Let's Watch This: "The Tigger Movie" (2000)

Hey, everybody, guess what? This is my fiftieth review on this blog! I don't think it's the fiftieth review I've ever written (I write these reviews months in advance), but it's the fiftieth review POSTED on here! That's exciting, right?

Well, I suppose it'd be more exciting if it weren't for the fact that I post reviews on this blog pretty frequently (I used to post something on this blog every week, then I changed it to every other week), so it didn't take long for me to reach fifty reviews. But still, fifty reviews. I knew this would have to be a big review. A review of something either really good or really bad (as opposed to a review of something that's just okay or a review of something that's bad but far from the worst thing I've ever seen). After thinking about it for a few days, I decided that my fiftieth review should be another opportunity to take a trip into the Hundred Acre Wood.

I previously wrote a review of DisneyToon Studios' first Winnie the Pooh production, 1997's Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin. Their next film starring that silly ol' bear of very little brain, the one that we'll be looking at today, actually got a theatrical release.

The Tigger Movie was released on Febuary 11th, 2000. It was directed by Jun Falkenstein (also the director of 1999's Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving and Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas). Despite not being the biggest success at the box office (in total, it made $96,159,800), it is today one of the most beloved of DisneyToon Studios' Pooh films and was even nominated for a few Annie Awards. The Sherman Brothers also came in to write new songs for the film. It's always been a personal favorite of MINE, to. So, why are we still talking about it? Let's get started!

But first, I suppose I should bring up the Elephant in the Room.

No, not you, Lumpy. I'll probably get to your film at some point, though.

Anyhow, back when the film first entered production (back then, it was called Winnie the Pooh and the Family Tree), the original plan was to have Paul Winchell, Tigger's original voice actor, reprise his role. He participated in a 1998 recording session for the film, but Disney kicked him off the project because they felt he sounded too old and "raspy". This is not the first time they'd done something like this, as they previously did the same thing to Phil Harris when he was supposed to reprise his role as Baloo for TaleSpin. The fact that they treated Paul like this is (obviously) awful, but two good things did come out of it. First off, they gave the role of Tigger to Jim Cummings, who'd previously filled in for Paul as Tigger in multiple different projects. And Jim does a great Tigger (and please don't blame him for what happened, he had nothing to do with it aside from just being the guy chosen to replace Paul). Second, when the Disney Imagineers found out how Disney treated Paul, they felt so sorry for him that they invited him to come in and do the voice of Tigger one more time for the then-under construction Winnie the Pooh attraction at Walt Disney World. And I personally think that Paul's Tigger sounds just fine on the ride.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's start the film. Like most Winnie the Pooh films, the movie begins with a live action segment showing us the bedroom of Christopher Robin, with stuffed animals that look like his friends scattered around the room. I recall them reusing this exact footage for one or two other Pooh films. The narrator (John Hurt) does the usual "This could be the room of any young boy, but it belongs to Christopher Robin. He has many animal friends, and they all have adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood" spiel. As we see a Winnie the Pooh doll (now available at your local Disney Store!) sitting next to a book with its name on it, the narrator brings up Pooh Bear and the book suddenly opens on its own. Because apparently Christopher Robin's bedroom is haunted.

Then Tigger, voiced as I've said before by Jim Cummings, appears to complain. "It seems to me that most of these stories are about that silly ol' bear!" he points out. Why not a story about HIM for a change? So what if the title of the book is "Winnie the Pooh"? He can fix that - which he promptly does.

I'm with Tigger - that IS a wonderful title.

After that, Tigger bounces inside the book and the movie gets started. It's a beautiful Autumn morning, and Tigger is out and about, bouncing through the woods and singing "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers".

Tigger says at least three times during this song that he's "the only one".
Remember that - it's very important.

Tigger's bouncing leads him right to the house of Pooh, of course ALSO voiced by Jim Cummings. Tigger invites Pooh to do some bouncing with him, but Pooh politely says that he can't because he needs to count all of his honey pots and make sure he has enough for the winter - and with an appetite like Pooh's, who knows how many he considers enough for the winter. We get some shenanigans involving Tigger getting his foot stuck in a honey pot, and then he heads off.

I honestly don't have a funny caption here, but I figured I needed to have
a screencap of Pooh's first appearance in the movie.

Next, Tigger visits Piglet (John Fiedler) and asks if HE'D like to do some bouncing. Alas, Piglet's busy making preparations for the winter as well - making sure he's got enough firewood. Tigger tries to help by tossing a wooden chair into Piglet's fireplace, but that doesn't satisfy Piglet, so he leaves. His next stop is Kanga (Kath Soucie) and Roo (Nikita Hopkins)'s house to ask Kanga if SHE'D like to do some bouncing, but she's too busy as well.

Sitting atop a large rock, Tigger wonders why nobody wants to play. Then he realizes that there's plenty of OTHER characters he hasn't asked yet, and bounces off... and in the process, he accidentally launches the rock off of the cliff that it was perched on. It lands on Eeyore (Peter Cullen)'s house. Fortunately, Eeyore isn't harmed.

Somebody tell Piglet that the Hundred Acre Wood just received a bumper
crop of firewood.

Eventually Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit (Ken Sansom), Kanga, and Roo come by to see what they can do to help. Rabbit has a plan to get rid of that rock and restore Eeyore's house. It involves building this:

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Rabbit's Rock Remover. I have no idea how it's supposed to work, and I don't think any of the characters do either.

Eventually Tigger shows up. Predictably, Rabbit is in a mood and tells him that they can't go bouncing with him because they need to get rid of the rock. Tigger, of course, believes that the solution to "movin' that old thing" is through - what else? - bouncing.

Long story short, Tigger's bouncing winds up getting the rock moving - and thanks to Rabbit's Rock Remover, it winds up getting Rabbit, Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore dragged along for the ride. Roo winds up in a tree, Eeyore winds up in a briar patch, and everyone else winds up in the mud. 

What the heck was a fish doing in a pool of mud? Don't fish prefer
cleaner water?

Rabbit is enraged and starts screaming at Tigger for wrecking his "Rock Remover", even though chances are it wouldn't have worked anyway. "Everything's ruined! And all you can think about is BOUNCING?!" he shouts.

"But that's what Tiggers do best..." Tigger says. "Exactly. Unlike US," Eeyore replies. Kanga, Piglet, and Pooh point out that even if they weren't so busy, they couldn't bounce with Tigger because they're not Tiggers. Didn't stop them at the end of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, but whatever. Tigger glumly walks off and sings another song, "Someone Like Me", about how much it actually stinks being the only Tigger in the world.

Just look at these gorgeous backgrounds.

Roo catches up with Tigger and tries to cheer him up. "Aren't there other Tiggers? I've got a mama. Don't you have a family somewhere, too?" he suggests. This plants an idea in Tigger's head - he MUST have a family! He immediately makes it his mission to find them.

So he and Roo head over to Owl (Andre Stojka)'s house, where Owl of course begins yammering about his relatives while showing off some portraits of them.

I want more information about Owl's relatives. What's the story with
the owl dressed like Elvis?

We get some WHACKY SHENANIGANS involving Tigger accidentally knocking the portraits off the wall, and when he puts them back up he arranges them all so that it looks like Owl's got a tree full of his relatives on the wall. This, along with Owl bringing up one's "family tree", gives Tigger another idea...

I'm glad that my relatives don't all look exactly like me.

"Why didn't I think of thinkin' of that?!" Tigger exclaims. "So long, Beak Lips! Thanks for the tip!" He and Roo head out to find Tigger's "family tree", Owl is confused, and I will now be calling Owl "Beak Lips" throughout the rest of this review.

And so begins Tigger's grand search for his "family tree". When Roo asks how he'll know which tree it is when he spots it, Tigger says that it'll definitely be the biggest tree in the forest - and it'll be all stripedy, just like a Tigger. The only question is, where could his family tree be?

Then we cut to Rabbit attempting to rebuild Eeyore's house. And failing at it.

An architect you are not, Rabbit.

Tigger and Roo show up, and when Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore hear that they're looking for Tigger's family, they decide to help out by searching for them as well. If nothing else, it beats watching Rabbit try and fail to fix Eeyore's house. I wouldn't expect Rabbit to get his own house-renovating show on HGTV anytime soon.

They ask Rabbit if he's going to help them, to which he snaps, "To go look for MORE Tiggers?! As if ONE wasn't bad enough!" Besides, he has too many winter preparations to make.

Out of context, this screencap looks like Rabbit went insane and is arguing
with a bunch of sticks, and Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore are understandably
quite concerned.

I mean, it'd hardly be the first time Rabbit went crazy.

Once Tigger and Roo arrive back at Tigger's house, Tigger digs through a barrel in the hopes of finding some sort of clue as to their whereabouts. I would like to point out here that Tigger has a lot of crap he probably doesn't need (an apple core? A dog collar?). Eventually, he brings up some sort of bounce called the "Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper-Bounce", a special kind of bounce that only the bestest bouncers can bounce. Roo asks if Tigger could teach HIM to do it, but Tigger dubs the idea "ridickerous" - it's a very powerful bounce, only for "professional bouncers". But he's still going to sing a song about it!

Now, half of the Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper-Bounce
is ninety-percent mental. If you calculate the specific, Tiggerjectory of year,
Stripcelleration Diviferous, by the Square Boot of your Rebounce, your Vertical
Situituation Indicator and your Striperconic Sprigertia should Rica-Tic-a-Chet
your Hydraulific Fu-Silly-Age into an Accelerometric De-Orbit!

Any questions?

After demonstrating the bounce, Tigger begins filling Roo in on the safety rules and regulations - always bounce in a well-lit area, never bounce near an open flame, don't bounce right after eating, etc. But Roo's not paying attention and decides to try the bounce for himself... and winds up flying into a closet, where he finds a locket. Tigger comes to the conclusion that the locket has a picture of his family inside and tries to get it open.

Okay, where the heck did Tigger get a SWORD? Did he recently go
to a Medieval Times restaurant and buy a souvenir?

But the locket turns out to be empty. Tigger is bummed, but Roo has another idea - writing the other Tiggers a letter.

By the way, does anybody know what the heck this thing is?

What is that? It has spots... is it a leopard costume? Why does Tigger own a leopard costume? Is it a Halloween costume he never bothered to throw out?

Meanwhile, Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore are out searching for Tigger's family. They come across some frogs and assume they're Tiggers, since they have stripes and hop. I would love to know what's going through these frogs' minds as Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore try to coax them into coming with them to Tigger's house. They're probably thinking, "What the heck's a Tigger? I'm a frog. I sit on a lily pad, eat flies, and get mistaken for a toad every day. Let me be!"

Say, how come the frogs can't talk in a movie where bears, tigers, rabbits,
owls, pigs, donkeys, and kangaroos can?

Eventually, Pooh and Piglet decide that these aren't the right sorts of Tiggers after all. Eeyore, meanwhile, sinks into the mud.

Tigger is hard at work on his letter - "Dear T-I-Double-Guh-Errs - Tiggers - Greetin's and salutations. Please drop by any old time. On accounta my house is your house and vicey-versey. Love, Tigger!" he writes.

"Dear Michael Eisner, the Winnie the Pooh ride you built at Disneyland stinks.
Disney World's version is good, but Disneyland's is garbage."

Once the letter is finished, Tigger lets it blow away in the wind. Now there's nothing left to do but wait for them to write back.

Back to Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore. Pooh spots a tree where bees live and decides that he can go for a small smackarel. I like the visual of Pooh's paw reaching into the tree accompanied by his humming. But in order to get to the honey, Pooh needs to soothe the bees, which he accomplishes with another song, "Pooh's Lullabee". As Pooh eats, Piglet points out to Eeyore that he's been up in that tree for quite some time now. "Most likely he's stuck. Been known to happen," Eeyore says, referencing the events of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. So Piglet climbs up to see if Pooh's okay... and accidentally knocks him into the hole in the tree where the bees are sleeping, waking them up. D'oh.

"NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!"

As Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore are running from the bees, Tigger and Roo are still waiting on a letter from the other Tiggers. Once night falls, Tigger assumes the lack of response means there are indeed no other Tiggers. Could just be that the wind wasn't even blowing in the direction where other Tiggers live, but Tigger doesn't think of that. "I might as well face it. There AREN'T any other Tiggers," he moans.

Back at his house, Roo tells Kanga about how lonely Tigger is. "I wish I had a big brother like Tigger," he admits. Kanga reassures him that Tigger IS part of their family - and as long as they care for him, he always will be. Still, Roo wishes he could do something to make him feel better.

We then cut to Roo, Kanga, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore gathered at Beak Lips' house. Beak Lips fills us in as to what's going on - Roo thinks it would cheer Tigger up if they all wrote him a letter.

I love the pose on Owl... uh, I mean Beak Lips... here.

The letter will be from Tigger's family to him. "Dear Tigger," Beak Lips writes, "Just a note to say... what shall it say?" Everybody starts suggesting things. Kanga suggests "Dress warmly." Pooh suggests "Eat well." Piglet suggests "Stay safe and sound." Eeyore suggests "Keep smiling." Roo suggests "We're always there for you." "Wishing you all the best... signed, your family," Beak Lips adds.

The next morning, everyone (except Rabbit, apparently... and Gopher, but he's not even in this movie, so yeah) is woken up by Tigger, who's in a much better mood. He's got a letter from his family. He's so excited by it that he's going to sing about his family, giving the animators an excuse to go crazy and give us some surreal visuals.

Let's see... we've got parodies of famous paintings...

They did a scarily good job of imitating the original paintings' art styles...

Tiggers that look like the Country Bears...

I love it when Disney references their theme park rides in their movies.

Brady Bunch Tiggers...

It's really weird seeing female Tiggers. It's like seeing Tigger in drag.

Space alien Tiggers...

Uhhhhhhhhh... Houston, we have a problem?

Jerry Springer Tiggers...

So, we're supposed to assume that this stuff is all going on in Tigger's mind, right?
If so, how does Tigger know about Jerry Springer? Does he even have a TV?

Dinosaur Tiggers...

Even the mighty Tiggersaurus Rex had teeny tiny arms.

And is it just me, or is Tigger rocking the tux here?

Seriously, he looks really dang good in that tux.

But what REALLY makes Tigger excited is that he has somehow come to the conclusion his family is coming to see him tomorrow. Sure, it doesn't actually SAY THAT in the note, but with Tiggers you've gotta read between the lines.

Later, Roo pays Tigger a visit, finding him hard at work adding a family room to his house, so his family will have somewhere to live after the party he's throwing. He's so excited that Roo can't get a word in edgewise, and he really can't bring himself to tell Tigger the truth about the letter anyway. So he asks Pooh to do it. Alas, Pooh doesn't get the chance to do it either. Nor does anybody else - Tigger's too excited, and they don't have the heart to tell him the truth.

Then Roo gets another idea. They'll disguise themselves as Tiggers and show up at his house so Tigger won't be disappointed.

Eeyore becomes a zebra.

This leads to another song, "How to Be a Tigger". In the middle of the song, Rabbit shows up and chews them out for goofing around instead of preparing for the long, cold, snowy winter. This briefly bums everyone out, but Roo gives them a pep talk and they're all on board with the plan again. Sooooooooo... minor detour gotten by, I guess.

The snow's a-comin' down, and Tigger's starting to get worried. He decides to go out and find his family, only to open the door and see this:

It's Tigger's family... who just so happen to have the exact same proportions
as Tigger's friends!

Yes, Tigger actually buys it. He doesn't even recognize their voices. Though to be fair, I'd seen far worse disguises.

So the party begins (and I, for one, would love to attend a party thrown by Tigger), with Tigger not suspecting a thing. Everything's going great... until Roo decides to do the Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper-Bounce. He winds up flying into the closet again, and in the process, his mask comes off - resulting in Tigger realizing that the little Tigger who suggested doing the bounce was in fact Roo the whole time. He puts two and two together and starts unmasking the other Tiggers, discovering that they're actually his friends. "We only wanted to help, Tigger," Pooh protests.

Well, now, HERE'S a rare sight indeed... an angry Tigger.

Tigger is understandably, and uncharacteristically, quite hurt. "Now I understand. It was all a big joke," he says. "Well," he adds, grabbing the locket and the letter, "That's alright. Because somewhere out there, there's a Tigger family tree, full of my REAL Tigger family. I've got a letter to prove it. And I'm gonna find 'em!" He storms out of the house, leaving his friends just standing there ashamed.

Once everyone heads home, Roo goes to Pooh's house and begs him to help him find Tigger. "What we need is an expotition!" Pooh says. "To the place where Tigger is... or was... or will be. I believe Rabbit should lead us." Rabbit needs some convincing from Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore, but he comes around.

Meanwhile, Tigger isn't having much luck finding other Tiggers. Eventually, he finds a tree that just might be his family tree...

I mean, how many other trees have Tigger-esque stripes on them?

He immediately begins searching the tree for other Tiggers, but alas, there aren't any. "Maybe they forgot I was coming..." he says, tearing up. "But... but I thought you were always there for me..."

Fortunately, the others find Tigger. When he hears their calling to him, he assumes that they're other Tiggers... and is promptly disappointed to discover that they're not. Rabbit is all "Come home with us! It's not safe out here!" to which Tigger shouts, "EXACTICKALLY! That's why you should all go home, where it IS safe! But I've gotta wait here, in my family tree, for MY... REAL... FAMILY!"

All of that shouting, of course, causes an avalanche.

Word of advice - if you're in a cartoon, and you're near a mountain,
don't shout. Chances are it'll cause an avalanche. It's just common knowledge.

Tigger gets all of his friends to safety, but gets caught in the avalanche himself. Looks like it's up to Roo to save the day with the Whoop-de-Dooper-Loop-de-Looper-Alley-Ooper-Bounce (and I'm really getting tired of typing all that). Long story short, he and Roo manage to fly to safety. The avalanche stops, everybody's safe, and Roo's a hero. Tigger's still bummed about the whole "lack of other Tiggers" thing, though.

Beak Lips and Kanga catch up with them - and they've brought Christopher Robin with them.

All together now - D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW...

Pooh fills Christopher Robin in as to what's been going on - they've been looking for Tigger's family. "Tigger's family? You didn't have to go looking for them," Christopher Robin tells Tigger. Beak Lips, Kanga, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Roo recite the letter as a way to tell Tigger that THEY wrote it. Tigger now realizes that Christopher Robin is right. He DIDN'T need to go looking for his family. His friends are his family. "I should've seen it all along," he admits.

To thank his friends, Tigger gives them all presents. He gives Eeyore that family room he built as a new house. Kanga gets a hat, Christopher Robin gets a toy airplane, Beak Lips gets a yo-yo, Pooh gets (of course) honey, Piglet gets a ton of firewood, Rabbit gets a promise that Tigger will watch where he's bouncing from now on, and Roo? Well, he gets the locket. "Only the best... for my bestest little brother," Tigger tells him. Everybody takes a photo to put in the locket, and we end with a Kenny Loggins song. The end.

I guess Gopher doesn't qualify as a member of Tigger's family?

So, that's The Tigger Movie. And there's a reason why it's possibly the most popular of DisneyToon Studios' Winnie the Pooh productions. It's a touching film, with wonderful animation, a nice moral, and great songs. And quite possibly Jim Cummings' greatest performance as Tigger. I'm not sure which film I like more, this or Pooh's Grand Adventure. They're both great movies. I highly recommend that you give The Tigger Movie a watch. It's impossible not to smile at least once while you're watching it.

We've got more Winnie the Pooh films to look at. But, my next review shall be about another animal with stripes. I won't give it away, though...