My daughter was thrown off by the appearance of Sir Brian and the Dragon in Around the Year with Pooh, so I sought out this book for her in hopes it would explain how these two unlikely characters joined the Pooh universe. In the first story in the book, "The Dragon," it turns out they just show up with no explanation and a minimal amount of fuss. As when Kanga and Roo first showed up, there is some concern about the new dragon in the forest, but this is the Hundred-Acre Wood and everyone will be accepted and extended friendship, even those who breathe fire. No one wonders where the knight and dragon were before and why they are now in the neighborhood. Since A. A. Milne mentions knights and dragons in the his books of rhymes about Christopher Robin, they must simply be accepted.

The second story, "The Knight," has Sir Brian taking a break from sparring with Dragon to try hunting a unicorn. The rest is just slapstick falls and a case of mistaken identity.

Finally, in "The Castle," Sir Brian opens up his newly built castle in the Hundred-Acre Wood to tourism, but no one in the Hundred-Acre Wood has cash to pay the penny fee, so they barter and effectively end up throwing a housewarming party.

The bland Disney studio writing and art do little to take advantage of a most outrageous development in Pooh continuity. Maybe that's why it was not a lasting development, as I've yet to find any appearances of Sir Brian and the Dragon outside a very short window from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. At least they didn't kill the Pooh franchise like Cousin Oliver did "The Brady Bunch" or Ted McGinley did for any show he joined late in the run.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: The Dragon -- The Knight -- The Castle

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )