My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too!

Similar to the previous DVD release Super Sleuth Christmas Movie, this new offering from the creative team of Disney Channel’s My Friends Tigger & Pooh series ditches the episodic format of the series in favor of an entirely new full-length movie. Well, “full-length” is a bit misleading as the story wraps up in about an hour, but it’s still fun to see the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood stretch out in a more substantial offering than the standard episodic limitations. It’s also a bit misleading to call this a musical, as it has seven unremarkable and brief songs that mostly fly under the radar of the main plot except for one standout production number starring Tigger.

Since the last time I reviewed an offering from this series (Hundred Acre Wood Haunt), the animal gang seems to have had a population explosion. In addition to the previous core group, there’s now a porcupine with garishly colored glasses, a beaver who bears a strong resemblance to the still-missing Gopher, a little blue woodpecker, a turtle, a raccoon, a skunk, Kanga, and Lumpy the Heffalump and his mom. Good thing they have a full Hundred Acres to roam, it’s getting pretty crowded out there. No new characters are introduced here, and no existing characters are explained, but the standalone nature of this feature allows viewers to hop on board with no previous knowledge of the show.

As the story begins, the gang has decided to have their annual picnic and has also decided to make Rabbit the honorary mayor. Picnic good, Rabbit mayor bad. As if they never noticed how much of a control freak Rabbit is in his own home, the friends are surprised when Rabbit begins dictating a host of new rules and regulations that seriously harsh their good vibes. When Tigger is hit with a “no bouncing” rule and finally decides to rebel, Rabbit draws a line down the middle of the Wood to keep the law-abiding folks on one side and the no-good rabble rousers led by Tigger on the other. Can they ever resolve their differences and reconcile? It’s up to the Super Sleuths to find out, and it’s up to young viewers to learn about sharing, compromise, kindness, and respect along the way.

The production qualities remain very high, and the show seems to have really hit its stride. The characters act like you would expect, the voice work is spot on, but most of all the CG animation is simply gorgeous and doesn’t feel like the creators had to cut many corners to fit their tv budget. It’s well worth watching for any long-time Pooh fans and a great introduction to the characters for new viewers.

The DVD includes an unimaginative interactive game, “Rabbit’s Think, Think, Think Theatre”, as well as a bonus music video starring Kenny Loggins. My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too! is now available on DVD.