*½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras C-
screenplay by Brian Hohlfeld, from stories by A.A. Milne
directed by Francis Glebas
by Bill Chambers To its credit, Piglet's Big Movie, unlike so many Disney franchise pictures, is inoffensive (unless being monotonous is offensive), but it was hamstrung (har-har) from the outset by the departure through death or firing of original Pooh voice actors Sterling Holloway (Pooh), Paul Winchell (Tigger), Ralph Wright (Eeyore), Junius Matthews (Rabbit), and Hal Smith (Owl). Only the inveterate John Fiedler returns to lend his pipes to the eponymous Piglet, and while Jim Cummings technically sounds like Holloway and Winchell in replacing them, he lacks the mischievous twinkle that both brought to their respective roles. Meanwhile, the character-sprung songs, a major ingredient of the series' charm, are too attached this time around to Carly Simon, who appears in an inexplicably live-action closing-credits sequence singing solo in the Hundred-Acre Wood like she's a real "get" for an audience that hasn't learned to tie their shoes yet. (There are no tunes to get kids in touch with their melancholy side early like Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day's depressing "The Rain Rain Rain Came Down, Down, Down," only stuff to teach them how most songs are sub-folk music until you replace your Fisher-Price radio with a ghetto blaster.) And while it makes more sense here, given that Pooh's first feature film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a compilation of short subjects, did we really need another Disney flick with an anthology structure on the heels of Cinderella II, Atlantis: Milo's Return, and Tarzan & Jane? It's starting to feel like an injection mold.
Piglet goes missing, Pooh and co. eventually notice, and a pictorial journal that Piglet left behind becomes not only a tracking device (an idea overly precious even for A.A. Milne's cotton-brained critters (why would Piglet return to the scenes of past adventures?), who are at peak witlessness here), but also an instigator of flashbacks: to the time the ever-invasive Kanga gave Piglet a bath; to the time Piglet built a house for Eeyore; and to the time Piglet discovered the "north pole"–the best chapter in the lot, and perhaps not coincidentally the only one with a punny Milne quality. The point, of course, is to show that the oft-underestimated Piglet has achieved big things despite his small stature. Trouble is, we are acutely aware of this from the start, when Piglet saves his ungrateful comrades from a swarm of bees. If kids learn anything from Piglet's Big Movie, I suspect it will be a lesson in frustration with corporations that underestimate their moral intelligence. Despite its good intentions and an eye-popping palette typical of classic Disney Pooh, this is a mediocre effort I'm surprised made it into multiplexes last spring.
Piglet's Big Movie is presented on DVD in "family-friendly" 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen, and the windowboxed transfer is predictably impeccable–almost unsettlingly clear. Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1, and the mix sounds warm without leaving any kind of impression; if there were instances of LFE usage, I napped through them. A handsome interactive map ("Piglet's Book of Memories") that doubles as a set-top game to find Piglet's "missing pages," a read-along storybook filled with homilies ("Courage doesn't come from being big on the outside–it comes from being big on the inside"–I dunno, height helps!), a "sing along with the movie" option for connoisseurs of water torture, a ROM-enabled colouring book, and trailers for Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo, The Lion King: Special Edition, Brother Bear, Stitch: The Movie, Sleeping Beauty, and Sing-Along Songs round out the platter.
75 minutes; G; 1.66:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1; English SDH subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; Disney
