The VHS Corner: A Gift of Munsch (1993) VHS Memories

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? I'm doing okay for a rainy Tuesday. Welcome back to the VHS Corner, where I look at the VHS tapes from my childhood. Today I'll be taking a look at a very special tape called A Gift of Munsch from 1993. In case you're wondering, yes it does have to do with children's author, Robert Munsch and his books. So let's dive right into it.

If you grew up in the '80s and '90s and lived in Canada (most likely the US and other places too), then you probably have read many of Robert Munsch's books such as The Paper Bag Princess (1980), Murmel Murmel Murmel (1982), Mortimer (1985), 50 Below Zero (1986), I Have to Go! (1986), and Love You Forever (1986). Well in 1991 Cinar Films and Telefilm Canada produced an animated series that adapted thirteen of Munsch's books across 13 episodes called A Bunch of Munsch. The series ran from September 2nd, 1991 until December 25th, 1992 on CTV (CJOH here in Ottawa) in Canada and Showtime in the United States. The entire series was also released on VHS by Golden Book Video in the early 1990s and then later re-released by Sony Wonder.

In 1993 Sony Wonder released this tape, A Gift of Munsch which is just Robert Munsch telling his stories to a group of kids in a traditional story time scenario, with a story where Robert Munsch stumbles into the Dragon's cave from The Paper Bag Princess, with an actual dragon. The dragon is either animatronic like Teddy Ruxpin and his friends in the TV movie The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (that VHS is also on my list) or the Winnie the Pooh characters in Welcome to Pooh Corner, or it's a costume character like Big Bird and Barney the Dinosaur. The stories are accompanied by fully animated songs taken from A Bunch of Munsch and correspond to the story Munsch is telling.

Unfortunately, I can't find any information online about this tape. The only things I've found is the Amazon listing for both the VHS tape and the corresponding DVD release, and an eBay listing, neither of which say which stories he tells. However if I remember correctly the stories are The Paper Bag Princess, 50 Below Zero, Mortimer, Something Good, and Murmel Murmel Murmel. I think I remember the song from 50 Below Zero and the animation from the Something Good episode of A Bunch of Munsch being on this tape, and since the Dragon from it is a character on this tape it would make sense that Robert Munsch would also do The Paper Bag Princess too. But Mortimer and Murmel Murmel Murmel are the ones I'm unsure of. That's what happens when you haven't watched something in over 20 years. 

This was a tape that my siblings and I had joint ownership of because we all loved Robert Munsch books and having a VHS tape of him telling stories while interacting with the Dragon from The Paper Bag Princess was pretty awesome in our minds.

I think the tape is meant to be like a Christmas special of some sort, because the only connection to the animated TV series are the songs at the end of each story and it had a cold opening like many direct to video specials like this had. I remember we got it for Christmas one year though and I remember we watched it quite a bit seen as how Robert Munsch was one of our favourite authors when my brother, sister, and I were kids. Since it was re-released on DVD I might have to try and get my hands on a copy to see if it actually holds up or not. 

I think that's gonna be it for me for today. This is the reason I decided to start doing The VHS Corner, so I can take a look at the VHS tapes that my siblings and I had when we were kids and talk about them whether I still have them in my collection or not. Anyways I will be back tomorrow for a look at The Goldbergs which will be starting it's tenth season in the fall. I have the first seven seasons on iTunes so I might go back and watch the pilot tonight after Superman & Lois. We'll see though. But join me back here tomorrow for that. Until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care my friends.