Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Voices of: Peter Cummings, Brenda Blethyn, John Fiedler, Kath Soucie, Peter Cullen, Ken Samsom, Nikita Hopkins, Kyle Stanger
Directed by Frank Nissen
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2005

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Roo and the gang venture deep into the woods, where they come across the mysterious heffalumps.

Review:

Tim: Although I haven't loved any of the movies in the Winnie the Pooh franchise, they've all been mostly solid affairs. The movies have taken an interesting approach. Following 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, we got a Tigger focused movie, followed by a Piglet focused movie. These characters are so indelible for so many people, it makes complete sense that subsequent movies would put these supporting characters into the limelight. This has always been more of an ensemble than a focus on one character. Continuing that theme, this movie puts Roo into the spotlight. Now, Roo is even less famous than Tigger or Piglet, so I get why they didn't call this Roo's Heffalump Movie (which would be a more accurate title). There's a marketing component to this whole thing, so that didn't bother me.

I've always liked Roo, so I was fairly excited for him to get thrust into the limelight here. This story does follow a similar approach to the previous two- it's still an ensemble film, but one character gets a bit more of the spotlight. I had fun getting to spend more time with Roo here. That's definitely a plus.

The story itself is okay, but it didn't quite feel strong enough. The Hundred Acre Wood crew decides to go into another part of the forest to find Heffalumps (which are elephants). There's a lot of fear associated with these mysterious, "dangerous" creatures. The not-very-intelligent characters bumble through how to do this and obviously mess up the execution of the plan. These scenes are decently entertaining. Roo takes off on his own adventure and since he tends to be one of the most intelligent characters (Kanga is doing a great job as a single mom!) he succeeds where the others inevitably fail. Some of the scenes here were a bit intense- nothing that most kids can't handle, but my three year-old daughter did feel a little nervous at times. She still enjoyed the movie, though.

The big thrust of the film is that we get introduced to Lumpy, a little heffalump with a pretty cute voice. He's okay as a character. It's certainly fun to see he and Roo build a friendship throughout the film. The message is clear- you can make friends with anyone, even if they are different from you. This is a critical message for young viewers and I really appreciated that it was front and center for this film. The message is good, but the scenes conveying this are a bit lackluster. There's a big sequence where Roo and Lumpy's playing causes a lot of destruction, which felt a little off from where the story should have gone. Still, my kids had a mostly fun time watching these antics unfold.

The visuals are once again strong. I appreciate the hand-drawn animation and while it feels increasingly old school, there's wonderful nostalgia in it. I was glad for my kids to watch something that wasn't completely computer generated. I appreciate how this film mostly sticks with the old ways.

While Pooh's Heffalump Movie will certainly appeal to young viewers, it did get a bit tiresome from an adult perspective. It was interesting that Owl didn't show up at all (Christopher Robin barely had a role) and even Eeyore felt like he was regulated to the sidelines. I liked the increase focus on Roo, but it felt like the movie needed a bit more balance. The Roo-Lumpy scenes are good, but could have been cut down a bit to allow for more time with other characters. I thought the movie was always decent, but it felt like it was missing some of the magic that made the first two movies really good. This one has a few memorable moments, but the bulk of the story felt forgettable. This isn't a bad movie, but it's not quite as good as we'd hope it would be. Still, for the fourth film in the franchise, you can't complain too much.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie