Pooh's Heffalump Movie

''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' seventh adaptation of ''Winnie the Pooh'' stories, following '' Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin'' (1997), '' Seasons of Giving'' (1999), '' The Tigger Movie'' (2000), ''A Very Merry Pooh Year'' (2002), '' 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.

Plot

One morning in the Hundred Acre Wood, Roo and his friends Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger are surprised when they wake up to hear a loud trumpeting noise. While they visit Rabbit's house for help in determining the source of the sound, Roo discovers a trail of large, circular footprints, which Rabbit concludes to have come from a Heffalump, an elephant-like creature whose species is feared by the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood due to its supposed hostility. Per Roo's suggestion, Rabbit organizes an expedition to travel to Heffalump Hollow and capture the Heffalumps living there in order to prevent further invasions. Despite his determination, Roo is forbidden from participating in the expedition due to his young age, prompting him to start his own solo Heffalump hunt the next day.

While exploring Heffalump Hollow, Roo meets a friendly young Heffalump called Lumpy, who openly expresses his wish to find his own trumpeting call to communicate with his fellow Heffalumps. As he gets to know Lumpy, Roo soon learns that the Heffalumps are different from his friends' depiction of them and offers to take Lumpy on a tour of the Hundred Acre Wood, which Lumpy agrees to. During the tour, Roo and Lumpy play games together and form a strong friendship but not without accidentally making 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, without success, which causes Lumpy to become increasingly depressed until Roo gets the idea to enlist the help of his own mother, Kanga. Roo and Lumpy soon find Kanga, along with Rabbit, Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger, who attack Lumpy after erroneously believing that he tried to kidnap Roo. Feeling betrayed, Lumpy runs away only to get trapped in a cage. Following after Lumpy, Roo frees him from the cage and the two reconcile with Kanga watching them in approval. Afterwards, Roo reveals his friendship with Lumpy to Rabbit and the others and calls them out for their prejudice towards Heffalumps.

As Roo's friends reluctantly agree to let Lumpy go, 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 decides to use his trunk to call his mother for help, finally finding his own trumpeting call in the process. 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.

Cast

* 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.

Heffalumps were first mentioned in the original Winnie-the-Pooh books. They appeared in a nightmare sequencealong with their fellow scary creatures, the woozlesin 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.

Releases

Marketing

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'', '' The Polar Express'' and '' The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie''. The trailers for the film were later attached to other Disney home video releases.

Theatrical

The film premiered and opened in theaters on February 11, 2005.

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''.

Music

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"), 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.

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:

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.

Critical response

Sequel

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

References

External links

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{{Carly Simon

2000s buddy comedy films
2000s children's animated films
2000s English-language films
2005 American animated films
2005 children's films
2005 comedy-drama films
2005 fantasy films
2005 films
2005 musical films
American animated feature 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 comedy-drama films
Animated buddy films
Animated films about elephants
Animated films about friendship
Animated films about prejudice
Animated musical films
Children's comedy-drama films
DisneyToon Studios animated films
English-language buddy comedy films
English-language comedy-drama films
English-language fantasy films
English-language musical films
Films scored by Joel McNeely
Films with screenplays by Evan Spiliotopoulos
Winnie-the-Pooh films
Winnie the Pooh (franchise)