Written by Linda
September 08, 2009
In which Roo's elephant friend with the inexplicable Cockney-orphan accent is scared of Halloween....
OK, I'll allow you to pick up the limited edition of this one at the store as it is packaged with a Winnie-the-Pooh plushie. Pooh is actually wearing a Tigger costume—one of those that makes it look like he is actually wearing Tigger's pelt, so that the hood (Pooh's face is left showing) is actually Tigger's head-skin! Even more disturbing, try to peel back the Tigger skin by the ears to see Pooh's own head, and you'll find that Tigger's skin is sewed to Pooh's scalp. Other than that way heebie-jeebie factor, the plush doll is pretty darn cute.
In fact, it just kind of emphasizes that Pooh's Heffalump Hallowen Movie in itself is kind of uneven and forgettable, and isn't the most fun part of this packaging. Not that the movie doesn't have a nice message, as most Pooh stories do, it just seems like straight to DVD quality (which it is).
Roo is super-excited about Halloween, and can't wait to go trick-or-treating for the first time with his best friend Lumpy. Lumpy is an elephant with an inexplicable accent that makes him sound like a British orphan from Oliver!, but I guess that is just to show that he is foreign to 100 Acre Wood, and therefore has never celebrated Halloween. But once Lumpy finds out Halloween is all about ghosts and goblins and other horrors, he becomes too terrified to have fun.
The story flips between Roo and Lumpy on a quest to catch the scary Gobloon (who should grant them a wish if caught... maybe a wish for more candy, since Pooh ate it all?), and a flashback of the rest of the gang trying to convince Piglet not to be so scared of the holiday. We see Piglet trembling with paralyzing fear at trick-or-treating for the umpteenth Halloween. He apologizes to his friends by saying, "As I am a small and timid animal, I'm afraid I'm really too afraid." But of course, with a little help from friends, both Piglet and Lumpy (in their respective storylines) learn how to be brave. It is hard to fault a simple message like that.
This video is aimed for the youngest of tots, as it doesn't have enough of the unique charm of the older Pooh movies to entertain older kids (or adults for that matter). The DVD contains some activities, but tots would definitely need the help of elders to figure out how to play "Pooh's Boo! Bingo" for instance. And if anyone can figure out how to work the controls on the seemingly simple maze game "Trick or Re-treat," for God's sakes, tell me.
