DVD Review: My Friends Tigger & Pooh - Hundred Acre Wood Haunt

Written by Caballero Oscuro

If you’re looking for a Halloween-themed Pooh DVD, keep looking. However, if you’re just looking for the latest collection of episodes from Disney Channel’s My Friends Tigger & Pooh show, you’ve come to the right place. Admittedly, the front cover art of this DVD collection is completely misleading and seems like an ill-conceived holiday money grab as it clearly indicates viewers will be treated to Halloween shows if not an entirely new movie (like the properly labeled first release in the series, Super Sleuth Christmas Movie). Once you get past the cover, you’ll either be enchanted by the show’s superb production qualities or dismayed by its break from tradition.

The newest Pooh TV series is also the most dramatic departure from the classic formula, and not just because it gives Tigger star billing. Instead of Christopher Robin, the Hundred Acre Wood gang are now usually teamed up with a perky young girl named Darby and her even perkier non-speaking puppy named Buster. Aside from the core group of characters, Lumpy from the Heffalump movies is an occasional but little-used presence, while Kanga is barely mentioned and Owl and Gopher seem to have vanished completely. Even the concept has been updated, with Tigger, Pooh, and Darby forming a Super Sleuth club that dons ridiculous costumes and sets out on tame investigations in most episodes. It’s almost like the creators tried to shoehorn in a Scooby Doo concept in an effort to update the timeless quality of the property, but Darby and Buster really add nothing to the series other than annoyingly reminding parents that this is not our Pooh anymore.

While the Disney Channel’s previous Pooh series, The Book of Pooh, played it fairly straight with the framework established by Disney’s original cartoons, the new series is clearly aimed at shaking up the formula to no apparent benefit. On the upside, the show’s completely CGI production looks fantastic and features the returning talents of longtime Pooh and Tigger voice actor Jim Cummings. The 2D characters have been lovingly translated into exceptional 3D CG character models and the Hundred Acre Wood is
appropriately vast and leafy.

Article Author: Cinema Sentries

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