Piglet's Big Movie

I feel sorry for Piglet. It’s hard to be a misunderstood small animal in the large Hundred Acre Wood. Kit Bowen said in her review, “Winnie-the-Pooh Eeyore Tigger and the other denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood are always making big plans including the most recent–to harvest some honey–yet they always leave Piglet out. It’s not because they don’t like him; they just think he’s too small to help and that’s enough to give anyone an inferiority complex. A dejected Piglet walks away and when his friends realize he’s gone and can’t find him anywhere they use his scrapbook which outlines all the fun adventures they’ve had as a map to find their little friend. In the process they discover that this “Very Small Animal” has had a bigger influence–and been a bigger hero– then they ever imagined.”

Never before have animated characters been so permanently implanted on our imaginations than the ones from A.A. Milne’s classic Winnie the Pooh stories brought so clearly to life by Walt Disney. Despite most of the original actors who voiced the characters, including Sterling Holloway, who first voiced Pooh’s sternly inflection in 1966, have passed away, their replacements do a good job on continuing their work very well. The personalities are all there: cuddly Pooh (Jim Cummings) willing to have some of your honey, energetic Tigger (Cummings) ready for a bounce, nervous Rabbit (Ken Sansom) just wanting to pass judgment, depressed Eeyore (Peter Cullen) the sad and shader, the motherly Kanga (Kath Soucie) and her active child Roo (Nikita Hopkins) always there to help out, the omniscient Owl (Andre Stojka) giving advice, the observant Christopher Robin (Tom Wheatley) supervising over the stories, and lastly the always-loyal Piglet (John Fiedler) the shy voice of reason.

Bowen noted, “Disney first started turning the classic Pooh stories into short animated featurettes in 1966 with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree but only just released its first full-length feature film in 2000 with The Tigger Movie.” Now it’s Piglet’s turn and finally they made a movie about this character. Bowen said, “With his unassuming ways but dogged determination to help his friends Piglet infuses all the heart in the Pooh tales–and gets little recognition for it.” To make a movie about him gives a great message to all the small children watching: they too can make a difference. “Piglet’s Big Movie,” released in 2003, doesn’t act like it is one of Disney’s most abundant animated films but the original songs by Carly Simon give the basic storytelling an energizing advance.

I really liked this movie and I really encourage everyone to watch this movie, especially if they have a Disney+ account. You will love this movie because of the message of who and when to give credit to the underdogs out there. Instead of taking the credit, you should also give credit to the other people, especially the underdogs, when they have made a contribution and assistance to what you were working on, whether it’s together or separately. I promise you, this is a Pooh movie you don’t want to skip and you will feel really good after watching it. Give it a watch and enjoy.

Look out tomorrow when I review the last Pooh movie for “Disney Month 2020.”