Piglet's Big Movie

Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. It is based upon the characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne. It is the second in a recent series of theatrically released Winnie the Pooh films, preceded by The Tigger Movie (2000) and followed by Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). In the film, Piglet is ashamed of being small after believing that his friends belittle his presence and wanders off into the Hundred Acre Woods, leading his friends to form a search party to find him.

The three flashback sequences are the first adaptations of original A.A. Milne stories since The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. Edited to make Piglet the hero of the stories and to conform to the characters' idiosyncrasies as Disney has portrayed them, they nevertheless retain much of Milne's original plot. In this film, Pooh changes the name of Pooh Corner to Pooh and Piglet Corner, something that he was originally going to do, but the name did not sound small or much like a corner, which was in fact what it was. Besides the Carly Simon songs, Sherman Brothers music is also featured.

Plot
Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, and Pooh are working on a plan to get honey from a beehive. This involves Rabbit playing a violin to lure the bees out and getting them to move into a new hive by convincing them that Eeyore is a bee. Piglet comes up to them during the attempt, but is effectively told that he is too small to help. The plan goes awry when the bees do not fall for it (since the music only angered them), but Piglet manages to divert the bees into the new hive using a funnel and then seals the hive shut, trapping the bees.

However, no one has realized what Piglet had done to help out with the plan, having Piglet feeling uncared for; Piglet sadly wanders away. Eventually, Eeyore, Pooh, Rabbit, and Tigger notice that Piglet is missing, assuming that he has been scared off by the bees, and decide to find him. They are joined by Roo, and together the five friends search for Piglet. The search party is aided by Piglets' scrapbook, in which he has drawn pictures of the adventures that he has shared with his friends. The characters use the pictures to tell the stories depicted therein.

The first one is of when Kanga first came to the Hundred Acre Wood. Rabbit hated the newcomers on sight and convinced himself and the others that Kanga and Roo were fierce monsters that needed to be driven away. Consequently, it was planned that they would kidnap Roo and demand that Kanga leave in exchange for his safe return, so Pooh and Tigger distracted Kanga while Rabbit placed Piglet in her pouch and ran off with Roo. After Kanga got home, she quickly figured out what was going on (having seen Roo playing with a reluctant Rabbit through the window) and decided to teach Piglet a lesson by pretending she didn't realise he wasn't Roo. Back in the present, the group arrive at Kanga's house and are joined by Roo as they carry on looking for Piglet.

One of the stories told is the expedition to find the North Pole, where Piglet uses a long stick to save Roo (who has fallen in the river). His heroism is overlooked when he gives the stick to Pooh and tries to catch Roo, who has been catapulted into the air during the rescue attempt. Christopher Robin arrives as Roo is caught by his mother and then credits Pooh with finding the North Pole (the stick he is holding in his paws). Back in the present, the friends regret not sharing the praise with Piglet.

Another story told is the building of the House at Pooh Corner. Here Piglet comes up with the idea to build Eeyore a house and he and Pooh are joined by Tigger to build it. Tigger and Pooh do most of the work, whilst Piglet, unintentionally, gets in the way. The final house, however, is a disaster, but Tigger and Pooh go off to tell Eeyore about the house.

Without their guide, the friends return to Piglet's house and, after a time, start to draw new pictures of Piglet and his adventures, some which look exactly like the ones from the scrapbook and some of which are new. Some of the pictures come to life and tell short stories of Piglet fighting a swarm of bees, a sea heffalump, and a living snowman. Then, the friends again resolve to find their missing Piglet and go back out to find him. They come across several pictures from the scrapbook, which have floated downstream and then find the books bindings, suspended on a broken hollow old log, overhanging a raging waterfall. Pooh goes to retrieve it, but falls into a hole in the log.

Eeyore, Rabbit, Roo, and Tigger managed to make it to the edge of the ravine, next to the waterfall, but the log inside which Pooh and Piglet were trapped has fallen far into the waters below. The survivors begin to cry and are joined by Pooh and Piglet, who have managed to escape, but the scrapbook has been destroyed after it fell down the waterfall. Happily, the friends take Piglet to show him their new drawings, including a large one of Piglet dressed as a knight in shining armour.

Cast

 * John Fiedler as Piglet
 * Jim Cummings as Pooh and Tigger
 * Ken Sansom as Rabbit
 * Nikita Hopkins as Roo
 * Kath Soucie as Kanga and Christopher Robin (singing voice)
 * Peter Cullen as Eeyore
 * Andre Stojka as Owl
 * Tom Wheatley as Christopher Robin

Home media
Shortly after the film was released, a DVD and a VHS of the film was released. The VHS contained a bonus commercial of Walt Disney World's Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction, as well as the DVD, which contained more special features. The film was the only theatrical Pooh film presented in widescreen on DVD on VHS in pan-and-scan full screen format, as the VHS release of Pooh's Heffalump Movie was presented in the pan-and-scan format.

Songs
Every song features Carly Simon singing except for 'The More It Snows (Tiddely-Pom)'. This song features Jim Cummings and John Fiedler. Carly Simon was accompanied with Ben Taylor in 'Winnie the Pooh' and 'Comforting to Know'. Carly Simon was also accompanied with Renee Fleming in 'Comforting to Know'. In 'Sing Ho, for the Life of a Bear (Expotition March)', Carly Simon was accompanied by Kath Soucie and Jim Cummings.

The songs in the film are:


 * Winnie the Pooh, performed by Carly Simon with Michael Kosarin.
 * The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, performed by Jim Cummings.
 * If I Wasn't So Small (The Piglet Song), performed by Carly Simon.
 * A Mother's Intuition, performed by Carly Simon.
 * Sing Ho, for the Life of a Bear (Expotition March), performed by Carly Simon with Jim Cummings as Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, Ken Sansom as Rabbit, Kath Soucie as Kanga and Christopher Robin, Nikita Hopkins as Roo, Peter Cullen as Eeyore, and John Fiedler as Piglet.
 * The More It Snows (Tiddely-Pom), performed by Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and John Fiedler as Piglet.
 * With a Few Good Friends, performed by Carly Simon with Ben Taylor and Sally Taylor.
 * With a Few Good Friends (Reprise), performed by Carly Simon with Jim Cummings as Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, John Fiedler as Piglet, Kath Soucie as Christopher Robin, and Peter Cullen as Eeyore.
 * The More I Look Inside, performed by Carly Simon.
 * Comforting to Know, performed by Carly Simon with Ben Taylor.

Box office
Piglet's Big Movie was #7 on its opening weekend, earning $6 million. The film domestically grossed $23 million —half the amount of what The Tigger Movie earned. —and $63 million worldwide.

Critical response
The film received a "Certified Fresh" 71% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Stephen Holden of New York Times called the film an "oasis of gentleness and wit." Nancy Churnin of The Dallas Morning News stated that Piglet's Big Movie was "one of the nifty pleasures in the process", despite her belief that "Disney may be milking its classics."

Games
In 2003 Disney released Piglet's Big Game for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance as well as a CD-ROM game which was also entitled Piglet's Big Game. The latter is developed by Doki Denki Studio and involves helping Piglet assist in the preparation for a "Very Large Soup Party." In their review, Edutaining Kids praised various features including the adventure/exploration aspect (the game is linear instead of using a main screen) and many of the activities (such as the color mixing, which they said offers an incredible variety of hues), but noted that it is much too brief and that Kanga and Roo are absent.