''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
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
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 noise ...

. 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 directl ...

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 Media ...

) 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