The Tigger Movie

**The Tigger Movie** is a 2000 animated film directed by Jun Falkenstein and is the second instalment in the Winnie the Pooh franchise.

It was the first feature-length theatrical Pooh film that was not a collection of previously released shorts. The film was released on February 11, 2000.

## Plot

Tigger interrupts the beginning of the movie, fed up with most of the stories being about Pooh. After rearranging the title page to spell out the movie's title, the story resumes. In the Hundred Acre Wood, Tigger searches for someone to bounce with him, but all of his friends are too busy preparing for the upcoming winter. Tigger's closest friend Roo wants to play with him but arrives too late to do so. While he searches for a playmate, Tigger inadvertently destroys Eeyore's house with a boulder. Rabbit gathers Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, and Roo and they build a mechanical pulley system to remove the boulder, with little success. Tigger arrives and helps out, but his actions wreck the machine and send everyone into a muddy lake (except Roo, who lands in a tree, and Eeyore, who lands in a thorn bush). Frustrated, Rabbit and the rest of Tigger's friends reprimand him for his troublesome rambunctious nature while saying that they are not like him, hurting his feelings. Roo, seeing Tigger's sadness and alienation, asks him if he has any family members of his own. Tigger is fascinated by the concept and decides to search for his family, hoping to finally be within a similar company.

Misunderstanding advice from Owl, Tigger begins searching for his family tree, believing it to be a centuries-old tree covered in stripes and with many Tigger's upon it. After his search fails, they return to Tigger's house. After finding a golden, heart-shaped locket, they believe that a picture of Tigger's family is inside it. However, the locket is empty. Roo suggests that he writes a letter to his family, and he does so. He lets the wind carry it away with hopes that it will reach his family but receives no response after days of waiting and begins to lose hope. Tigger's sympathetic friends decide to write him a letter; everyone contributes a bit of friendly advice and signs it "your family". Tigger misinterprets the content of the letter and comes to believe that his family exists and is intending to visit him, with the others unable to tell him the truth. He organizes a large and absurd party in preparation for a family reunion.

Roo, wishing to uphold Tigger's spirits, encourages his friends to disguise themselves as Tigger's and attend his party. Rabbit refuses to join in and instead berates the others for not preparing for the harsh conditions ahead before leaving, but Roo convinces everyone to continue with the plan.

After a great effort in disguising themselves and learning to behave like Tigger's, Tigger's friends arrive at his party. He completely falls for the disguises until Roo's mask falls off after an attempt to imitate a complex bounce that Tigger had taught him earlier. In light of his friends' deception, the disappointed and betrayed Tigger sets out into a blizzard in search of his real family, taking his letter and locket with him. After falling down a cliff in an attempt to recover his locket, he finds an immense tree that the snow has whitened with stripes, convincing him that it is the family tree he had sought, but is saddened when he finds no one waiting for him there. His friends (joined by Rabbit) set out on an expedition in search of him, but they fail to persuade him to come home. Their argument causes an avalanche, which drives Tigger to rescue his friends by carrying them up into the tree branches. When Tigger has swept away himself, Roo successfully performs Tigger's bounce and saves him. The two perform the bounce together to escape the avalanche and land back on the tree. When the avalanche subsides, Owl and Kanga find them. Christopher Robin also arrives and after finding out what happened, tells Tigger he never needed to go looking for his family. Tigger protests, saying he got a letter from his family. He tries to show it to them but discovers it was lost in the avalanche (it was actually lost before the avalanche happened).

Tigger's friends reveal their authorship of the letter by reciting its pieces from memory. Tigger finally realizes that his friends are his true family and he throws a new party in honour of them while handing out presents for them: a new home for Eeyore (made from the family room meant for Tigger's non-existent family), a toy plane for Christopher Robin, a yo-yo for Owl, a hat for Kanga, a large amount of honey for Pooh, lots of firewood for Piglet, a promise to Rabbit that he will watch where he's bouncing from now on (as well as a hug), and the locket for Roo (whom he finally accepts as a brother figure). Christopher Robin then takes a picture of everyone to put inside the locket. The film ends with the newly taken photo shown inside the locket while the camera backs away as it closes up.

## Cast and Characters

* Jim Cummings as Tigger / Winnie the Pooh
* Nikita Hopkins as Roo
* Ken Sansom as Rabbit
* John Fiedler as Piglet
* Peter Cullen as Eeyore
* Andre Stojka as Owl
* Kath Soucie as Kanga
* Tom Attenborough as Christopher Robin
* John Hurt as The Narrator

## Music

The songs for The Tigger Movie were written by Robert and Richard Sherman who had not written a feature for Disney in over 28 years. Their last fully original feature film score was for the Oscar nominated film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks which was released in 1971. Originally slated for video or television release, the score was so well received (in demonstration form) by then Disney CEO, Michael Eisner, that the project's priority level moved up to feature theatrical release. This was due in great part to the perceived caliber of the song score throughout the studio. The score of the film is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams with additional music by Klaus Badelt and Steve Jablonsky and the score was conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith.

All the songs were original ones created for the film except for "The Wonderful Thing About Tigger's" which was originally written in 1968 for the featurette, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (released in 1968). That song was also by the Sherman Brothers. The "punch line" of the song: "But the most wonderful Thing About Tigger's is I'm the only one..." provides the basis of The Tigger Movie's storyline. The vast majority of the songs, including "Someone Like Me", "Whoop-de-Dooper Bounce", "Pooh's Lullabee", and "Round My Family Tree" were performed by Jim Cummings, while "How to Be a Tigger" was performed by the cast.

"Your Heart Will Lead You Home" was the last song written for the film and is a collaborative effort between the Sherman Brothers and singer Kenny Loggins. Richard Sherman described the song as "a song about the picture, as opposed to songs of the picture." It marks the only time the trio worked together on a song.

The original theatrical trailer for the film featured the song "Semi-Charmed Life" by alternative band Third Eye Blind. A Disney spokeswoman said that she was not aware of the sexual content within the song's lyrics.

## Production

Paul Winchell, the original voice of Tigger, was originally cast to voice Tigger for the film, which was then titled Winnie the Pooh and the Family Tree. During Spring 1998, Paul participated in a single recording session for the film. However, he was dropped from the project after the studio found his voice too raspy. The role was given to Jim Cummings, who was already voicing Winnie the Pooh for the film, and doing Tigger's voice on various Disney television shows and for Disney consumer products. When the Disney Imagineers heard about Paul's dismissal, they hired him to perform the voice of Tigger for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction at Walt Disney World, which opened a year before The Tigger Movie's release; it was Paul's final performance before his retirement from acting in 1999 and his death in 2005.

## Release

After a Hollywood red carpet premiere on February 6, 2000 at El Capitan Theatre, the film was released theatrically on February 11, 2000. The movie was on screens for 23 weeks.

### Home Media

The Tigger Movie was originally released on August 22, 2000, on both VHS and DVD. Both included the Kenny Loggins music video "Your Heart Will Lead You Home." The DVD included additional special features. The film was later re-released on a 2-disc DVD on August 4, 2009 to coincide with its 10th anniversary. The 2-disc release includes a DVD and a digital copy. It contains all the 2000 DVD bonus features, but has more language tracks and special features. The film was also re-released as a Bounce-a-rrrific special edition on Blu-ray on August 21, 2012. It contains the Kenny Loggins music video "Your Heart Will Lead You Home" and "Round My Family Tree" sing-along song video but includes the 10 Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh segments.

## Reception

### Critical Response

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 62% of critics gave the film positive reviews on 71 reviews with a 5.9 rating. The site's consensus states, "The Tigger Movie may lack the technological flash and underlying adult sophistication of other recent animated movies, but it's fun and charming." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on twenty three critics, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". William Thomas of Empire Magazine gave the film a three out of four stars, saying: "And while the one-dimensional nature of the plot is unlikely to entertain anyone over the age of 11, the end result certainly includes enough pre-pubescent prerequisites to ensure that the furry fella will never bounce alone." Common Sense Media gave the film a three out of five stars and said: "Tigger's bouncy quest will appeal to younger viewers."

### Box Office

The film opened at number 4 at the U.S. box office making $9.4 million in its opening weekend. The film was a box office success, earning $45,554,533 in the United States and Canada and a further $50,605,267 overseas, resulting in a worldwide gross of $96,159,800. Its budget is estimated at between $15 million and $30 million. On its initial release on home video, it earned $90 million.