Come Dream With Me Tonight, the seventh volume in the Teddy Ruxpin VHS series from Hi-Tops Video is unique because it's a live-action/animated special instead of an episode or multiple episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. Normally these live action specials aren't included in the numbering if the TV show episode tapes in a series, and are their own separate things. But, in this case they just threw it into the main series lineup, making it the seventh volume of the series.
This tape actually sort of reminds me of the early Barney & The Backyard Gang videos in that there are two kids, in this case Josh and Shannon, who have a problem and they use their imaginations to bring a toy to life, in this case the original Teddy Ruxpin, to help them resolve their problems through songs. This makes sense because this tape was released on October 27th, 1987, only ten months before The Backyard Show, the first tape in the Barney & The Backyard Gang series, was released. Which is interesting that two different franchises were doing the exact same thing around the same time.
Come Dream With Me Tonight is actually the video version of the thirteenth book in the The World of Teddy Ruxpin audio series, "Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies". The only difference between the book and the VHS tape is there's an extra song after "This Lovely Night" on the VHS tape and the framing story of Josh having trouble going to sleep and when they turn Teddy Ruxpin on to tell them a story, I guess they fall asleep or something and they enter a dream where Teddy is alive. Like the Barney videos, it's not exactly clear that they've fallen asleep, though Shannon speculates that they're simply dreaming and that Teddy isn't actually alive. Whatever the case may be, all of the songs from the original audiocassette are included in this video. Even the box for the VHS includes the same cover art from the book, the difference being that the book is yellow while the VHS box is blue.
The Teddy Ruxpin costume is actually pretty weird in this tape. It's almost a cross between the original TV movie version and the one used in the live action intro and outro segments on the first six volumes of this VHS series. Teddy's tunic sports the Teddy Ruxpin logo that was on the tunic in the live action segments on the previous VHS releases, but the head has the more pronounced eyebrows and tuft of hair that the live action TV movie version had. I'll leave comparison images at the end of this review so that you guys know what I'm talking about.
This video is the last time we see a live action Teddy Ruxpin both on these tapes and in the franchise as a whole. Sort of. I mean we see the version in this video in previews for this video on Tweeg Gets the Tweezles and Teddy and the Mudblups, but this is the last time where the live-action Teddy appears with new dialogue. It's also the final tape to have a pack in bonus gift included with the tape. This time it's a Teddy Ruxpin song sheet, probably with the lyrics for the songs sung in this video. Though aside from the final song on this tape, "In My Lullabye", if you have the book "Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies" then the lyrics are included there as well, so the song sheet isn't quite as exclusive as the bonus gifts from the previous VHS volumes were. It's still pretty cool though, especially for the kids who didn't own that particular book and tape set.
Going forward with these reviews, aside from Tweeg Gets the Tweezles, these are all tapes I never owned when I was a kid. So it'll be interesting to see what they're like. This one was interesting to watch because I have seen it on YouTube when I first discovered it's existence about ten years ago. Like the live action TV movie, Come Dream With Me Tonight was never released on any home video formats aside from VHS. It wasn't even included as a bonus feature on the various DVD releases for The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin animated series.
That's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with this week's comic book review and then Wednesday will be my overview of the first ever Star Wars novel that wasn't a movie novelization, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and Saturday will be this week's movie review. Before I go, I'll leave you with the three images of the live-action Teddy Ruxpin. They're all screen captures that I have personally taken from the video files sent to me by Vincent. Later.
Here's Teddy from the opening sequence of the 1985 live action TV movie, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. As you can see, he's got eyebrows and a tuft of hair between his ears in this movie.
Here's Teddy in the opening of Volume 2 Guests of the Grunges. As you can see, he has no eyebrows here, and the hair between his ears looks like it was combed down and looks less wild.
Finally, here's Teddy in Come Dream With Me Tonight. His eyebrows are back as is the more wild looking tuft of hair. The head is also more pear shaped like it is in the intros and outros of the early VHS releases, whereas it's more round in the TV movie.
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