Movie Review: The Tigger Movie

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Ultimately, a satisfying and fun film

Cons: With a very slow start for adults

The Bottom Line:

Beginning for kids

But adults who watch it will

Find they enjoy, too

He’s the Only One.  Or Is He?

Being a marginal Winnie the Pooh fan, I let the movies from the early 00’s pass me by without watching them.  However, since I have some friends with kids who have The Tigger Movie, I decided I needed to borrow it.  While at first I wasn’t impressed, I wound up liking it.

As you might guess, the movie focuses on Tigger (voiced by Jim Cummings), the tiger who loves to bounce all over the place.  Fall is approaching in the 100 Acre Woods, and all of Tigger’s friends are too busy getting ready for the coming winter to go bouncing with him.  Even his attempts to help get a giant boulder off Eeyore’s (Peter Cullen) house turn into a disaster.

Frustrated and a little lonely, Tigger starts wishing for a family.  Thanks to Owl’s (Andre Stojka) wise suggestion, he starts looking for his family tree.  While Roo (Nikita Hopkins) starts to worry about his friend, Tigger is determined to keep searching, even getting some of his friends into the act.  Can he find his family?

As I said, the first half of the movie didn’t impress me much.  It was definitely aimed at a juvenile audience, which is fine, but it wasn’t as engaging as the kid’s films I love.

The songs certainly weren’t helping it along.  Even though they were written by the Sherman Brothers, they are mostly forgettable.  This is one thing that never improved, although I did get a kick out of "Pooh's Lullabee," which finds Pooh trying to sing some bees to sleep.

And this is not the fault of the voice cast at all.  They are all great at bringing these classic characters to life.

However, about half way through, something changed and I found myself drawn into the film and enjoying it.  Yes, the plot was predictable and I knew the moral early on.  But that didn’t make it any less exciting or fun to watch.  The scene at the end where Tigger gives his new found family gifts is touching and made me smile.

The movie does use the convention of a book that all of the Disney Winnie the Pooh movies use, although it’s not nearly as prominent as it is in the classic Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Will I rush out to watch The Tigger Movie again?  Most likely not.  But I did enjoy it and would gladly sit down to watch it again if a member of my family wanted to see it.