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PIGLET’S BIG MOVIE

This old-school animated adventure from Disney is designed to acquaint a whole new generation of kids with the stuffed menagerie that A.A. Milne created for his son Christopher Robin. There’s happy-go-lucky Winnie the Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings), screwball Tigger (also Cummings), glum Eeyore (Peter Cullen) and cantankerous Rabbit (Ken Sansom), but the film is about Piglet (John Fiedler). Of course, it’s not until our heroes lose the mini pork chop (after an encounter with a swarm of angry bees) that they realize his " true size " and spend the rest of the film searching for their friend.

Much of the plot is exhaustively pedantic, though Pooh’s perverse moral fiber makes for an intriguing sideshow. His dim-witted, well-meaning dunce isn’t far from Barney Fife as he exuberantly bathes in accolades for deeds he unwittingly had no hand in. Tigger’s tongue-twisting, grammatically irreverent double meanings provide some adult engagement, and then there’s the literal interpretation of the North Pole — as a stick. Other than that, this one’s strictly for the kiddie set. Francis Glebas directs; Carly Simon — a long way from " You’re So Vain " — provides the saccharine-sweet songs. (75 minutes)

BY TOM MEEK

Issue Date: March 20 - 27, 2003
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