'Tigger' Loses Some Bounce By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 11, 2000

Pooh and the gang help their hyperactive pal dig up his Tigger-ific family tree. (Walt Disney Co.)

Pooh, it seems, has never quite left us.

Although a new film written for the screen – the first in decades – sounds great, the result is pleasant enough, but not particularly special.

"The Tigger Movie," featuring six new songs from Disney songwriters Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, has its share of charms. And there's nothing cuter than Tigger's hyper-confused malapropisms and his propensity for bouncing his friends – i.e. sending them sprawling.

But this Tigger outing, which reprises some Pooh themes (including a run-in with bees in a honey tree), feels more like an overblown TV special than a grand theatrical release.

The story: Tigger (voice of Jim Cummings) realizes he is the only striped fella in the Hundred Acre Woods, especially after everyone gets sick of his confounded bouncing.

When he hears the Narrator (a charmingly raspy John Hurt) talk about a family tree, his imagination ping-pongs around his hyperactive brain, and he sends a letter inviting any Tigger relatives Out There to come to his home. Pooh (Cummings again), Rabbit (Ken Sansom), Piglet (John Fiedler), Eeyore (Peter Cullen) and the rest of the gang get hold of the letter, write a fictional reply and poor old Tigger waits and waits for his imagined relatives to arrive.

"The Tigger Movie," directed by Jun Falkenstein (who directed that Pooh Thanksgiving deal on TV), is not based on a Milne story. And the only original voice you'll hear in this movie is Fiedler, who did the trembly voiced Piglet in those early films. Sterling Holloway, who was the original Disney voice for Pooh, has passed on to the Great Hundred Acre Wood in the sky. And Cummings has replaced Paul Winchell, who voiced those original Grrrrrrrs! for Tigger.

Although Cummings, who has been doing Tigger and Pooh for various Pooh projects for more than a decade, does a fine job in both roles here, it's just not the same as it used to be – at least for anyone who remembers the earlier movies.

Obviously, your kids will hardly know the difference and you can still consider this a decent excuse to take out the fledglings. But beyond that, you'd be expecting too much.

THE TIGGER MOVIE (G, 76 minutes) – Contains nothing particularly objectionable except cartoon bee stings.