Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too

VHS cover

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too is the third featurette featuring Pooh. It was released on October 21, 1974 co-billed with The Island at the Top of the World. By that time, Winnie the Pooh had become a household name. Inspired by A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner chapters 4 and 7. And also Inspired by A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (book) chapter 3.

It features a tiger named Tigger, a friend of Pooh's, who tends to annoy Rabbit and unintentionally ruins his garden. Rabbit tries to think of a way to stop Tigger from bouncing, but when Tigger eventually gets stuck at the top of the tall tree, along with Roo, will things end up with the bouncing tiger being liked after all?

Sources

The film's plot is based primarily on three A. A. Milne stories: "In which Tigger is unbounced" (Chapter VII from The House at Pooh Corner), "In which it is shown That Tiggers don’t climb trees" (Chapter IV from The House at Pooh Corner), and "In which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle" (Chapter III of Winnie-the-Pooh (book),

Plot

During the fall, Tigger has been bouncing on anyone he comes across for fun, especially Rabbit when he is gardening, which angers Rabbit, so he calls a meeting with Pooh and Piglet and formulates a plan to abandon Tigger in the woods, and find him the next morning so hopefully Tigger will stop bouncing on his friends unexpectedly, although Pooh and Piglet are unsure. Initially the plan seems to work, but when Rabbit, Pooh and Piglet cannot find their way home, Pooh makes a suggestion about following a sandpit in order to find their way out of the forest. In an attempt to prove Pooh wrong, Rabbit wanders away. Pooh and Piglet then fall asleep, but are woken by Pooh's empty stomach. He explains to Piglet that his honeypots have been calling to his tummy from home and that he couldn't hear them over Rabbit's voice. Pooh and Piglet find their way out of the forest, and are immediately bounced by Tigger. Piglet, realizing that the plan failed, mentions Rabbit's plan, and Tigger goes in the forest to find him. Rabbit walks through the forest by himself, and is scared by numerous sounds such as a caterpillar eating a leaf and frogs croaking. Rabbit tries to run away in a panic, only to be tackled by Tigger. Rabbit is humiliated that his plan to lose Tigger had failed. Tigger explains to him that tiggers never get lost, and takes Rabbit home.

Wintertime comes and Roo wants to go play. Kanga cannot be with him so she calls on Tigger to look after Roo as long as he comes back in time for Roo's nap. Tigger gladly accepts, as he is one of Roo's best friends. Along the way through the woods, Tigger and Roo see Rabbit skating on the ice. Tigger tries to teach Roo how to ice skate by doing it himself, but unfortunately, he loses his balance and collides with Rabbit while trying to regain it. In moments, Tigger slides into a snowbank and Rabbit crashes into his house. Then Tigger decides that he does not like ice skating. Later on, while bouncing around the woods, with Roo on his back, Tigger accidentally jumps to the top of a very tall tree and is afraid to climb back down. He gets even more scared when Roo uses his tail as a swing, making Tigger think he's rocking the whole forest.

Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet are investigating strange animal tracks that are actually Tigger and Roo’s. Suddenly, they hear Tigger howling for help, and quickly hide. At first, Pooh mistakes Tigger's howl for the sound of a "Jagular", but after seeing that it is actually Tigger and Roo in the tree, he and Piglet come to the rescue. Shortly afterwards, Christopher Robin, Rabbit, and Kanga arrive and the gang uses Christopher Robin's coat as a net for Tigger and Roo to land in once they jump from the tree. Roo successfully jumps down, but Tigger, who is still too frightened to move, makes up several excuses to not come down. Then Rabbit decides that the group will just have to leave Tigger in the tree forever, on which Tigger promises never to bounce again if he ever is released from his predicament. At that moment, the narrator chimes in for help. Tigger begs him to narrate him down from the tree, and he tilts the book sideways, allowing Tigger to step onto the text of the page. Tigger starts to feel better that he made it this far but before he can do otherwise, the narrator tilts the book back the other way, causing Tigger to slide down the text and onto the snow.

Happy, Tigger attempts to bounce, but Rabbit stops him reminding Tigger of the promise he made. Devastated, Tigger realizes he cannot bounce anymore and slowly walks away and Rabbit feels better that there will be peace, but everyone else does not and felt sad to see Tigger depressed and remind Rabbit of the joy Tigger brought when he was bouncing. Then Rabbit, realizing what a selfish and idiotic jerk he's been, finally shows sympathy for Tigger, and takes back the promise they had agreed on, then he is given a friendly tackle by an overly-excited Tigger. Tigger invites everyone to bounce with him and even teaches Rabbit how to do it. For the first time, Rabbit is happy to be bouncing, as is everyone else as Tigger sings his signature song once more before the short closes.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too made it into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh along with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.

Voice cast

• Sterling Holloway as Winnie-the-Pooh
• John Fiedler as Piglet
• Paul Winchell as Tigger
• Junius Matthews as Rabbit
• Dori Whitaker as Roo
• Barbara Luddy as Kanga
• Timothy Turner as Christopher Robin
• Sebastian Cabot as Mr. Narrator

Gallery

Tigger patting Rabbit's face.

Trivia

• The short was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but lost to open Mondays.
• Eeyore, Gopher and Owl do the appear in this theatrical featurette. However in some original concept art Owl and Eeyore were to appear in the film before all of their scenes were cut.

See also

• "Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai"
• The Pink Panther