Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Frank Nissen
Screenplay by	Brian Hohlfeld Evan Spiliotopoulos
Based on	Characters by A. A. Milne
Produced by	Jessica Koplos-Miller
Starring	Jim Cummings John Fiedler Kath Soucie Nikita Hopkins Ken Sansom Peter Cullen Kyle Stanger Brenda Blethyn
Edited by	Robert Fisher Jr. Nancy Frazen Anthony F. Rocco
Music by	Joel McNeely
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures [1] Disneytoon Studios [2] Walt Disney Animation Japan
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution [2]
Release dates	February 11, 2005 (2005-02-11)(United States) May 24, 2005 (2005-05-24)(Disney DVD and video)
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 The Tigger Movie (2000) and Piglet's Big Movie (2003). The film was released theatrically on February 11, 2005. The film 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.

Plot

One day, Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Tigger, Roo, Rabbit and Eeyore hear a strange noise and find a set of large, circular footprints in the Hundred Acre Wood. The friends believe that there is a strange, elephant-like creature known as a "Heffalump" in the woods. Rabbit organizes an expedition to go try to catch it. Roo wants to come along, but the others tell him he is too young and small to go. Despite this, Roo slips out on his own in search of the heffalump. He finds one; a playful young heffalump named Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump IV - "Lumpy" for short. Roo is afraid of his captive at first but the two quickly become friends and play together. Meanwhile, Rabbit and his friends enter Heffalump Hollow to find and capture the heffalump; Eeyore gets left behind carrying all the supplies.

After a while, Lumpy hears his mother calling for him to come home. Roo wants Lumpy to meet all of his friends first, and they head towards the Hundred Acre Wood. Lumpy hesitates, thinking that the "creatures" that live there are scary, but Roo, finally seeing Lumpy's true personality, reassures him. Meanwhile, Pooh and his friends hear a noise in the forest; thinking it is the heffalump, they run away, but it turns out to be Eeyore, who is left behind again. When Roo and Lumpy arrive, the Hundred Acre Wood is deserted, as everyone else is still out searching for the heffalump. Roo and Lumpy continue playing together, making a mess of Pooh's house and Rabbit's garden. The two friends hear Lumpy's mother calling him again. They search for Lumpy's mother, but she is nowhere to be seen. Lumpy uses his trunk to call to her, but it does not work properly. After hours of searching, Lumpy assumes that they will never find her, and starts to despair. Roo consoles Lumpy with a song he learned from Kanga. Then, Roo gets an idea: they could go find his mother, and see if she can help Lumpy.

Meanwhile, the others return home to find Pooh's house and Rabbit's garden a mess. They conclude that the heffalump has invaded. When Lumpy and Roo are discovered, Rabbit thinks that Lumpy has captured Roo. He and the others chase Lumpy through the heffalump traps they set up earlier. Lumpy evades the traps, but Roo gets caught in the last one as Lumpy escapes into the woods. Roo frees himself from the trap, and runs off to find Lumpy trapped in a giant cage. Lumpy is upset and hurt, thinking that Roo has lied to him about the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood being friendly, while Roo blames himself for the situation. Roo tries to free Lumpy and apologizes for everything. Finally, Roo notices a rope at the top of the cage, holding the woven sticks that it's made of together. He climbs up and unties it, desembleing the cage and freeing a very grateful Lumpy. Kanga, watching the two interact from behind a nearby tree, realizes that the heffalump is her son's friend.

Rabbit, Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet arrive and lasso Lumpy. Roo yells at them to get them to stop, but they refuse to listen, until Kanga tells them to let Roo explain himself. He tells the others that Heffalumps are not scary or mean, and will know about being more like any of them than "they" will ever know about them. Then suddenly, a still-scared Lumpy stumbles off a ledge and accidentally knocks Roo into a pile of giant, heavy logs forming a makeshift bridge over a large ditch.

Lumpy and Roo's other friends try to rescue Roo, but the logs are too heavy for them to move. Lumpy gets an idea, and tries to call out to his mother. After a few unsuccessful tries, he finally gets it right. Upon finally hearing his calls, Lumpy's mother arrives and tosses some of the logs aside in order to reach Roo, freeing him. Lumpy's mother is very proud that he has learned how to call out to her. Pooh explains to Rabbit why the heffalump was in their wood; she was only looking for her baby. They all apologize for their misjudgment and befriend Lumpy and his mother. Roo and Lumpy get a little more time to play together before Lumpy has to go home.

During the credits, Eeyore finally catches up to Pooh and his friends, Lumpy has his adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood, including meeting Christopher Robin, and the all the other heffalumps from the forest meet their neighbors and learn how they live and how to live like them, thus befriending them.

Cast

Main article: List of Winnie-the-Pooh characters

• Nikita Hopkins as Roo (final film role)
• Kyle Stanger as Lumpy the Heffalump
• Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
• John Fiedler as Piglet
• Peter Cullen as Eeyore
• Ken Sansom as Rabbit
• Kath Soucie as Kanga
• Brenda Blethyn as Mama Heffalump

Production

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 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 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.

Home media

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]

Music

The Best of Pooh and Heffalumps, Too
Soundtrack album by Carly Simon
Released	February 8, 2005 (2005-02-08)
Recorded	2004
Length	33:34
Label	Walt Disney Records
Producer	Matt Walker Carly Simon Joel McNeely Rob Mathes Michael Kosarin

Professional ratings

Review scores
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.

Songs

Original songs performed in the film include:

No.	Title	Performer(s)	Length
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

Reception

Box office

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]

Critical response

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]

Sequel

A sequel, Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie , was released direct-to-video on September 13, 2005.

References

1. "Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016.
2. "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved May 18, 2020.
3. "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved April 1, 2015.
4. Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 214–215. ISBN   978-0-8160-6600-1.
5. "The Winnie the Pooh Movie Collection Winnie the Pooh Movie/ Heffalump Movie/ Tigger Movie DVD: Amazon.co.uk: Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall, Jun Falkenstein, Frank Nissen, Peter Del Vecho, Clark Spencer, Cheryl Abood, Jessica Koplos-Miller". Amazon.co.uk . Retrieved February 8, 2015.
6. "AllMusic review". AllMusic . Retrieved April 11, 2015.
7. "Carly Simon Official Website – Soundtracks". Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
8. "Piglet's Big Movie". Allmusic . Retrieved April 1, 2015.
9. "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 1, 2015.

External links

• Official website

• Pooh's Heffalump Movie at IMDb
• Pooh's Heffalump Movie at Box Office Mojo