Notes on Weston Woods History

Cech, John.  1989. “Weston Woods:  Three Decades of Moving Picture Books” Horn Book, Vol. 65, pp. 589-594.

-          Founded by Mort Schindel

-          Begin producing films in the mid-1950s.

-          Calls himself an ‘edutainer’

-          Wanted his films to serve as a means of drawing children back to books – sending them off to the library – not to toy stores or theme parks.

-          They used money to make films and books as opposed to using films and books to make money.

-          In 1960s Weston Woods got its big break when the first dozen Weston Woods films began their long run on “Captain kangaroo”.  Schindel allowed his films to be shown without a credit line.

-          Schindel does not take liberties with the text

-          he has made 120 films in the past three decades

-          Schindel worked closely with the book’s artist and writer to reproduce on film what they put out in book form.

-          Schindel has won many awards – even though his work does not have its own identifiable style.

-          Gene Deitch, the principal director of animated films for Weston Woods indicates that without his name on them, no one could tell that these all came from the same director – won an Oscar for his film called Munro, based on a book by Jules Feiffer about a 4 year old who is drafted into the army.

Weston Woods

Filmmakers, Weston Woods, (now taken over by Scholastic) has an incredible web site with a thematic story guide as well as study guides that can be used at story-time or for special programs.  It can be accessed at http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/westonwoods/