As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Help me identify a 90's era VHS of animated children's stories [Solved]

RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
edited April 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey guys, long shot here but I need my sense of nostalgia stimulated! I had a discussion with someone about this but my memory failed me.

When I was a kid in the early 90s, my parents often took out these videotapes from our local library which featured children's stories, animated for your viewing pleasure in a variety of mediums (stop motion, traditional animation, etc). This included both original stories and classic folktales, as well as actual storybooks in animated form. I seem to remember a spoken version of Where The Wild Things Are?

This is pretty damn vague but there's one major identifier: this series was branded throughout with a "storytime van" - a van the size of a small RV that was painted glossy white except for a red smiley face and sad face on the side, in the manner of the dramatic masks.

vqLNU.png

As weird as this sounds it was pretty representative of these published tapes - each one started with an extremely catchy theme song played over real-life, non-animated video of this big van driving through the woods and down these little country roads. Oh, and the VHS cases had that same happy/sad face on the spine.

That's all I remember! Gold star for anyone who can help me out.

StKbT.jpg
Rikushix on

Posts

  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Sounds like it was something locally produced. That van was probably a bookmobile.

    MKR on
  • RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    A bookmobile looks exactly like what I was picturing.

    800px-Bookmobile.jpg

    Like that, only a little smaller.

    Rikushix on
    StKbT.jpg
  • MKRMKR Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Ask the library about the tapes. They should have a record of them even if the series isn't available.

    MKR on
  • RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Definitely can't hurt to ask. Thanks for the help.

    Rikushix on
    StKbT.jpg
  • rochtnlsdrochtnlsd Registered User new member
    edited April 2011
    You know, it's funny cause I was just thinking about this the other day. I could not remember the name of the series, but I remember the happy face, sad face theme, and red/orange stripes for some reason. It may not be local to you, as I'm in California.

    Anyway, i did some searching around, and I was able to find this link for teachers, that actually has some of the videos of the story book readings.
    http://www.nhptv.org/kn/itv/episodes.asp?ser_serial=14384

    I guess the series name really is "Folk Tales, Fairy Tales and Fables".....although it didn't strike a chord immediately in my memory, but now that i think about it, it sounds right.

    I don't remember the intro, and it doesn't seem to show it on the video clips, but in any case, I hope this helps!

    rochtnlsd on
  • rochtnlsdrochtnlsd Registered User new member
    edited April 2011
    The teacher's resource site's not totally user friendly, but after poking around a bit more, this link gives more videos, and I saw "Where the Wild Things Are" listed.

    http://www.nhptv.org/kn/itv/vod.asp

    rochtnlsd on
  • RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Damn realplayer.

    Hm. Some of these videos look extremely familiar, but I can't be sure they're them. Regardless...

    Most likely, the Weston Woods videos were licensed out to whoever published this videotape. Which unfortunately I still can't find.

    I'm glad someone else remembers that van though.

    It seems like the kind of thing that would appear on PBS.

    Rikushix on
    StKbT.jpg
  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    I think I found it.

    Children's Circle Home Video.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6qTGC3onoA

    All of this also sounded super-familiar, but in a really vague way...I typed "happy face sad face VHS" into google, and found that Youtube link. After watching the intro, I realized that I recognized most of those animations, which I literally haven't seen since the early nineties. Ahhhh, nostolgia!

    NightDragon on
  • RikushixRikushix VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited April 2011
    edit: oh good lord I didn't refresh the page

    Oh well, found that at the same time on Youtube. Kudos to Roch and the power of Wikipedia.

    And I can't believe you found that just by searching "happy face sad face VHS"....I swear I tried a million different combinations and couldn't find anything.

    I remember this video the most:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqdcvAkjWk

    Anyway. This is great. Thanks a lot guys.

    Rikushix on
    StKbT.jpg
  • mrmrmrmr nameless protagonist Registered User regular
    edited April 2011
    Man I remember this. I remember only a few stories, one about a man and his steamshovel and another about a guy getting swallowed by a whale and splashes paint in it's stomach to escape.

    The other one I distinctly remember is another Tomi Ungerer story called The Moon Man. I remember it scared the ever-loving piss outta me as a kid. I had been wondering about this myself a while back and I'm glad someone found out.

    mrmr on
    Practice Round, my blog where I talk (mostly) about comics.
    p4.png
Sign In or Register to comment.