Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated musical adventure comedy film produced by the Disneytoon Studios in Tokyo, Japan, and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution on March 21, 2003. Inspired by A.A. Milne's outstanding children's stories, it is the second in a series of theatrically released Winnie-the-Pooh films, preceded by The Tigger Movie, released in 2000, and followed by Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). In the film, Piglet is ashamed of being small after believing that his friends belittle his presence—and wanders off into the Hundred Acre Woods—leading his friends in a search party to find him.
The three flashback sequences are the first adaptations of original A.A. Milne stories since The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. Edited to make Piglet the hero of the stories, include Tigger and to conform to the characters' idiosyncrasies as Disney has portrayed them, they nevertheless retain much of Milne's original plot. In this movie, Pooh changes the name of Pooh Corner to Pooh and Piglet Corner, something that he was originally going to do, but the name did not sound small or much like a corner, which was in fact what it was. Besides the Carly Simon songs, Sherman Brothers music is also featured.
Sources[]
The film's plot is based primarily on three A. A. Milne stories: "In which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath" (Chapter VII of Winnie the Pooh), "In which Christopher Robin Leads an Expedition to the North Pole" (Chapter VIII of Winnie the Pooh) and "In which a house is built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore" (Chapter I from The House at Pooh Corner). Despite "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" being from Winnie the Pooh, Tigger did not appear in that book and debut in The House at Pooh Corner.
Plot[]
In the Hundred Acre Wood, Eeyore (Peter Cullen), Rabbit (Ken Sansom), Tigger (Jim Cummings), and Pooh (Jim Cummings) are working on a plan to extract honey from a beehive. The plan involves getting the bees to convey to a new hive by convincing them that Eeyore is a bee. Piglet (John Fiedler) comes up to them during the attempt, but is effectively told he is too small to help. The plan goes awry when the bees do not fall for it, but Piglet manages to divert the bees into the new hive using a funnel and then seals the hive shut, trapping the bees.
However, no one has realized what Piglet had done to help out with the plan, having Piglet feeling uncared for; Piglet sadly wanders away. While in the forest, many animals cheer up Piglet he even takes the time to help other animals. He decides to find his friends thinking that they need help but he cannot seem to find them. Eventually, Eeyore, Pooh, Rabbit, and Tigger notice that Piglet is missing, assuming that he has been scared off by the bees, and decide to find him. They are joined by Roo (Nikita Hopkins) and together, the five friends search for Piglet. The search party is aided by Piglet's scrapbook, in which he has drawn pictures of the adventures that he has shared with his friends. The characters use the pictures to tell the stories depicted therein.
First they look for Piglet at Kanga and Roo's house as they remember when the two came to the Hundred Acre Wood. At first, they tried to get rid of them by switching Roo with Piglet. Kanga, knew what was happening, but Piglet insisted that they were all right.
One of the stories told is the expedition to find the North Pole, where Piglet uses a long stick to save Roo (who has fallen in the river). His heroism is overlooked when he gives the stick to Pooh and tries to catch Roo, who has been catapulted into the air during the rescue attempt. Christopher Robin (Tom Wheatley) arrives as Roo is caught by Kanga (Kath Soucie) and then credits Pooh with finding the North Pole (the stick he is holding in his paws). Back in the present, the friends regret not sharing the praise with Piglet.
The second story told is the building of The House at Pooh Corner. Here Piglet comes up with the idea to build Eeyore a house, and he and Pooh are joined by Tigger to build it. Tigger and Pooh do most of the work, while Piglet, unintentionally, gets in the way. However, the final house is a disaster, but Tigger and Pooh go off to tell Eeyore about the house. Unfortunately, the house is being held together by Piglet, who eventually loses his grip, and the house collapses. Tigger and Pooh go to inform Eeyore of the bad news, but Piglet arrives to tell them all that the house is fine. It is revealed that he rebuilt the house himself, but the location remains as Pooh Corner since Pooh "would call it 'Pooh and Piglet Corner', if 'Pooh Corner' didn't sound better, which it does, being smaller and more like a corner".
In the present, Rabbit and Tigger's argument ends, with the scrapbook falling apart and then falling into the river. Without their guide, the friends return to Piglet's house and, after a time, start to draw new pictures of Piglet and his adventures, some of which are new. Then, the friends again resolve to find their missing Piglet and go back out to find him. They come across several pictures from the scrapbook, which have floated downstream, and then find the book's bindings, suspended on a broken hollow old log, overhanging a raging waterfall. Pooh goes to retrieve it but falls into a hole in the log. The others try to reach him, but the rescue attempt is just too short. Just as they ask who can help, Piglet arrives and attempts to help haul Pooh to safety, just as the log begins to collapse.
Eeyore, Rabbit, Roo, and Tigger now stand by the edge of the ravine, next to the waterfall, but the log inside which Pooh and Piglet were trapped has fallen far into the waters below. The survivors begin to cry but are soon joined by a sad-looking Pooh and Piglet, who have managed to escape. Happy, the friends take Piglet to show him their new drawings, including a large one of Piglet dressed as a knight in shining armor. The next day they hold a party, but Pooh interrupts, taking Piglet to Eeyore's house, where he has changed the sign to read "Pooh and Piglet Corner"; "the least [they] could do for a little Piglet, who has done such big things!", The camera pulls back to show a large shadow of Piglet cast behind them.
During the closing credits, Carly Simon reprises the song "With a Few Good Friends", which originally appeared during the scene showing the building of the House at Pooh (and Piglet) Corner, before it ends with the music from the rest of the film.
Cast[]
- John Fiedler as Piglet
- Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
- Ken Sansom as Rabbit
- Nikita Hopkins as Roo
- Peter Cullen as Eeyore
- Kath Soucie as Kanga and Christopher Robin (singing voice)
- Andre Stojka as Owl
- Tom Wheatley as Christopher Robin
Reception[]
Piglet's Big Movie opened on its opening weekend at #7, earning $6 million. The film domestically grossed $23,103,423—half the amount of what The Tigger Movie earned, but $39,767,123 overseas for a total of $62,870,546 worldwide, making it a moderate Box Office Success.
The film received generally positive reviews. Film critic Stephen Holden of New York Times called the film an "oasis of gentleness and wit." Nancy Churnin of The Dallas Morning News stated that Piglet's Big Movie was "one of the nifty pleasures in the process", despite her belief that "Disney may be milking its classics." Rotten Tomatoes has a 72% rating for critics, calling it "Wholesome and charming entertainment for young children.". The viewers rated it 65%.
Trivia[]
- This is the last Disneytoon Studios film not to use the logo of such.
- Piglet's Big Movie is considered to be part of the Disney Animated Canon in Spain as entry #44, and is one of two movies (the other being The Wild) to be part of the animated canon in Spain despite not being listed in the US canon or not being made by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
- In Piglet's scrapbook, a drawing from The Tigger Movie depicting the characters (minus Tigger), disguised as Tiggers, is shown. Tigger also references the film as, upon watching the drawing, it makes him cry, as it reminds him of "the best family reunion [Tigger] ever had".
- Piglet's Big Movie is the third movie to have a music video during the credits (the first two being The Little Mermaid (1998 VHS release only) and Recess: School's Out), but the second whose credits' music video has any live-action clips of the performer singing (the first one, again, being the 1998 VHS release of The Little Mermaid).
- This is the first time that the original A.A. Milne books were used as source material except for one other exception in the television series since Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore.
- John Fiedler is the only original voice-actor to reprise his role.
- The story of Kanga and Roo coming to the forest was previously used for an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988) television series.
- In fact, the biggest continuity issue in the first flashback is that Tigger was around when Pooh, Piglet, and Rabbit first met Kanga and Roo while in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Pooh and the rest already knew Kanga and Roo before they met Tigger.
- Also, one episode of The Book of Pooh, called "Roo Sticks", tells how Kanga and Roo moved in and met Pooh and his friends in a completely different way.
- This is the first Winnie the Pooh film to not have a narrator.
- Carly Simon wrote seven new songs for the film, while also recording the classic Sherman brothers Winnie the Pooh theme tune. She was accompanied by her children Ben and Sally (from her marriage to James Taylor) on several of the songs.
- This earned half the amount of The Tigger Movie during its Stateside theatrical run.
- The animation for this film was outsourced by Disney to their Japanese and Filipino offices.
- Unlike The Tigger Movie, the animation is drawn with cleaner outlining.
- This is the last Winnie the Pooh theatrical film to include Owl until Winnie the Pooh. Andre Stojka eventually stopped voicing Owl after the interactive home video: Winnie the Pooh: Shapes and Sizes.
- Like The Tigger Movie this film was originally meant to be released direct-to-video, but was instead made for theaters along with The Jungle Book 2.
Differences Between Source Material[]
In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet has a Bath[]
- In the book, Tigger does not appear in that chapter.
- In the book, Christopher Robin appears in that chapter. In the film, he is absent.
This section of the article is a stub. You can help Disney Wiki by expanding it.
In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole[]
- In the book, Tigger does not appear in that chapter.
- In the book, Roo falls into the stream while washing his face and paws. In the film, he slips on a banana peel Pooh accidentally dropped while collecting all of the food falling out of Christopher Robin's backpack.
In Which a House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore[]
- In the book, Tigger does not appear in that chapter.
- In the book, Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin leave Eeyore alone with his house. In the film, they went inside the house with him.
This section of the article is a stub. You can help Disney Wiki by expanding it.
Gallery[]
Games[]
In 2003, Disney released Piglet's Big Game for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Game Boy Advance, as well as a CD-ROM game which was also entitled Piglet's Big Game. The latter is by Encore and Disney Interactive (Hulabee Entertainment for the CD-ROM version), 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.
External links[]
Piglet's Big Movie on Wikipedia- Piglet's Big Movie on Disney.com
Piglet's Big Movie on Winniepedia, the Wikia Pooh Wiki
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