The first two episodes of the channel. Both adapt public-domain source material — golden-age sci-fi radio drama and A.A. Milne's original 1926 Pooh book — illustrated with new visuals in the 1950 pulp magazine and 1920s picture-book traditions. The audio is preserved; the visuals are made anew.
Each pilot closes with a pastoral observation. The host serves Jesus Christ.
Runtime: 23:18
Scenes: 22
Animated cuts: 65+
Resolution: 1920×1080
An empty house keeps its routine. The robotic mice still clean. The voice on the wall still reads aloud Sara Teasdale's poem at five o'clock. The family is gone — their silhouettes are burned into the west wall. A storm comes. An oak falls. A fire starts. The house dies as the dawn returns.
Bradbury wrote this story five years after Hiroshima. The X Minus One adaptation (NBC, December 5, 1956) is some of the finest sci-fi radio ever made. We took the audio untouched and gave it new eyes.
Runtime: 17:59
Source: Milne 1926 Ch.1
Resolution: 1920×1080
Edward Bear comes downstairs bump-bump-bump on the back of his head. He goes out walking. He hears a buzzing in the oak. He decides the only reason for a buzzing-noise is bees, and the only reason for bees is honey, and the only reason for honey is so he can eat it. So he climbs the tree.
A.A. Milne's 1926 original — public domain in the U.S. as of January 1, 2022 — illustrated as Mr. Shepard first drew it. The pastoral close: "He sent His Son to lower us from the balloon."
Two pilots, available right now. To make them shareable beyond this localhost engine, we need them on YouTube (or another CDN). The publish packages with titles, descriptions, tags, thumbnails, and Pinterest pins are ready at data/publish/soft_rains_v4/ and data/publish/hundred_acre/. Follow the instructions.md in each folder.
Once a YouTube video URL exists, the homepage and this page auto-swap from local playback to the YouTube embed. Just create site/youtube.json with {"soft_rains": "", "pooh": ""}.