Pooh's Heffalump Movie | |
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Directed by | Frank Nissen |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | Characters by A. A. Milne |
Produced by | Jessica Koplos-Miller |
Starring | |
Edited by | Robert Fisher Jr. Nancy Frazen Anthony F. Rocco |
Music by | Joel McNeely |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution [2] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 68 minutes |
Country | United States [2] |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million |
Box office | $52.9 million [3] |
Pooh's Heffalump Movie (also known as The Heffalump Movie in the working title) is a 2005 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by the Japanese office of Disneytoon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring characters from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, the film is the fourth theatrical animated film in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise and DisneyToon Studios's third adaptation of Winnie the Pooh stories, following Piglet's Big Movie (2003) and Springtime with Roo (2004). The film was released on February 11, 2005, to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $52.9 million worldwide. It was followed by a direct-to-video Halloween sequel, titled Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie which came out seven months after the film's release.
One morning in the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Tigger, Roo, and Eeyore wake up to hear a loud trumpeting noise and while visiting Rabbit, they find a set of large, circular footprints. Rabbit deduces that elephant-like creatures called "Heffalumps" have invaded and per Roo's suggestion, he organizes an expedition to travel to Heffalump Hollow and capture them. As the group practices hunting for Heffalumps, Roo is forbidden from participating in the expedition due to his young age, prompting him to start his own solo Heffalump hunt.
While exploring Heffalump Hollow, Roo meets a young Heffalump named Heffridge Trumpler Brompet "Lumpy" Heffalump IV and learns that not only are Heffalumps much friendlier than depicted but they are equally afraid of the Hundred Acre Wood's inhabitants. Roo convinces Lumpy to join him back to the Hundred Acre Wood for a tour during which they accidentally make a mess of Pooh's house and Rabbit's garden. Meanwhile, Rabbit and the gang return home from the unsuccessful Heffalump expedition to find the mess that Roo and Lumpy made; concluding that a Heffalump was the cause of this, they begin setting up traps to catch it.
After hearing Lumpy's mother calling him, Roo and Lumpy begin to search for her. While searching, Lumpy tries using his trunk to call her, but it does not work properly. When Lumpy eventually grows discouraged, Roo decides to ask his mother, Kanga, for help. Roo and Lumpy soon find Kanga, but Rabbit, Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger discover Lumpy's identity as a Heffalump and start attacking him. Thinking that Roo deceived him, Lumpy runs away only to get trapped in a cage. Following after Lumpy, Roo frees him from the cage and the two reconcile.
Rabbit and the others soon find Lumpy and attack him again until Roo reveals his friendship with Lumpy to the group and calls them out for their prejudice towards Heffalumps. Then suddenly, a still-scared Lumpy stumbles off a ledge and accidentally knocks Roo into a large pile of logs. When Roo's friends are unable to move the logs, Lumpy again tries using his trunk to call his mother and after a few unsuccessful tries, he finally gets it right for the first time. Upon hearing his calls, Lumpy's mother arrives and successfully rescues Roo. This act of heroism causes Pooh and his friends to finally acknowledge the Heffalumps' benevolence, and the two clans make peace with each other.
The film was originally intended as a direct-to-video release. [4]
Heffalumps were first mentioned in the original Winnie-the-Pooh books. They appeared in a nightmare sequence –along with their fellow scary creatures, the woozles –in 1968's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day . Though heffalumps and woozles have appeared in other Disney's Winnie the Pooh media, such as The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh TV series, this was the first theatrical film to feature a "real" heffalump. Lumpy's design is similar to the heffalumps seen in the 1968 featurette and the song "The Horribly Hazardous Heffalumps!" is in the same style as "Heffalumps and Woozles" from Blustery Day. Carly Simon came up with Lumpy's full name, Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump, IV.
This was the final theatrically released film to feature voice actor John Fiedler as Piglet. It also marked the final Winnie the Pooh film to be released in Fiedler's lifetime, as he died four months later from cancer.
This was also the final production of Walt Disney Animation Japan. Once the film was completed, Disney closed the studio in June 2004, eight months before the film's release.
Disney released a teaser trailer of Pooh's Heffalump Movie in March 2004 on Springtime with Roo DVD home video releases. The teaser was later attached to theatrical screenings of Home on the Range , Clifford's Really Big Movie , Shrek 2 and Shark Tale . The next trailer for the film was released with the theatrical screenings of The Incredibles , and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie . The trailers for the film were later attached to other Disney home video releases.
The film premiered and opened in theaters on February 11, 2005.
Pooh's Heffalump Movie was released on DVD and VHS on May 24, 2005 in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the film was released on July 11, 2005, and later in a trilogy DVD on November 7, 2011, along with The Tigger Movie and Winnie the Pooh . [5]
The Best of Pooh and Heffalumps, Too | |
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Soundtrack album by | |
Released | February 8, 2005 |
Recorded | 2004 |
Length | 33:34 |
Label | Walt Disney Records |
Producer |
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
American singer-songwriter Carly Simon wrote five new songs exclusively for the film and performed four of them ("Winnie the Pooh", "Little Mr. Roo", "Shoulder to Shoulder", and "In the Name of the Hundred Acre Wood"), [7] while in "The Horribly Hazardous Heffalumps!" Simon is accompanied by Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom, John Fiedler, and Nikita Hopkins. "The Name Game" features Kyle Stanger and Nikita Hopkins as Lumpy and Roo.
Two songs from Simon's earlier soundtrack for Piglet's Big Movie are also included on the soundtrack, "Winnie the Pooh (Theme Song)" and "With A Few Good Friends", in which Simon is joined by her children Ben Taylor and Sally Taylor. [8]
The soundtrack also features one instrumental track entitled "The Promise" by Joel McNeely, as well as seven classic Winnie The Pooh songs written by the Sherman Brothers.
Original songs performed in the film include:
No. | Title | Performer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Winnie the Pooh" | Carly Simon & Ben Taylor | 2:52 |
2. | "The Horribly Hazardous Heffalumps!" | Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom, John Fiedler & Nikita Hopkins | 1:53 |
3. | "Little Mr. Roo" | Carly Simon & Kath Soucie | 2:02 |
4. | "The Name Game" | Kyle Stanger & Nikita Hopkins | 0:46 |
5. | "Shoulder to Shoulder" | Carly Simon & the Heffalump Chorus | 3:22 |
6. | "In the Name of the Hundred Acre Wood" | Carly Simon & the Heffalump Chorus | 2:26 |
7. | "With a Few Good Friends" | Carly Simon, Ben Taylor & Sally Taylor | 2:38 |
The film made $5.8 million in its opening weekend, a per theater average of $2,296 from 2,529 theaters. The film ended up with a final gross of $18.1 million in North America and $34.8 million in other countries, bringing the total worldwide gross to $52.9 million. [3]
Reviews were generally positive, resulting in a rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 89 critics with a 6.54/10 rating. The site's consensus states, "A charming and delightful walk through the Hundred Acres Woods for young viewers." [9] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [10]
A sequel, Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie , was released direct-to-video on September 13, 2005.
Tigger is a fictional character in A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books and their adaptations. An anthropomorphic toy tiger, he was originally introduced in the 1928-story collection The House at Pooh Corner, the sequel to the 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed toy animals. He appears in the Disney animated versions of Winnie the Pooh and has also appeared in his own film, The Tigger Movie (2000).
A Heffalump is an elephant-like creature in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories by A. A. Milne. Heffalumps are mentioned, and only appear, in Pooh and Piglet's dreams in Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and are seen again in The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Physically, they resemble elephants; E. H. Shepard's illustration shows an Indian elephant. They are later featured in the animated television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988–1991), followed by two animated films in 2005, Pooh's Heffalump Movie and Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie.
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie‑the‑Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys and animals featured in the stories. Although he is a "Very Small Animal" of a generally timid disposition, he tries to be brave and on occasion conquers his fears.
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. He is a young kangaroo and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy animal that belonged to Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne. Though stuffed, Roo was lost in the 1930s in an apple orchard somewhere in Sussex.
The Tigger Movie is a 2000 American animated musical comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation with animation production by Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Inc., written and directed by Jun Falkenstein from a story by Eddie Guzelian, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on February 11, 2000. It is the second theatrical Winnie the Pooh film after The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and features Pooh's sidekick Tigger as the main protagonist searching for his family tree and other Tiggers like himself. The film was the first feature-length theatrical Pooh film that was not a collection of previously released shorts.
Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated musical adventure comedy-drama film produced by the Japanese office of Disneytoon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The animation production was by Walt Disney Animation Japan, Inc. with additional animation provided by Gullwing Co., Ltd., additional background by Studio Fuga and digital ink and paint by T2 Studio. The film features the characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard and is the third theatrically released Winnie the Pooh feature. It was released on March 21, 2003, to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $62.9 million worldwide. In this film, Piglet is ashamed of being small and clumsy and wanders off into the Hundred Acre Wood, leading all of his friends to form a search party to find him.
The House at Pooh Corner is a 1928 children's book by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. This book is the second novel, and final one by Milne, to feature Winnie-the-Pooh and his world. The book is also notable for introducing the character Tigger. The book's exact date of publication is unknown beyond the year 1928, although several sources indicate the date of October 11.
The Hundred Acre Wood is a part of the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne. The wood is visited regularly by the young boy Christopher Robin, who accompanies Pooh and company on their many adventures.
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 American animated musical fantasy short film based on the third, fifth, ninth, and tenth chapters of Winnie-the-Pooh and the second, eighth, and ninth chapters from The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. The featurette was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, produced by Walt Disney Productions, and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company on December 20, 1968, having been shown in theaters with The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was the second of the studio's Winnie the Pooh theatrical featurettes. It was later added as a segment to the 1977 film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The music was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It was notable for being the last Disney animated short to be produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, two years before its release.
Springtime with Roo is a 2004 American direct-to-video Easter animated musical fantasy adventure comedy-drama film produced for Walt Disney Pictures by DisneyToon Studios, and animated by Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines.
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore is a 1983 American animated short film based on the sixth chapter of both books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. Produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, the short initially received limited release on May 11, 1983, before expanding to a wide release on May 25 as part of a double feature with the re-issue of The Sword in the Stone (1963), which it accompanied in most countries except Australia where it accompanied a reissue of Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Directed by Rick Reinert, the featurette featured the voices of Hal Smith, John Fiedler, Will Ryan, Ralph Wright, and Paul Winchell.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the 1977 film of the same name, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland Park.
Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie is a 2005 American animated direct-to-video Halloween fantasy adventure comedy-drama film produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, featuring the characters from Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise. The sequel to Pooh's Heffalump Movie, this was the final Winnie the Pooh film to be produced by DisneyToon Studios before they moved to Tinker Bell films.
My Friends Tigger & Pooh is an American animated children's television series that aired on the Playhouse Disney block on Disney Channel. Inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, the series was developed by Walt Disney Television Animation, with Brian Hohlfeld serving as executive producer. It originally aired in the United States from May 12, 2007, to October 9, 2010.
Disney's Piglet's Big Game is a 2003 action-adventure game developed by French developer Doki Denki Studio and Hulabee Entertainment, and published by Gotham Games, Disney Interactive Studios, and THQ. The game centers around Piglet and how he tries to overcome his fears. The game is loosely based on Piglet's Big Movie.
Super Sleuth Christmas Movie is a 2007 American Christmas-themed featurette film directed by Don MacKinnon and David Hartman, based on the hit Playhouse Disney television series My Friends Tigger & Pooh.
Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh is a 1996 Halloween television special produced by Walt Disney Television Animation with the animation production done at Toon City Animation, Inc. in Manila, Philippines, along with the additional production at Thai Wang Film Productions in Bangkok, Thailand. Based on the Disney television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, it was originally broadcast on October 25, 1996 on ABC.
Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too is a 2009 American direct-to-video animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The film is based on the hit Playhouse Disney series My Friends Tigger & Pooh.As the events of the film take place during the second season of My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Darby, Tigger and Pooh make a musical concert for the Hundred Acre Wood.
Winnie the Pooh is a media franchise produced by The Walt Disney Company, based on A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's stories featuring Winnie-the-Pooh. It started in 1966 with the theatrical release of the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.