"Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Jimmy Bennett as ROO Peter Cullen as EEYORE Jim Cummings as WINNIE THE POOH and TIGGER John Fielder as PIGLET Ken Samson as RABBIT Kath Soucie as KANGA Kyle Stanger as LUMPY David Ogden Stiers as NARRATOR Rated G Studio: Walt Disney Directed by: Elliot M. Bour & Saul Andrew Blinkoff Back to DVD Review Home |  |
When I received “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie” on DVD, my kids were elated to see that there was a new Heffalump movie coming out for the Halloween season. I was somewhat interested as well. I liked Lumpy the Heffalump as a new character, and he was a conduit to help bring more character to Roo, who used to only be able to play off of Tigger.
However, when “Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie” came out, I was a bit disappointed. It wasn’t because of the short 66-minute running time. It was how this movie just seemed to be slapped together to reinforce the marketability of Lumpy as a new character.
While I’ve grown to appreciate the Winnie the Pooh series from Disney, I still can’t stomach the old television show “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” These episodes were poor-quality animation with irritating stories. However, they have dozens of these shows in the Disney vault, and it doesn’t really cost anything to recycle them onto “new” DVDs.
I can accept that for repackaged episodes in the Disney Learning series, for example. However, it just depressed me to see one of these episodes shoe-horned into this supposedly new movie. It felt more like the producers of the Winnie the Pooh franchise demanded a quick sequel to the popular Heffalump movie. They apparently chose Halloween and decided to use an old episode of the television show to pad out the movie.
Because of this, the plot of “Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie” is only worth about thirty minutes of your time. In this film, Roo is taking Lumpy out for his first Halloween in the Hundred Acre Woods. Tigger tells them a spookable story about gobloons who will turn them into jackety lanterns. However, he also says that if they catch the gobloon, they can make a wish.
Roo and Lumpy go searching for the gobloon, even though they’re a little scared of the dark woods. This is where they have a bizarre flashback to the old television show. Roo tells the story of how Piglet learned to be brave on Halloween (‘cause we all know what a pillar of bravery Piglet is). Then Lumpy gets lost, and Roo has to find his friends to search for him.
If this were a half-hour show without the television show flashback, it would have been much better. Otherwise, the movie shows its true colors too easily. Still, kids who like the Winnie the Pooh movies should enjoy this story. It’s hard to go wrong when it comes to Pooh Bear and little kids.
The DVD is relatively thin on features. There’s several set-top games and activities that are designed for use in a Halloween-themed party. To help plan for the party, there’s a DVD-ROM section that includes invitations, bingo cards, recipes and jack-o-lantern patterns. If you’re not interested in installing the DVD-ROM software, the insert with the sleeve includes the recipes and bingo cards.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.78:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French and Spanish language tracks. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
