''Piglet's Big Movie'' is a 2003 American

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy-drama film produced by the Japanese office of

Disneytoon Studios Disneytoon Studios (DTS), originally named Disney MovieToons and also formerly Walt Disney Video Premieres, was an American animation studio which created direct-to-video and occasional theatrical animated feature films. The studio was a division ...

and released by

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...

. 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 Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by ...

'' books written by

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

and

E. H. Shepard Ernest Howard Shepard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is known especially for illustrations of the Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic animal and soft toy characters in ''The Wind in the Willow ...

and is the third theatrically released ''Winnie the Pooh'' feature, after The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Tigger Movie. In this film, Piglet is ashamed of being small and clumsy and wanders off into the

Hundred Acre Wood The Hundred Acre Wood (also spelled as 100 Aker Wood, Hundred-Acre Wood, and 100 Acre Wood; also known as simply "The 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 ...

, leading all of his friends to form a search party to find him. ''Piglet's Big Movie'' premiered on March 16, 2003 at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles and was released on March 21, 2003, to generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $62.9 million against a budget of $46 million.

Plot

Piglet has made a scrapbook containing pictures that depict all of the adventures he has gone on with his friends. One day, Piglet meets Winnie the Pooh, Tigger,

Rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

, and Eeyore, who exclude him from their plot to steal a swarm of bees' honey, because of his small size, even after Piglet saves them from being attacked by the bees. Disheartened, Piglet sets out to discover how he can be useful. Meanwhile, after being getting attacked by the bees a second time, Piglet's friends discover his disappearance and decide to search for him; using Piglet's scrapbook as a guide, they use its pictures to tell the stories depicted therein, leading to several flashbacks. The first story tells when Kanga and Roo first moved to the

. Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Rabbit are afraid of the newcomers and Rabbit concocts a plan to use Piglet as a decoy, so they can ransom Roo to force Kanga to leave. Kanga sees through the ruse and decides to play along by pretending that Piglet is Roo. Initially frightened and embarrassed by Kanga's strict behavior towards him, Piglet soon begins to realize her kindness and he convinces his friends to accept Kanga and Roo into the Wood. Back in the present, Roo joins the others in searching for Piglet. The second story tells how

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

led everyone in the Hundred Acre Wood on an expedition to find the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. The adventure turns catastrophic when Roo falls into a river as the rest of the gang frantically attempt to save him. Piglet uses a long stick to launch Roo out of the river before giving the stick to Pooh to try to catch Roo, who is caught by Kanga. Piglet's heroism is overlooked when Christopher Robin sees Pooh holding the stick, believing it to be the North Pole, and credits Pooh for finding it. Back in the present, the friends begin to realize how much they have ignored Piglet's actions. The third story tells the building of the House at Pooh Corner. Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger get the idea of building Eeyore a house in an area they name "Pooh Corner", using some neatly stacked sticks for building. After many failed attempts, Pooh decides to offer Eeyore to move in with him before Eeyore reveals that the sticks Pooh, Piglet and Tigger found was actually his house. Piglet manages to rebuild Eeyore's house and shows it to him, satisfying the donkey. Back in the present, an argument between Rabbit and Tigger ends with the scrapbook falling into a river. Without their guide and with a storm coming, the group sadly return to Piglet's house, where they draw pictures depicting all of Piglet's heroic actions; inspired by their drawings, they decide to resume their search for Piglet. During their search, they find Piglet's scrapbook suspended on a hollow log looming over a waterfall. Pooh goes to retrieve it, but he falls into a hole in the log, and the others are unable to reach him. At that moment, Piglet arrives and, with encouragement from his friends, helps pull Pooh to safety just as the log begins to break in half. Everyone manages to escape right when the front half of the log breaks off, but the scrapbook itself is destroyed by the fall. Although saddened by this loss, the group take Piglet back to his house to show him all of their drawings, much to Piglet's joy. Sometime later, a party is thrown in honor of Piglet, where Pooh reveals that he renamed Eeyore's home "Pooh and Piglet Corner" in appreciation of all the big things that Piglet has ever done. During this scene, the camera pulls back to show a large shadow of Piglet behind everyone.

Cast

* John Fiedler as Piglet *

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger *

Andre Stojka Andre Stojka is an American voice actor. He is best known for his role as the voice of Owl in the Winnie-the-Pooh franchises starting with ''Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin'' inheriting the role from Hal Smith after h ...

as Owl *

Kath Soucie Kath Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...

as Kanga and Christopher Robin's singing voice * Nikita Hopkins as Roo *

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He voiced Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''The Transformers (TV series), Transformers'' animated series, later returning to the role in ''Transformers'' media in 2007, sta ...

as Eeyore *

Ken Sansom Frank Kenneth Sansom (April 2, 1927 – October 8, 2012) was an American actor. Among his best known roles, Sansom voiced Rabbit (Winnie-the-Pooh)#Disney adaptations, Rabbit in animated television series, television specials, and films for Disney ...

* Tom Wheatley as

Production

''Piglet's Big Movie'' was produced by

, Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Gullwing Co., Ltd, Studio Fuga, and T2 Studio. The film was originally intended as a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

release, in February 2002 Disney announced that the film and '' The Jungle Book 2'' would be released theatrically.

Music

American singer-songwriter

Carly Simon Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Billboard Hot 100, top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation (song), Anticipatio ...

wrote seven new songs for the film, and performed six of them ("If I Wasn't So Small", "Mother's Intuition", "Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear", "With a Few Good Friends", "The More I Look Inside", and "Comforting to Know"), as well as recording her own version of the Sherman brothers' "Winnie the Pooh" theme song which she previously recorded in ''

A Very Merry Pooh Year ''A Very Merry Pooh Year'' (also known as ''Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year'') is a 2002 American direct-to-video Christmas animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. The film features the 1991 Christmas televisi ...

''. "The More It Snows" features

and John Fiedler, as Pooh and Piglet. Simon was accompanied by her children Ben Taylor and Sally Taylor on many of the songs.

Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano and actress, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nom ...

accompanied Simon on the song "Comforting to Know". On "Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear" Simon was accompanied by the cast. The soundtrack also features five tracks of the film's score by Carl Johnson, as well as five of Simon's original demonstration recordings.

Songs

Original songs performed in the film include:

Reception

Box office

''Piglet's Big Movie'' was number seven on the box-office charts on its opening weekend, earning $6 million. The film domestically grossed $23 million, half the amount of what '' The Tigger Movie'' earned, and it grossed nearly $63 million worldwide.

Critical response

Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Film critic

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called the film an "oasis of gentleness and wit". Nancy Churnin of ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

'' stated that ''Piglet's Big Movie'' was "one of the nifty pleasures in the process", despite her belief that "

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

may be milking its classics".

Accolades

Games

In 2003, Disney released '' Piglet's Big Game'' for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

, and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

, as well as a game on CD-ROM that was also entitled ''Piglet's Big Game''. The latter was developed by Doki Denki Studio and involves helping Piglet assist in the preparation for a "Very Large Soup Party". In their review, Edutaining Kids praised various features including the adventure/exploration aspect (the game is linear instead of using a main screen) and many of the activities (such as the color mixing, which they said offers an incredible variety of hues), but noted that it is much too brief and that Kanga and Roo are absent.

Sources

The film's plot is based primarily on five A. A. Milne stories: "In which Piglet meets a Heffalump," "In which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath," and "In which Christopher Robin Leads an Expedition to the North Pole" (chapters 5, 7, and 8 of ''

''); and "In which a house is built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore" and "In which a search is organized and Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again" (chapters 1 and 3 of '' The House at Pooh Corner'').

Releases

Marketing

Disney released a teaser trailer of Piglet's Big Movie in May 2002 on '' The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'' 25th-anniversary edition VHS and DVD home video releases and on the ''Winnie the Pooh:

'' DVD release in November 2002. The teaser was later attached to theatrical screenings of '' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'', '' Lilo & Stitch'', '' The Powerpuff Girls Movie'' and '' Stuart Little 2''. The next trailer for the film was released with the theatrical screenings of '' Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie'', ''

Treasure Planet ''Treasure Planet'' is a 2002 American animated science fiction film, science fiction adventure film directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and written by Musker, Clements and Rob Edwards (screenwriter), Rob Edwards. Produced by Walt Disney ...

'', '' The Wild Thornberrys Movie'' and '' The Jungle Book 2''. The trailers for the film were also attached to other Disney home video releases.

Theatrical

The film premiered on March 16, 2003 and opened in theaters on March 21, 2003.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on July 29, 2003.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piglet's Big Movie 2003 films 2003 American animated films 2003 children's films 2003 comedy-drama films 2000s children's animated films 2000s adventure films 2000s musical comedy-drama films 2003 fantasy films 2000s English-language films 2000s children's fantasy films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated comedy films American children's animated drama films American children's animated fantasy films American children's animated musical films American films with live action and animation American comedy-drama films American sequel films American animated feature films American animated musical films Winnie the Pooh (franchise) Children's comedy-drama films DisneyToon Studios animated films Winnie-the-Pooh films Films directed by Francis Glebas Animated films about friendship Animated films about pigs Cultural depictions of Christopher Robin Milne English-language musical comedy-drama films English-language fantasy films English-language adventure films 2003 musical films