Dancing Pooh Bear Review

Anything with a Winnie the Pooh theme is an instant hit in our house but I hadn't realised quite how taken 1-year-old Holly was with Winnie until Tomy sent her one of the new Dancing Pooh plush toys to have a bit of a dance to. Holly thinks he is awesome.

This Dancing Pooh toy has a motor which allows him to bob up and down and wiggle left to right as he sings a ditty or two. There are two modes - one in which Pooh bear sings, and the other in which he more or less just humms (for people that don't necessarily understand his words). When you press his left hand, Winnie the Pooh sings his favourite song "Up, Down, Touch the Ground" while wiggling on the spot.

When you press his right hand, Pooh sings a tum-ti-tum song and stops occasionally. It took me a while to work out that this was in fact Pooh bear trying to encourage the girls to play musical statues. Even now I know it, it still isn't immediately obvious and despite me having explained this to Lara and Holly, they don't see it as musical statues as the pause isn't long enough for them to notice he has stopped singing and bopping! Despite this, the girls think he is a lot of fun and will spend quite some time pressing his hand and giggling... I think they just like to hear his funny, familiar voice.

Holly seems most impressed with Dancing Pooh and likes to hold his hands while he dances. I think Lara (4 years old) is a little less impressed because she owns her own Master Moves Mickey which is also a motorised dancing toy with a lot wider repetoire of fancy dance moves and songs. I would say that I have been a little disappointed with the variety of songs or phrases that Dancing Pooh has to offer and I think because of this, Lara certainly has lost interest quickly.

However, at the weekend we did all get together as a family and have a little bit of a dance to Pooh's Up and Down song so I admit that it does get us moving and smiling.  I like Pooh's gentle wiggle up and down (although the motor is quite graunchy and can often be hear over the sound of his voice) but I'd like to see him perform some slightly more energetic moves to get the girls moving around the living room themselves.

Dancing Pooh costs £34.99.

Meet Lara's New Interactive Friend - Winnie the Pooh

Meet Lara's new friend. Winnie the Pooh. Pooh bear has been living with us for a few weeks now, we won the chance to be toy testers for Worlds Apart toys in a competition at the Tots100 over the summer. Lara loves Winnie the Pooh (she calls him Piglet Pooh) and pooh bear barely leaves her side when she is at home.



Winnie the Pooh is an interactive Disney friend from Worlds Apart. He is programmed with over 50 phrases and 'pooisms' in a very cute familiar voice. Pooh bear is incredibly soft and has a nose and hand that you can squeeze to interact with him.

Lara loves to feed her new friend whenever he gets hungry (we've set him up so that he is hungry for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time as she is). Pooh comes with his own honey pot and spoon and will tell you when he has a rumbly in his tummy!

At bedtime Pooh bear tells you when he's feeling a bit tired (cunningly we've programmed him to do this shortly before we normally get Lara ready for bed). He knows when it is time to get changed, brush teeth, wash face and have a bedtime story (you can set him up to do these in any order you like). And, when he is finally ready to go to sleep he yawns and drifts off and won't let you disturb him until it is officially time to wake up.



Since Winnie the Pooh came to live with us, Lara has often asked to go to bed earlier than her normal bedtime. He really helps to re-enforce the bedtime routine. I had hoped that it would also help to stop Lara waking up too early in the morning but he will only tell you to go back to sleep if you choose to actively engage with him by pressing his nose or mouth. Despite this, Lara seems to really enjoy being with him, especially playing hide and seek with him!

I think that the interactive friend from Worlds Apart is a fabulous toy and could become any pre-schooler's new best friend. The only negative I've found is that because all of his electronics are internal and can't be removed, you can't put Pooh bear in the wash. Unfortunately our Winnie the Pooh has already had one vomit incident and he really could have done with a spin.

You can buy the Winnie the Pooh interactive friend in a number of shops including Argos, Tesco and Amazon. On the Disney website at present they have a competition running where you can win an interactive Winnie the Pooh.

Lara's First Cinema Movie - Winnie the Pooh

A couple of weeks ago we took Lara to the cinema for the very first time. I wasn't sure whether it was perhaps a bit early - Lara isn't yet two. We went to see the preview of this summer's Winnie the Pooh movie which you may have noticed being promoted on the new packets of Fairy Non Bio.

Lara is wiggly. This is fact (and her Nanny has confirmed that this wiggliness has been inherited from her father). I was really worried that Lara wouldn't sit still for more than 5 minutes of the movie. Actually, she stayed very still (although she did spend much of the movie on my lap) and, as the Winnie the Pooh movie is just under 1 hour in length, she didn't need to sit still for all that long.

Lara seemed to take the big-screen in her stride and the loud noise didn't seem to disturb her. The content of the movie seemed to get her a little upset in places though but then Lara can be a bit funny about things that you wouldn't expect a one-year-old to worry about. Tigger dressed up as a monster I can understand might upset some of the younger viewers... but Lara gets upset at things that are dirty, or messy, or just not right. Lara actually screamed when Pooh bear dived head first into a giant pot of honey - I think she thought he was drowning!



I really enjoyed the movie (although Mr. B. wasn't as impressed). It was very honest to its roots and brought together many of the storylines from Winne-the-Pooh and The House on Pooh Corner. With my BA(Hons) Media Studies hat on, I really loved the fact that the books themselves were referenced repeatedly in the movie by the characters who appeared on the pages and played among the letters. With my Mummy hat on, I loved one of the abstract, musical scenes where Pooh-Bear dreamed of honey - it was great fun with lots of bright colours and honey-related singing! I think that Winnie the Pooh movie is a perfect first movie for a toddler or young child. The movie is released in the UK this month.



On packs of Fairy Non Bio (detergent and fabric softner) at present you can get free Winnie the Pooh audio books. We've listened to a couple of them already and Lara loves them - she seems to really enjoy the Winnie-the-Pooh stories but I find the books incredibly hard to read to her (there's something about the way they are written that I struggle to verbalise) so it's great to hear someone reading them clearly, with authority and with wonderful character voices!



Images courtesy of Fairy Non Bio / Disney