: the Dolby SVA (stereo variable-area) 1976 system used with optical sound tracks on 35mm film, and Dolby Stereo 70mm nois ...
.
Beginning in 1986, Golden also began releasing Golden Book Music Videos, which usually contained similar limited animation set to new illustrations and a full-length story incorporating a combination of classic children's songs and new original songs. Golden Book Video also started the Golden Step-Ahead Video series, featuring educational videos dealing with subjects such as simple reading/letter phonics, basic mathematics, what going to school is like, etc.
In 1987, Golden Book Video started straying away from book adaptations, and began releasing general entertainment (i.e. cartoon episodes, TV specials, etc.) under their then-new "GoldenVision" banner, along with some newly created content (usually live-action), but by 1990, the GoldenVision banner was dropped and all new products, including general entertainment productions, were released under the regular Golden Book Video branding.
Also starting in 1989, many of the earlier "storybook adaptation" videos were reissued under the "Golden Book Video Classics" banner, which often would have the same famous golden spine on the sides of the box similar to
Little Golden Book
Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942.
''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...
s. Beginning in 1991, Golden Book Video also began releasing several older CBS after-school special cartoons produced by
Bosustow Entertainment under this banner.
By 1996, Golden Book Video was absorbed into its parent company's Golden Books Family Entertainment division, and
Sony Wonder
Sony Wonder (founded as Sony Kids’ Music) is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Despite the similarity in name, Sony Wonder is not direct ...
would then distribute VHS and DVD tapes of Western Publishing properties afterwards.
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
and
Classic Media
Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...
(now
DreamWorks Classics
Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Medi ...
) bought out Golden Books Family Entertainment in 2001.
VHS Releases
* The Rainy Day Number Show
* The Poky Little Puppy and the Patchwork Blanket
* Scuffy the Tugboat
* The Gingerbread Man
* Peter Rabbit
* Herbert the Timid Dragon
* Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?
* Sesame Street Stories
* Three Little Pigs Sing a Gig
* Goldilocks and the Three Bears Sing Their Little Bitty Hearts Out
* Hugga Bunch Stories
* Pound Puppies Stories
* Masters of the Universe Stories
* Old Macdonald's Farm
* Get ready for school
* Working With Words and Numbers
* Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
* Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel
* Favorite fairy tales
* The Ugly Duckling and other treasured tales
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Official "Little Golden Books" Page
Little Golden Books
Western Publishing
DreamWorks Classics
American children's films
Early childhood education