Circle Time (UK)

Circle Time is a strand featured on the British version of Playhouse Disney from 1999 until 2003. It is very similar to an Interstitial strand of the same name used on the American Playhouse Disney block.
== Concept ==
The strand is presented by Jason Canning, and takes place in the Playhouse Disney Garden (which is part of the "Playhouse" set itself). He alongside a group of children sit on chairs drawing pictures or making something. 
When either one of the children has a problem or wants to show off one of their drawings to Jason, it reminds himself of a short story, which is told through drawings sent in by viewers at home. The stories are mainly original creations, although sometimes they can be based on Disney characters.
Typically, like with the main "Playhouse" strand itself, Circle Time features some interactivity, where Jason would ask one of the kids about the story, or ask the audience to interact with him doing an action.
After the story, a moral is learned from both the story and in the real world.
Around 2001-2002, the stories began to be told through a miniature "puppet theatre", and the Playhouse Disney Garden set became more "inside" than "outside". The segment was retired with the departure of Jason Canning in 2003, and found no replacement, although older segments were repeated on the Playhouse Disney block on the main Disney Channel until July 2004.
== Examples of Stories ==
==== The Bouncy Ball ====
* Real-World Scenario - Emily is sad because Aisha said that putting paint on her picture will make a mess.
* Story - A girl named Sally is given a shiny and very bouncy ball. She wanted to play outside with it, but her Mum won't let her as it would mess up her garden. Sally disobeys her and decides to play with it in the garden, and loses control of it, and lands in the neighbour's garden, where it bursts. She finds out she didn't know best after all.
* Interactive Element - Jason asks everybody to pretend to play with a bouncy ball.
* Moral - It's not always best to know better than someone else.
==== Goofy's Christmas ====
* Real-World Scenario - Jason begins to pick on all the sweets all the children are using to build a sweetie house. 
* Story - Goofy gets five Christmas presents from his friends on Christmas Eve, however, when decides to open one of his presents early, he ends up opening them all! When Goofy wakes up on Christmas Day, he is sad to find out he has nothing to unwrap, but when Mickey arrives with more presents, Goofy is happy to have some more and unwraps them slowly to make them last. 
* Interactive Element - Jason asks Sara what she got for Christmas. 
* Moral - Don't get tempted to do something early. 
==== Henry the Hippo ====
* Real-World Scenario - Jason is drawing a magic beanstalk, but Scott has taken all of his crayons without asking to draw something else!
* Story - A hippo named Henry loves swimming in the pool, but one day, he pushes through all the other hippos to get in first. They are all upset, and Hippo is asked to leave. Eventually, Henry realises how rude he was, and decides to wait his turn.
* Interactive Element - Jason asks Aisha what Henry the Hippo should do to go back into the pool.
* Moral - Make sure to always be polite, using "Please", "Thank You" and "Sorry" when needed.
==== The Little Cloud ====
* Real-World Scenario - Aisha is enjoying helping out Jason and the other children colour in their pictures.
* Story - A little cloud couldn't understand puff his cheeks and blow on everybody until he's bigger. One day, the cloud notices that a boat was stuck in the rocks, and so decides to help out all the other clouds blow the boat to safety.
* Interactive Element - Jason asks the viewers at home to be like clouds.
* Moral - Working together can make a difference.
==== The Magic Laces ====
* Real-World Scenario - Jordan is finding drawing a picture of his dog a bit difficult.
* Story - A boy named Paul finds tieing shoelaces pretty hard, tying himself in knots and bows. His Mum is able to tie them up with a simple rhyme, but Paul still finds it hard. One day, the laces magically tie themselves, which Paul is happy about, but in reality, he did it on his own.
* Interactive Element - Jason asks the children if they can tie their laces. He then shows off how to tie shoelaces to the viewers at home.
* Moral - If you first don't succeed, try, try, again.
==== Lucy and the Lolly Sticks ====
* Real-World Scenario - Jordan has caused a mess when drawing something, and he doesn't want to clean up. 
* Story - A girl named Lucy who loves lollies, but she tosses all of them all on the floor so that other visitors can clean them up instead of her. That night, she has a dream where she cannot get into the park because the park has been turned into a wasteland of old lolly sticks! The following day, she notices her dream hasn't come true, and the park is as fine as it always been. Lucy decided to clean up every stick she could find, and celebrates with a lolly, which she then finishes and throws the stick away.
* Interactive Element - Jason asks Jordan why Lucy had this bad dream.
* Moral - Clean up after yourself.
==== The Slowest Snail ====
* Real-World Scenario - Steven is drawing a picture of Jason, but it's taking quite long to do.
* Story - A snail named Sidney is the slowest snail around, and wishes to be like the other Animals, and is so sad. When he does try, it starts getting dark. That is until rains, and all the cats and dogs are completely drenched! Sidney however, is completely dry due to his shell!
* Interactive Element - Jason asks the viewers at home to pretend to be snails.
* Moral - It takes time to do things at times.
== Website ==
From the site's launch until around Early 2004, a Circle Time section was featured on the Playhouse Disney UK website, featuring an assortment of stories based on the ones seen in the segment itself.
The first version featured a bright green/yellow background (representing a sky) with grass in the background, which was meant to represent the Playhouse Disney Garden. In the middle is a large easel with 4 different-coloured boxes around it. When the boxes are highlighted, the name of the story would be shown on the easel, while Jason would appear behind it, doing four different poses:
* Eeyore's Eggy Race - Jason holds a piece of purple paper.
* Flounder's Fishy Fun - Jason holds a blue paintbrush.
* Seeing Problems - Jason gives a thumbs-up.
* Chip 'n' Dale's Nutty Problem - Jason has his arms down.
When clicked on, the stories are simple text files, with pictures taken from the story's original source material, alongside Jason's head appearing in random positions.
In Late 2002, the page was renamed to "Circle Time Stories". The background was changed to a solid dark blue/teal, with a set of three pictures showing off the stories on this version:
* Flounder's Fishy Fun
* Pluto's New Trick
* Donald's Very Busy Night
A single picture of Jason (holding a paintbrush and an assortment of paint colours) is used here. If the mouse cursor is pointed over him, a speech bubble reading "Click the Story you want to Watch" will appear. If you click on Jason, the speech bubble text will change to "Not Me... That Tickles...".
Each one of these stories is flash-animated with a similar "viewer-sent drawings" concept as the actual segment, all of which feature narration from Jason himself.
With the relaunch of the website and removal of the Circle Time segment in Early-2004, this page was removed from the site. When accessed through the Wayback Machine, only "Donald's Very Busy Night" will play in full. As for the others, only Part 2 of "Flounder's Fishy Fun" will function, and "Pluto's New Trick" will not work at all.
Category:Playhouse Disney shows
Category:Short Series