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Pooh's Heffalump Movie

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Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Nissen
Screenplay by
Based onCharacters
by A. A. Milne
Produced byJessica Koplos-Miller
Starring
Edited byRobert Fisher Jr.
Nancy Frazen
Anthony F. Rocco
Music byJoel McNeely
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution[2]
Release dates
  • February 11, 2005 (2005-02-11) (United States)
  • May 24, 2005 (2005-05-24) (Disney DVD and video)
Running time
68 minutes
CountryUnited States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million
Box office$52.9 million[3]

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' sixth 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

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One morning in the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Tigger, Roo, and Eeyore wake up to hear a loud trumpeting noise and while visiting Rabbit, they find a set of large, circular footprints. Rabbit deduces that elephant-like creatures called "Heffalumps" have invaded and per Roo's suggestion, he organizes an expedition to travel to Heffalump Hollow and capture them. As the group practices hunting for Heffalumps, Roo is forbidden from participating in the expedition due to his young age, prompting him to start his own solo Heffalump hunt the day after.

While exploring Heffalump Hollow, Roo meets a friendly young Heffalump called Lumpy, who is waiting to find his own trumpeting call to communicate with his fellow Heffalumps. Upon learning about the Heffalumps' own fear of the Hundred Acre Wood's inhabitants, Roo convinces Lumpy to join him back for a tour of the Wood during which they accidentally make 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, causing Lumpy to become increasingly depressed until Roo decides to enlist the help of his 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. Thinking that Roo deceived him, Lumpy runs away only to get trapped in a cage. Following after Lumpy, Roo frees him from the cage and the two reconcile.

Rabbit and the others soon find Lumpy and attack him again until Roo reveals his friendship with Lumpy to the group 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 call his mother for help during which he finally finds his own trumpeting call. 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

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Production

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The film was originally intended as a direct-to-video release.[4]

Heffalumps were first mentioned in the original Winnie-the-Pooh books. They appeared in a nightmare sequence – along with their fellow scary creatures, the woozles – in 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

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Marketing

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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, and The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. The trailers for the film were later attached to other Disney home video releases.

Theatrical

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

Home media

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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.[5]

Music

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The Best of Pooh and Heffalumps, Too
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedFebruary 8, 2005 (2005-02-08)
Recorded2004
Length33:34
LabelWalt Disney Records
Producer
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]

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"),[7] 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.[8]

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

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Original songs performed in the film include:

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Winnie the Pooh"Carly Simon & Ben Taylor2:52
2."The Horribly Hazardous Heffalumps!"Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom, John Fiedler & Nikita Hopkins1:53
3."Little Mr. Roo"Carly Simon & Kath Soucie2:02
4."The Name Game"Kyle Stanger & Nikita Hopkins0:46
5."Shoulder to Shoulder"Carly Simon & the Heffalump Chorus3:22
6."In the Name of the Hundred Acre Wood"Carly Simon & the Heffalump Chorus2:26
7."With a Few Good Friends"Carly Simon, Ben Taylor & Sally Taylor2:38

Reception

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Box office

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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.[3]

Critical response

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Reviews were generally positive, resulting in a rating of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 88 critics with a 6.54/10 rating. The site's consensus states, "A charming and delightful walk through the Hundred Acres Woods for young viewers."[9] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[10]

Sequel

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

References

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  1. ^ "Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005)". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on March 1, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  4. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. pp. 214–215. ISBN 978-0-8160-6600-1.
  5. ^ "The Winnie the Pooh Movie Collection Winnie the Pooh Movie/ Heffalump Movie/ Tigger Movie DVD: Amazon.co.uk: Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall, Jun Falkenstein, Frank Nissen, Peter Del Vecho, Clark Spencer, Cheryl Abood, Jessica Koplos-Miller". Amazon.co.uk. November 7, 2011. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  6. ^ "AllMusic review". AllMusic. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  7. ^ "Carly Simon Official Website – Soundtracks". Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  8. ^ "Piglet's Big Movie". Allmusic. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  9. ^ "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  10. ^ "Pooh's Heffalump Movie". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
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