Their titles alone promise a complete and utter lack of originality but The Tigger Movie and now Piglet’s Big Movie, while nowhere near as captivating as ABC’s “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” are pleasant enough family diversions. Soon after Tigger accepts the inhabitants of the 100 Acres Woods as his extended family, Piglet finds himself the target of his friends’ anti-small bias. Rabbit, Eeyore, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh ignore Piglet when they attempt to steal honey from a beehive. When Piglet seemingly runs away from home, his friends try to find him with the aide of a picture album documenting their fondest memories. Writer Brian Hohlfeld slyly emphasizes the young pig’s predicament when Pooh stares at a picture of the group and mutters while pointing at Piglet, “What’s that tiny pink dot?” Much of the film’s drama emanates from a series of unusually long flashback sequences, though their length is ultimately less problematic than the bizarre nature of a tale which traces Rabbit’s prejudice against Kanga and Roo when they first arrived at the 100 Acres Woods. Perturbed no doubt by the kangaroo mother’s size and color, Rabbit plots to kidnap her son for unexplained reasons. While Rabbit succumbs to Roo’s lively disposition, Kanga forces a screaming Piglet to take a bath. Forget the troubling subtext, young kids are unlikely to be bothered by any of this. At times, the film proves tiresome and lazy (indeed, it’s never really explained where Piglet goes and how he manages to miraculously re-enter the picture) but the filmmakers lovingly evoke how memories can reunite us with those that we have lost.
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