The Tigger Movie

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Animation/Family	Game - Tigger Movie Trivia Game Game - Thingamajigger Matching Game Game - Your Family Tree Game Tigger Movie DVD Story Book
Rating
Year Released	2000
Running Time	73:56 minutes (not 77 minutes as stated on packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (47:56)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	4	Director	Jun Falkenstein
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jim Cummings Nikita Hopkins Ken Samson John Fielder Peter Cullen Andre Stojka Kath Soucie Tom Attenborough John Hurt
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RPI	$36.95	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)) Greek (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) Hebrew (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	Greek English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	Greek English for the Hearing Impaired	Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

Plot Synopsis

One of the great joys of the characters that were so lovingly created so many years ago by A.A. Milne is the fact that they are still around and entertaining people young and old, and given the propensity of the Disney Company to plunder their assets for all they are worth, they will no doubt be around for many more years for the entertainment and amusement of all. And why the heck not, for who can resist such charming characters as Eeyore and that funny old bear? Well, the first real effort by the Disney Company to exploit the characters for a few years is The Tigger Movie, so I suppose there is no doubt who is the star of the show here!

The story to be honest is a little on the weak side, and is basically the search by Tigger (Jim Cummings) for his family. Far from wishing to celebrate the great thing about being a Tigger is the fact that he is the only one around, Tigger enlists the help of his friends Winnie The Pooh (also Jim Cummings), Rabbit (Ken Samson), Roo (Nikita Hopkins), Piglet (John Fielder), Eeyore (Peter Cullen), Owl (Andre Stojka) and Kanga (Kate Soucie) to find his family. And since this is the Hundred Acre Wood we are taking about, naturally things don't go quite as expected in the search. Indeed, the search is actually quite fruitless for there are clearly no other tiggers in the wood. But that only means that we have to search for the deep meaning in that fact, and just to make certain that we get it - well, lets just say you will have to watch the film to find out. Suffice it to say that the usual Disney patented saccharine gets a fairly large run here.

This is a far more traditional style of animation than most of the Disney animation through my player recently, and is very much in the same vein as the previous Winnie The Pooh videos - regrettably only one of which is available on DVD thus far. However, the style of presentation is very much part of the charm of the Winnie The Pooh videos and very much in keeping with the concept that these are just children's stories. Whilst I find John Hurt less compelling as say Sebastian Cabot as a narrator, in general the vocal cast here are maintaining the traditions of the earlier videos too.

Very much aimed at the younger audience, this really does have to be seen in that context. Despite the target audience, there is still a lot of Pooh that finds a home in many an adult heart and this really is a nice little effort with which to keep the young ones and the young at heart amused with over the long hot summer holidays.

Transfer Quality

Video

By all accounts this was something of a surprise hit at the box office upon release this year. Shows how much I keep up to date with cinema releases as this has all the hallmarks of being a direct-to-video effort. Reflecting the theatrical release I suppose is the fact that this is a widescreen presentation in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, a surprisingly common ratio for Disney releases in widescreen, which is a little odd given the fact that the theatrical release was in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Why a 1.66:1 video release then Disney? Thankfully this is a 16x9 enhanced transfer.

Another good transfer has been produced by Disney here, being quite sharp and quite detailed. Perhaps the only minor complaint here is the fact that some of the edges are perhaps not quite as sharp and as solid as they should be, but the target audience I suspect will not be complaining too much about that. The transfer is nice and clear and does not suffer from grain or low level noise at all.

The colours come up well here, although not perhaps quite as bright and vibrant as they could have been. This however is partially mitigated by the need to keep some form of consistent presentation with the earlier videos. One point I always find mildly amusing with the Winnie The Pooh videos is the fact that Tigger never seems to be as orange as he should be, and this is the case here. There also seems to be some slight variation in the paler orange colour that he has been given here. To my mind Tigger should be a very bright orange. There is a nice consistency to the matt colours here and there is no hint of oversaturation or colour bleed at all.

There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. The only noticeable issue with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer is a mild aliasing that causes character lines to be slightly broken rather than solid black. No big deal for the target audience again, but I found it just a little annoying at times. There were a few flecks here and there but that was about the extent of the film artefacts in the transfer.

This is an RSDL formatted DVD, rather noteworthy for such a short feature, with the layer change coming at 47:56. This is decently placed and reasonably well handled, but I would have thought that it was possible to master the film on one layer and the extras on the other layer with equal success, given the film's length.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

There are three soundtracks on this DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a Greek Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and a Hebrew Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Given that this is a Region 4 only DVD, the choices seem a little perplexing for this sort of film. In the circumstances of my not understanding a word of Greek or Hebrew, I listened to the English default soundtrack.

The dialogue and vocals come up very well in the transfer and are easy to understand. There is of course the inherent problem of animation sync.

The music comes from Harry Gregson-Williams and the songs from Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The fact that the latter are not amongst the best that the Shermans have ever done, yet are the best things here, indicates how relatively unnoteworthy the former is. This has the distinct feeling of Disney animated feature by-the-numbers stuff.

This is another Disney animated feature aimed at a younger audience that gets a decent bass channel effort, which of course begs the question as to why some get the .1 channel and others do not? Nothing at all wrong with the soundtrack here, with some nice surround channel use - both front and rear - without embarking upon an audio demonstration, and a decent involvement from the bass channel in the few scenes where it was required, most notably the avalanche scene. The whole soundtrack has a decently open feel to it with nothing approaching congestion at all. Hardly an exemplary demonstration of the art of Dolby Digital technology, but a more than acceptable outing to please all but the most fastidious.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Well, colour me orange and call me Tigger - another Disney DVD with extras! I can see heads rolling in the Disney bean counting department soon! However, it has to be said that these extras are very much aimed at the target audience, so the over ten set best avoid them.

Game - Tigger Movie Trivia Game

Sixteen relatively simple questions about the film, where a correct answer is rewarded with a fanfare and a still from the film highlighting the answer and where an incorrect answer gets a suitable Hundred Acre Wood raspberry. Your score is provided at the end. It may be riveting stuff for a six year old, but...

Game - Thingamajigger Matching Game

Comprising three rounds of seven questions, basically all you have to do is match the character shown to one of the four objects provided. A correct answer is rewarded with a short piece of the film, an incorrect answer with another suitable Hundred Acre Wood raspberry. Probably push this out to riveting for an eight year old, but...

Game - Your Family Tree Game

Not so much a game as a guided exercise for children in how to put together a family tree. Wake me up in a minute or two please...

Tigger Movie DVD Story Book (7:56)

A condensed version of the film, lasting just under eight minutes, which can either be read by the children or they can have it read to them.

R4 vs R1

It would appear that the Region 1 release has two additional extras - a music video for Your Heart Will Lead You Home and a Sing Along Song. Whilst this is hardly essential stuff, I guess that since the DVD is in all other respects the same as the Region 4 release, it is enough to tip the scales marginally in favour of the Region 1 release. At least until you work out how much the Region 1 DVD would be in Aussie pesos.

Summary

The Tigger Movie has all the production values of a direct-to-video film, yet was not. Decent enough stuff to keep the younger set amused, on a good DVD. Still, any Pooh (and Tigger) has to be miles better than none.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display	Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built in
Amplification	Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers	Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL