On my twelfth birthday, I got a copy of the original Winnie-the-Pooh
book, along with, if I recall right, a pair of Pooh bookends and a Pooh
watch. Today I am twice that age and Pooh is still just as integral to
my existence. I don’t think a birthday has passed between then and now
in which Pooh hasn’t shown his friendly face in one form or another. Two
days ago, it was a birthday card from my grandparents. Yesterday, it
was a viewing of Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, courtesy of my best friend.
Although I was bound and determined to see both The Tigger Movie and Piglet’s Big Movie
in the theater, I didn’t get there in time. So this was my first
Winnie-the-Pooh movie-going experience, and it turned out to be an odd
one. We were running a bit late, so I figured we’d miss a couple
minutes. As it turned out, we walked into an entirely empty theater.
“Hey, look, Erin!” Libbie shouted. “I rented a theater for your
birthday!” The second we sat down the lights went out and the previews
started. It gave me an eerie feeling of power. And this on opening day,
if I’m not mistaken! While I think the venue, an out-of-the-way old
theater on the east side of town, had something to do with it, I can’t
help but think such a turn-out doesn’t bode well for the Silly Old Bear.
I find the title slightly off-putting, just for the reason
that they’re following the pattern of naming a movie for its prominent
character but apparently figure “Heffalump” doesn’t carry enough brand
recognition. I think The Heffalump Movie or Roo’s Heffalump Movie
would have been a better fit, and I just hate to think Disney thinks so
little of our intelligence that we can’t figure out a movie is located
in the Hundred-Acre Wood if it doesn’t feature one of the five most
visible characters in the title.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. Carly Simon returned to the Wood after a successful involvement in Piglet’s Big Movie. While none of the songs are as memorable as The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, I’m Just a Little Black Raincloud
or the Pooh theme song, they work well in the movie: as an outlet for
maternal affection, an anthem of budding friendship and a warning about
the looming danger of Heffalumps reminiscent of Pooh’s eerie nightmare
in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. I was also surprised –
and pleased – to catch several wistful wisps of a pan flute – or was it a
tin whistle? A wind instrument with a decidedly Celtic air about it.
The movie retains a more British feel to it than The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh.
It offers us several panoramic views of a drab yet glorious landscape,
all rolling fields, babbling brooks and majestic forests with only the
characters’ quiet homesteads and a wooden fence winding its way through
the Wood to indicate the presence of its residents. (Where did the fence
come from? I don’t recall its ever being there before. And how is it
that Rabbit has been living practically next door to the Heffalumps all
this time and we never knew it?) I feel like I’m stepping into the
British countryside of Milne and Tolkien, purified by memory and
imagination perhaps but just real enough that I can’t help but believe
it exists and want to go there. (I’ll have my chance to see for myself, I
guess, when I hop the pond to England this summer for six weeks.
There’s no way I’m letting this trip slip by without a trip to Ashdown
Forest.)
More than the setting, though, we have Lumpy, voiced
by British then-5-year-old newcomer Kyle Sanger. I had read that he
ad-libbed throughout the recording, in part because he had trouble
remembering all the lines exactly, and they kept a lot of it because it
was so cute. I couldn’t tell where this occurred most of the time, but
there can be no denying that he is an adorable addition to the Pooh
ensemble. His mother, when she finally appears, is the model of a doting
British mum. These are the representatives of the dreaded race that
lurks in the shadows of the foreboding trees that loom on the other side
of the fence in Heffalump Hollow.
The movie is essentially a
lesson in tolerance and stopping to get to know people before
determining they are enemies. Just as the end of Pooh’s Grand Adventure revealed that all the frightening stops on their journey were only scary because of their state of mind, so Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
assures our furry friends that these elephant-like creatures are
nothing to fear. The paradigm shift occurs for Roo, who has captured
Lumpy with the intention of bringing him home to proudly show his
friends, when he realizes that Lumpy is just as afraid of Tigger, Piglet
and Rabbit as they are of the Heffalumps. I’ve heard criticisms that
the film tries too hard to be politically correct, but I just saw a
sweet story with a couple of misunderstandings and a happy ending.
I had a hunch I was really going to like this movie in spite of my disappointment with Piglet’s Big Movie.
This film is straightforward, with only a bit of self-referential
narration at the beginning and end to frame the tale. I was confused to
see David Ogden Stiers credited on imdb as the narrator. While he would
make a fine narrator in the traditional Winnie the Pooh style, I am
certain that it was Pooh himself who narrated this movie. An error on
the website’s part? They did fail to mention Lumpy in the cast list
altogether.
I thought the characters were much more themselves
in this film. While Rabbit sternly telling Roo that he was too little
to go Heffalump hunting with them, even though it was Roo who convinced
them to do it in the first place, didn’t sit well with me, I guess I can
accept it as a manifestation of Rabbit’s protective affection for the
little marsupial. Rabbit is pretty crotchety in this movie, but that’s
not unusual. Tigger is his typical bouncy self, Piglet as timid and Pooh
as absent-minded as ever. But none of them are mean-spirited, as they
seemed to be at times in Piglet’s Big Movie.
It’s odd
for Kanga and Roo, two relatively minor characters in the Pooh canon –
though admittedly Roo seems to be becoming more prominent lately – to
carry a film, but I don’t mind. And while Eeyore’s presence in the film
is negligible – “Why the heck was Eeyore in this movie?” Libbie asked –
his bits of screen time, appearing just when everyone has nearly
forgotten about him, are amusing. Relegated to the role of beast of
burden, he is forced to carry the most bizarre assortment of equipment
imaginable. I didn’t think that much stuff could be found among the
houses of the Hundred Acre Wood’s inhabitants. I would think that
Lumpy’s acquaintance with Roo would please Eeyore; it must be rather
dismal to be the only one you know who walks on all fours.
Owl
and Gopher are entirely absent from the film, but we don’t particularly
miss them. It did seem odd to let an entire movie pass without even a
mention of Christopher Robin. I guess the script-writers wanted our
friends to solve this problem on their own. The trouble with all Pooh
stories is that the Hundred Acre Wood is so akin to Heaven that no real
peril can touch it. Atmospheric conditions sometimes threaten and
visions of vile creatures may haunt the dreams of timid Piglet and
hunny-hoarding Pooh, but the truth is that no bad thing of lasting
consequence occurs here. I can’t say I was too surprised when, for the
third movie running, the climax involved one of the characters dangling
from a tree over a precipice. But it still managed to be endearing, with
the heroic effort by the enemy camp a la The Russians are Coming.
Of course, by this time the forest-dwellers on both sides of the fence
have come to realize that they have nothing to fear from one another.
This is not an exciting movie, and most 24-year-olds would probably
find themselves a bit bored by it as my friend did. Instead, I was
infused with the warm feeling that must accompany Pooh when he lets a
glob of golden hunny slide down his throat. The delightful slide show of
further adventures with Lumpy, including an overdue introduction to
Christopher Robin and a nod to Pooh’s long-ago tenure halfway through
Rabbit’s front door, is the perfect finishing touch on a movie that
succeeded beautifully in whisking this now-24-year-old “back to the days
of Pooh.” Somehow I don’t think she ever really left.
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