Why So Blu?

The Tigger Movie: Bounce-A-Riffic Special Edition (Blu-ray Review)

Walt Disney Studios brings the magic of the Hundred Acre Wood to life with The Tigger Movie, bounced onto Blu-ray high definition and HD Digital for the first time on August 21, 2012.  Featuring new digitally enhanced picture and sound and exclusive bonus features, The Tigger Movie Bounce-A-Riffic Special Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack invites families to relive the childhood fun of the one and only Tigger.  In this charming musical tale of friendship and adventure, The Tigger Movie Bounce-A-Riffic Special Edition follows Tigger as he sets off on an epic journey to find other Tiggers in his family tree.  Through a series of exciting adventures he discovers that families come in all shapes and sizes.  This fun and playful animated tale delights a whole new generation of fans with its timeless characters and storytelling, rich animation and delightful songs by legendary Disney songwriting team of brothers, Richard and Robert Sherman.  The film features the Hundred Acre Wood’s most lovable characters, Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and the rest of the gang.

Film  

The narrator (John Cleese) begins telling the usual Winnie the Pooh story, and is interrupted by Tigger.  Tigger has noticed that all the stories are about Winnie the Pooh.  Since just about every one of these tales set in the Hundred Acre Wood is about Pooh bear, Tigger decides a change is in order and a quick yank on the title and he’s able to change the letters to say The Tigger Movie.  When the movie starts, Tigger is happily bouncing around the Hundred Acre Wood, singing that the wonderful thing about Tiggers is that he’s the only one like he usually does.  After awhile, Tigger comes to a realization.  As fun as bouncing is, he decides that bouncing with a friend is even better, so Tigger begins visiting his friends to look for a bouncing buddy.

Unfortunately, all of Tigger’s friends are too busy to bounce with him. Tigger realizes that what he really needs is another Tigger, but he doesn’t know how to find one so he heads straight to his friend Owl’s house for advice. During a very long winded explanation, Tigger learns he needs to find his family tree – which he assumes will be striped like him.  While his friends look for Tigger’s family, Tigger writes them a letter.  He puts the letter in the mailbox and the wind takes it away and wait and waits, but no one comes.  Roo wants to help Tigger not be sad so he tells Tigger than he would like to learn how to bounce so that Tigger will be part of their family.   Kanga tells Roo that Tigger is a part of their family, and as long as they care for him, he always will be.

Roo gathers the the rest of the group and they decide to write Tigger back to make him feel better, but they forget to sign their own names but the letter does the intended effect.  It cheers up Tigger, but because their names aren’t on the letter, he reads more into the letter than they intended and proclaims that his family is coming to visit.  The letter never said that and because it wasn’t actually from Tigger’s family it’s impossible for it to happen, which puts his friends in a difficult position.  It gets even worse when Tigger starts preparing for his “family” visit by adding a family room to his house, and putting out the red carpet.  Rather than hurt his feelings, Tigger’s friends decide they can be Tigger’s family by dressing up to look like Tiggers and to starting to bounce like Tiggers.

When Tigger finally realizes that the striped costumed Tiggers aren’t his family but actually his friends, he’s very upset.  He storms out saying “TTFE – Ta Ta For Ever”.  His friends decide to go on an expedition to find Tigger so they can bring him back home.  When Pooh bear and the others do find Tigger, it’s just in time as he’s in trouble and only Roo can save him with his super-duper-alley-ooper bounce that he learned from Tigger.  After realizing that his friends were trying to help him and seeing how they journeyed to find and rescue him, Tigger understands that their group friendship is just like having a family and that with them he’s already got what he’s been searching for.

While The Tigger Movie doesn’t reach the same artistic heights as the original film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, or even the latest movie, Winnie the Pooh, it does have it’s own charm to it and it’s a lot better than the other direct to video releases.  The main reason this movie is better by a long shot than say Piglet’s Big Movie or Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, is the fact that the Sherman Brothers returned one last time to contribute more songs for the Hundred Acre Wood.  Since they were the original composers for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, it’s only fitting and very satisfying to have the return once again.  Although none of these new songs are as good as the ones they did decades ago, they are still very good and a lot better than the usual soulless and forgettable story-driven songs we usually get on the direct to video releases.  Young children will enjoy this movie more than their parents but it’s a movie that both can enjoy which is getting rarer and rarer all the time.

Video  

The Tigger Movie begins with the light colored pages of the book, and those appear very snowy with quite a bit of digital noise. Luckily, once you enter the Hundred Acre Wood, that noise does not follow. The 1080p high definition widescreen 1.78:1 presentation is very bright and colorful and every color stands out.  Black levels are dark and inky and I didn’t notice any major defects in the transfer.  It looks especially good in comparison to the special features, or the DVD. 

Audio  

The Tigger Movie is presented in English 5.1 Master Audio (48kHz/24-bit) sound. Dialogue and songs are consistent and clear throughout the film.  The rear channels offer quite a bit of ambiance to the movie with the sounds of wind, bees, and more all sounding natural and correctly positioned.  This is an excellent mix that delivers on both the quiet scenes and the frenetic ones with Tigger jumping around everywhere.

Special Features  

The Tigger Movie Blu-ray contains all the special features listed below.  I particularly enjoyed the detailed “A Tigger Tale” that talked about the history of Winnie the Pooh, in addition to a look into how the movie was made.  The DVD contains 5 of the 10 shorts found on the Blu-ray and the sing-along as well.

• A Tigger Tale – The Writer/Director, producer, animator and other important collaborators talk about the history of Winnie the Pooh and the Tigger Movie. Features archival footage and story boards.
• Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 10 short animated stories that can be played individually or consecutively with the play all feature.
• “Round My Family Tree” Sing-Along Song – A Sing-Along Lead by Tigger with the lyrics printed on screen.
• Kenny Loggins Music Video “Your Heart Will Lead You Home” – Music Video featuring footage of Kenny Loggins and parts of the film.
• A family tree activity poster and stickers. 

Final Thoughts  

Parents are always looking for family friendly films that aren’t torture for adults to watch.  All of the Winnie the Pooh films fall into the category of being acceptable for both my son and myself, so it’s nice to get another one for the collection.  The Tigger Movie is a cute film with some fun special features and the audio and visual quality of this Blu-ray is excellent and reason enough to upgrade from DVD.

 Order your copy today!