If you are a parent looking for a safe, fun and touching family film, you can’t go wrong with “The Tigger Movie”. Recommended!
BLU-RAY TITLE: The Tigger Movie
MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 2000
DURATION: 77 Minutes
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:78:1 Aspect Ratio, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit), French and Spanish Language Tracks, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
RATED: G
DVD RELEASE DATE: August 21, 2012
Directed by Jun Falkenstein
Based on the characters by A.A. Mulne
Based on the Story by Eddie Guzelian
Screenplay by Jun Falkenstein
Produced by Cheryl Abood
Associate Producer: Jennifer Blohm, Richmond Horine
Music by Harry Gregson-Williams
Edited by Makoto Arai, Robert Fisher Jr.
Art Direction by Toby Bluth
Featuring the Voices of:
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 Narrator
“The Tigger Movie†Bounce-A-Riffic Special Edition Blu-ray is a tiggerific treat for the whole family and for added fun, comes packaged with a family tree activity poster and stickers. In this charming musical tale of friendship and adventure, “The Tigger Movie†Bounce-A-Riffic Special Edition follows Tigger as he sets off on an epic journey to find other Tiggers in his family tree. Through a series of exciting adventures he discovers that families come in all shapes and sizes. This fun and playful animated tale delights a whole new generation of fans with its timeless characters and storytelling, rich animation and delightful songs by legendary Disney songwriting team of brothers, Richard and Robert Sherman. The film features the Hundred Acre Wood’s most lovable characters, Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and the rest of the gang.
Be prepared to do some bouncing as “The Tigger Movie” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD!
Since 1926, “Winnie-the-Pooh†has been a staple in American pop culture as a family friendly character and stories that many children for generations have grown up with.  And adults who have continued to share that with their own children.
In 2000, “The Tigger movie” became the first animated feature film to not feature Winnie-the-Pooh but focus on Pooh’s friend Tigger. Written and directed by Jun Falkenstein (who worked on “9”, “The Smurfs”, “Despicable Me” and directed “Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving” and “A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving”) and would feature songs written by Robert and Richard Sherman (“Mary Poppins”, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, “The Jungle Book”, “Charlotte’s Web” and “The Aristocats”) creating the music for the film. Their first feature film score since 1971 for “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”. The film would also feature a collaboration between the Sherman Brothers and singer Kenny Loggins.
The film was originally planned to be a direct-to-video release but when Disney CEO Michael Eisner heard the Sherman Brothers score, Eisner wanted to release the film in theaters.
And it was a great choice for Disney as the film would earn over $96 million in the box office and also win “Annie Awards” for “Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production” and “Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production” and “Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production”.
And now “The Tigger Movie” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in August 2012.
“The Tigger Movie” is set in Hundred Acre Wood and as everyone is cold and preparing for the long winter, we see how Tigger disrupts their preparation as he wants to bounce and have fun.
We see Tigger and crashing into Pooh’s honey jars; seeing a freezing Piglet, Tigger throws his chair into the fireplace and as for Eeyore, he has a huge rock fall and drop on his house. And also disrupting Rabbit’s pulley system to help Eeyore build his house.
The group tells Tigger that as much as they enjoy playing with him, they are not Tiggers and they can’t bounce like him, meanwhile Rabbit gets mad at him for destroying the pulley system.
Feeling alone, Roo sees Tigger and tries to cheer him up. Roo asks Tigger if there are other Tiggers and fascinated by the concept, when Tigger goes to ask Owl about other Tiggers, Owl tells him about family trees.
Meanwhile, Roo and Tigger develop a family-like bond and he looks up to Tigger as his older brother. For Roo, he wants to be taught how to bounce and so Tigger tries to teach his new “younger brother” how to do the Tigger bounce. And during their training session, he talks about how he has a locket which should have a picture of him and his family, but there is no picture.
One day, as Tigger goes to look for his family tree but is not able to. So, Tigger writes a letter to his family but no one responds. This leaves Tigger feeling alone and that there are no Tiggers out there.
And as Roo notices how Tigger has become so sad, he hatches a plan with everyone in Hundred Acre Wood to help lift his spirits by pretending to be a Tigger and each writing a letter to him.
And when Tigger receives the letter he is happy and tells everyone that his family will be visiting him the next evening. This shocks his friends as they never wrote such a thing, but Tigger tells everyone that he reads between the lines.
Now frantic about breaking Tigger’s heart, Roo and his mother Kanga decide to throw a party with everyone dressing up as a Tigger in order to make Tigger feel loved.
But will the charade work?
VIDEO:
“The Tigger Movie” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 aspect ratio).  The film is vibrant, colorful and the art backgrounds are nicely painted. We get to see the various seasons of Hundred Acre Wood and was glad to see the emphasis on detail for objects, trees, landscape in the art design. And as for the character design, the animators kept close to the original style of the characters that many people have grown up with.
If anything, “The Tigger Movie” looks fantastic on Blu-ray and I saw no artifacts, banding or any negative issues with this film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Tigger Movie” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit) and 5.1 Dolby Digital French and Spanish Language Tracks. The film is primarily dialogue and music-driven and thus more center/front channel. Dialogue and lossless audio is crystal clear with a little use of the surround channels towards the end (during the more action-based sequences). But overall, the lossless soundtrack is good.
Subtitles are in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Tigger Movie” comes with the following special features:
- A Tigger Tale– (6:22) The crew reunite to discuss their experience of making “The Tigger Movie”.
- Mini-Adventures of Winnie The Pooh – (24:21) A total of ten (three-minute) mini-adventures featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends. Included are “Pooh and Tigger”, “The Most Wonderful Thing about Tiggers”, “Eeyore’s House”, “Someone Like Tigger”, “What Tiggers Do Best”, “Lullabee”, “The Super Bounce”, “Tigger Goes Ice Skating”, “The Jagular”, “Unbouncing Tiger”.
- Round My Family Tree Sing-Along – (2:45) Featuring a sing-along for Tigger’s “Round My Family Tree”.
- Kenny Loggins Music Video – (4:49) Featuring Kenny Loggins music video for “Your Heart Will Lead You Home”.
EXTRAS:
“The Tigger Movie” comes with a slipcover case and a DVD version of the film presented in 1:78:1 widescreen, English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. Also, included is a family tree activity poster with stickers.
I know that I’m not the only one who grew up with “Winnie the Pooh”. It’s been in my family and even my son today was raised enjoying stuffed animals and the animated films (and series).
Having reviewed several of the animated films, “The Tigger Movie” having been released in 2001 and also now being released on Blu-ray is the best looking “Winnie the Pooh” related animated film on video. And what makes this film so entertaining and different from other Pooh films is that it focuses on Tigger.
Tigger is one of the most jovial characters ever created but also a character that gets into a bit of trouble because he is always wanting to have fun. But it’s that style that tends to attract the young viewers as the other characters are typically shy or reserved, Tigger is all over the place.
But this time around, you get a fun, energetic film but you also get pulled in by its story because it is quite sad that Tigger has all this energy and wants to have fun, but since the others are not Tiggers, they don’t have the same type of drive and thus it leads to Tigger being sadden that there is no family or anyone like him around. Or is there?
As “The Tigger Movie” is a film that does focus on Tigger, we also see another character grabbing the spotlight and that is little Roo, Kanga’s son. Roo is usually featured a few times in a film but this time around, we get to see Roo hanging out with Tigger but also learning from him and trying to be a good “little brother”.
So, this film definitely gives us a new perspective of characters other than Winnie the Pooh, Piglet or Rabbit.
For the most part, I found “The Tigger Movie” to be a wonderful family film. I watched it with my nine-year-old, at first I was wondering if he would feel that he was too old for this animated film but he was captivated by it and enjoyed it.
There is a lot to learn, may it be one’s private space to also the importance of friendship, children can surely learn from “The Tigger Movie”. And as for the Blu-ray release, children will also enjoy it for the inclusion of the mini-adventures of Winnie the Pooh plus the included family tree activity posters and stickers. And also another positive for parents is that the Blu-ray does come with a DVD, so definitely handy for those going on long commutes or a film for children to watch during vacation time. And as mentioned, seeing this animated film in HD on Blu-ray, it looks and sounds great!
Overall, if you are a parent looking for a safe, fun and touching family film, you can’t go wrong with “The Tigger Movie”. Recommended!
