The Tigger Movie Review
by James Sanford (jamessanford AT earthlink DOT net)March 12th, 2000
Coming at a time when so many family films aim to bowl audiences over with razzle-dazzle animation ("Toy Story 2"), state-of-the-art animatronics ("Stuart Little") or nonstop merchandising ("Pokemon: The First Movie"), "The Tigger Movie" represents a refreshing detour from the norm. Recent Disney efforts such as "Tarzan" and "Mulan" have employed gorgeous, almost three-dimensional visuals, but "Tigger" has a retro look that's very much in line with the 1960s shorts "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" and the Oscar-winning "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day." As in those films, most of the art looks like it was based on watercolors and charcoal sketches, and it's a pleasant blast from the past.
Nor do the songs by veteran Disney music men Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman ("Mary Poppins") have much to do with the Phil Collins pop of "Tarzan." Instead, they're simply clever little ditties that spring from the characters: Pooh warbles a "Lullabee" to put a hive full of angry bees to sleep, while Tigger's "'Round My Family Tree" underscores his fantasy about his ancestors.
The voices may have changed a little in the past 30 years - Jim Cummings does splendid work voicing both Tigger and Pooh, while Nikita Hopkins' Roo has just the right mix of sweetness and spunk - but the sweet-natured characters and gentle humor have been preserved. So has the concept of having the story's episodes pop off the pages of a book, a subtle reminder that if you like the movie, you might want to read the original A.A. Milne tales.
My 4-year-old niece Rachael (who, for the record, loved the movie, as did her 6-year-old sister Megan and 2-year-old sister Emily) astutely compared "Tigger" to "The Last Unicorn," an underappreciated 1982 feature which has become one of her personal favorites. Like "Unicorn," it involves a unique creature - in this case, Tigger, of course - who goes off in search of its own kind and learns a valuable lesson in the process.
Tigger's journey is sparked by an accident in which Tigger inadvertently drops a boulder on the deadpan donkey Eeyore's home (don't worry: Eeyore isn't inside at the time) and incurs the wrath of Rabbit.
Ordinarily, Tigger might have laughed off the incident. But Roo, the young kangaroo who Tigger describes as being on "the smallish side of tiny and a little bit lacking in the perpendicular," idolizes Tigger and has innocently put thoughts in Tigger's head about the possibility he's not the only spring-loaded feline in the world. So Tigger sets off on an "expotition" to uncover his history, a process complicated by the involvement of Pooh Bear, Owl, Kanga and Piglet.
The story makes the same point as "Stuart Little," that a family is not defined by its physical similarities, but by the feelings members share for each other. There's nothing wrong with being different, we're told, especially if you can still love - and be loved by - those who aren't like you. That's an important message for children to hear, particularly those who feel like outsiders in their peer group because of their size or talents, and it's quite entertainingly conveyed here.
"The Tigger Movie" is preceded by a brief music video from Lou Bega, in which he rewrites his Top 10 hit "Mambo No. 5" as a tribute to Disney characters: "a little bit of Minnie in my life, a little bit of Mickey by her side," etc. It cracked up most of the kids and several of the adults in the preview audience.
James Sanford
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
