The Winnie the Pooh franchise has seen quite a lot in its time. There are TV shows, books and even direct to DVD spin off movies. For this review, our focus will be turned to our bouncy flouncy friend Tigger as he gets to star in his own Feature film simply titled “The Tigger Movie”. The question is, can tigger carry a movie with his over the top happy attitude? Or was there a reason why Tigger was meant to be a side character in the first place.
It’s late one fall in the Hundred Acre Wood and Tigger is doing what he usually does like bouncing and pouncing which is rather annoying to the rest of his friends especially Rabbit who asks Tigger to find others like him to bounce with. In light of this information, Tigger starts to feel lonely since he is the only one of his kind that he knows of. Suddenly with the help of Roo, he gets the idea to send a letter to his Tigger family in the hopes that maybe any of them will respond. Time passes by and Tigger starts to lose hope thinking that there are no other Tigger’s that exist. Feeling bad, Roo gathers the rest of the hundred Acre Wood to write a letter saying it's from Tigger’s family. When Tigger gets the letter he is overjoyed and excited but how long can Pooh and his pals keep up the act to make Tigger happy? Or will he eventually find out about the truth.
You’d think that Tigger wouldn’t be able to carry a movie because of him being happy all the time. In a surprising way, we actually get to see a different side of Tigger that we don’t usually see, the lonely and confused side of him. The great thing about that is that it's not forced on Tigger in any way of form, it comes very naturally. His emotional dilemma makes this story much more interesting and can lead to some sad and poignant moments. However, the story is not just about Tigger as there are many subplots involving Pooh and his pals that get woven into the story. On the one hand, it sort of distracts from the main conflict of the movie. Even with that said, the subplots don’t ruin the overall experience, but it would have been better if they kept the focus on Tigger’s journey and nothing else.
It’s not too hard to guess how the movie ends, but the makers of the film don’t cheat on us as the journey is still as adorable as any Winnie The Pooh story with maybe even with a little more emotional depth than previous adventures. All the characters are in check as they bring us the simple and charming characteristics that made them lovable to begin with. Another thing that’s really outstanding is the beautiful hand drawn animation backgrounds. They start out in the fall season where it's full of oranges and browns and then we move into the harsh winters where the snow just won’t stop blizzarding down. The music in this movie is also charming and there are a couple of song numbers that are cheesy yet entertaining in their execution.
I can’t believe i’m saying this, but The Tigger Movie is a lot more charming and emotionally impactful than it has any right to be. Sure, its not perfect all the time as there are a couple pop culture references that don’t quite work, not to mention that sometimes the story will just halt in places to focus on other character’s dilemmas. Still, this movie is quite an accomplishment in that it took Tigger, a usually happy side character and made him into a character we can all sympathise with.
(Final Grade: B+)