News

From an early age, animator Don Bluth was a great admirer of Disney and has said in interviews that as a child, he would practice drawing by copying old Disney comic books. This childhood activity led to him being hired by Disney to work on their feature film version of "Sleeping Beauty" in the mid-1950s. After a stint doing missionary work and animating for various TV shows, Bluth returned to Disney in the mid-'70s to work on the company's version of "Robin Hood." Bluth worked on various animated features for Disney, eventually rising to the role of animation director for the 1977 film "Pete's Dragon." Over the course of working for Disney, however, Bluth became kind of disillusioned with the way the company owned all of their animators' work, and how animators were all trained to draw and animate the same way. Bluth left Disney in 1979 to form his own production company.

Is this show a hatchet job on Raymond Chandler’s confidential agent, or do Robert Altman and Leigh Brackett honestly find a place for Philip Marlowe in the laid-back 1970s? Vilmos Zsigmond’s even more laid-back ‘pushed and pre-flashed’ cinematography made industry news by shooting in places that normally needed three times more artificial light. The characters are vivid, as portrayed by Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, and Mark Rydell. It’s also a terrific Los Angeles film, from Marlowe’s Hollywood apartment to the Malibu Colony, and a dangster’s Sunset Blvd. tower office suite. Elliott Gould’s mellow Marlowe may be unfocused and sloppy, but he still subscribes to the old ethics, particularly where friendship and betrayal are concerned. And darn it, he cares about his pet cat.

The Long Goodbye

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Elliott Gould,...

The Tigger Movie may not have the riche cache of songs you would expect from a Disney movie, but it more than makes up for its lackluster music roster with a heartfelt allegory on the modern family. Now on Blu-ray, The Tigger Movie comes home with some additional “bounce.”

Labeled the “Bounce-a-RRRific” Special Edition, the new Blu-ray contains ten animated shorts, a “Tigger Tale” featurette with the production team and a few family tree stickers for offline family fun.

The Tigger Movie begins with a familiar opening. Tigger (voiced by Jim Cummings) bounces in on his friend Winnie The Pooh and lands squarely on Pooh’s stomach, much to the bear’s chagrin. Tigger is in the mood for some bouncing, but unfortunately none of his friends in the 100-Acre Mile have the time or interest in joining him. Well, nobody except for Roo (voiced by Nikita Hopkins), who looks...

Hand-drawn animation, lovable characters, and a timeless story all make Winnie The Pooh a must see in the theaters!

All is well in the Hundred Acre Wood. Winnie the Pooh is in search of honey. There is no honey left in his house and his tummy will not stop grumbling at him until Pooh finds some. While on his quest he finds Eeyore, who seems more down than normal. Turns out that his tail has gone missing. They gather up the gang and hold a contest to see who can find Eeyore a new tail. While out and about, searching for tails and such, Pooh finds a note from Christopher Robin that says “Gone out. Busy. Back soon.” and brings it to Owl to read. See, there isn’t a lot of reading going on in the Hundred Acre Wood, and Owl is the smartest of them all. Of course,...

Like it or not, the Transformers motto “more than meets the eye” becomes a tad ironic when used in the theme song for the cartoon. The motto alludes to robots from another planet which take the form of familiar earthbound crafts like cars, jets, etc. but outside the show’s premise, the idea is just misleading. The series as a whole is incredibly simplistic in every way. The writing, the animation and the voice acting are incredibly formulaic and simple with little else to offer in terms of depth or beauty. Now, if you trust age old idioms about appearances, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For Transformers: Season Two, Volume One there can be only one interpretation of the intended beholden: a shelf prize for diehard fans. For anyone else this set is just an example of outdated cartoons offered for kitschy nostalgic purposes.

Have you missed the cackle of Megatron?...

It was true of The Tigger Movie and it seems to be equally true of Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie: the new Pooh adventures are just rehashes of classic Hundred Acre Wood stories. The Tigger Movie imitated Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too while the Heffalump story is easily likened to Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, the 1968 short that shared the themes of courage and facing your fears. What Blustery Day got right is that it reined in its runtime to a mere 25 minutes whereas Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie stretches itself thin over 66 minutes – and man is it a stretch.

Everything is all set and it seems like this just might be the best Halloween ever for the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. All the costumes are ready (except for Gopher who’s oddly indecisive in this film – but he still whistles when he talks, so...

The wonderful thing about Tiggers is that Tiggers are wonderful things. It.s been ten years since this movie ran through theaters and marked the return to the Disney fold of songsmiths the Sherman Brothers. Tigger (Jim Cummings) is having a bad day. He accidentally destroys Eeyore.s (Peter Cullen) house while Rabbit (Ken Sansom), Piglet (John Fielder), Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings), and all his friends are trying to get ready for winter. Tigger is sulking around when Roo (Nikita Hopkins) in trying to cheer him up asks if there are other Tiggers. Tigger is curious as to why he.s never seen any more of him. He talks to Owl (Andre Stojka) and finds out about family trees, which...

Here’s a list of some of the new DVD and Blu-ray releases this week we’re particularly interested in. Plus, some old favorites (and not so favorites) coming out this week for the first time on Blu-ray.

Movies

Race to Witch Mountain ~ Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, AnnaSophia Robb, and Alexander Ludwig (DVD and Blu-ray)

The Soloist ~ Robert Downey, Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, and Stephen Root (DVD and Blu-ray)

Obsessed ~ Beyoncé Knowles, Idris Elba, Ali Larter, and Jerry O’Connell (DVD and Blu-ray)

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 ~ Tommy Lee Jones, Brian Dowling, Vic Gatto, and Frank Champi (DVD and Blu-ray)

My Cousin Vinny ~ Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio and Marisa Tomei (Blu-ray)

Mutant Chronicles ~ Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, and John Malkovich (DVD and Blu-ray)

The Tigger Movie ~ John Hurt, Ken Sansom, Kath Soucie, and John Fiedler (DVD and Blu-ray)

Ulysses ~ Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Franco Interlenghi, and Daniel Ivernel (DVD)

Fragments ~ Marshall Allman,...

When Disney announced The Tigger Movie was in the works over a decade ago, my immediate question was “Didn’t they already make a Tigger movie?” Back in 1974, Disney created Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, which I maintain is the best animated rendition of A.A. Milne’s characters to this day. Along with being made first, it had a storyline that actually made sense and which is used to some extent in the 1999 The Tigger Movie: the denizens of the 100 Acre Wood are tired of Tigger’s bounciness. That film had Tigger giving up his bouncy ways only to have his friends decide they prefer Tigger when he’s springing to and fro.

So what did Disney create The Tigger Movie around to entertain children for 77 minutes while cashing in on the most bankable character of Milne’s lot? Identity issues. If it’s accepted that tiggers must bounce,...

Proving that you can teach an old Pooh new tricks, A.A. Milne's enduring characters make room for a fresh arrival to the Hundred Acre Wood in the irresistible form of a young purple pachyderm.

On the heels of 1999's "The Tigger Movie" and 2003's "Piglet's Big Movie", "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" is by far the best of the DisneyToon Studios bunch.

It's a charming-looking, tenderly told story about friendship and diversity, but its secret weapon is the roly-poly, spirited Lumpy, a terrifically drawn and voiced (by 8-year-old Kyle Stanger) Heffalump who becomes Roo's new best buddy.

With Lumpy destined to become one of Disney's bigger non-Pixar merchandising successes, the film should emerge as a tidy family hit for the studio, carrying a very manageable 63-minute running time that's perfect for young (and not-so-young) attention spans.

When a loud rumbling has the denizens of Pooh Corner believing that they've been invaded by the highly dreaded but never seen Heffalump, Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings), Tigger (Cummings), Eeyore (Peter Cullen), Piglet (John Fiedler) and Rabbit (Ken Sansom) reluctantly set forth on an expedition to catch the elusive creature.

The determined Roo (Nikita Hopkins), deemed too young to join the hunt, has been left in the care of his mother, Kanga (Kath Soucie), but sneaks out of his house early in the morning to embark on his very own Heffalump mission.

It doesn't take long before he comes face to face with the playful Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump III, or Lumpy for short, whose unaffected English accent (courtesy of British-born Stanger) would have been right at home among the orphans in "Oliver!"

The two strike up a fast friendship while the others go about the tricky business of trying to bag a Heffalump.

In Milne's stories the Heffalumps were spoken of but never seen, existing in the imaginations of Pooh, Piglet and company as a representational fear of the unknown.

Thanks to director Frank Nissen, screenwriters Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos and the scene-stealing Stanger, Lumpy is very much in the spirit of the other characters created by Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard.

The entire voice cast, including Brenda Blethyn as the very Angela Lansbury Mama Heffalump, do a uniformly fine job continuing in the tradition of originators Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell. Fiedler, meanwhile, has been voicing Piglet ever since 1968's "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day."

While the traditional two-dimensional animated style is quaint by current state-of-the-art standards, there's something endearing in its simplicity, while the straight-ahead storytelling has a gentle emotional resonance that gets its message across without condescending to its target demo.

Completing the delightful effect is a buoyant score by Joel McNeely and a number of original songs contributed by Carly Simon that have a habit of sticking with you like the contents of one of Pooh's ubiquitous honey pots.

Pooh's Heffalump Movie

Buena Vista Pictures

DisneyToon Studios

Credits:

Director: Frank Nissen

Producer: Jessica Koplos-Miller

Screenwriters: Brian Hohlfeld and Evan Spiliotopoulos

Based on characters created by: A.A. Milne

Editors: Robert Fisher, Jr., Anthony F. Rocco

Music: Joel McNeely

Original songs: Carly Simon

Voices:

Winnie the Pooh/Tigger: Jim Cummings

Piglet: John Fiedler

Roo: Nikita Hopkins

Kanga: Kath Soucie

Rabbit: Ken Sansom

Eeyore: Peter Cullen

Mama Heffalump: Brenda Blethyn

Lumpy: Kyle Stanger

MPAA rating: G

Running time -- 63 minutes...

After spending the past couple of decades relegated to uninspired TV and direct-to-video adventures, Winnie the Pooh and his Hundred Acre Wood cohorts make a delightful return to the big screen in "The Tigger Movie".

Ranking right up there with the 1968 Oscar-winning featurette, "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day," this first

feature-length format for the beloved A. A. Milne characters is, in a word, tiggerific, charmingly evoking the best elements of Disney's classic animation.

Unapologetically retro in look and storytelling style -- computer-generated techniques are used sparingly for things like falling snow and leaves -- the picture should nevertheless pack a surprising bounce at the boxoffice.

While it certainly won't be hitting the lofty heights of Disney's animated holiday fare, this production of the studio's television animation division should demonstrate some impressive legs as the "onliest" new all-ages feature on the block, while serving as a worthy addition to the Pooh oeuvre.

When his incessant bouncing begins to get on the nerves of the others, Tigger (voiced by Jim Cummings, who also provides Pooh's foggy tones) decides that perhaps the only creatures who would truly appreciate what Tiggers do best are other Tiggers.

After heeding some wisdom from Owl (Andre Stojka), he embarks on a fruitless quest to find his family tree. In a misguided effort to cheer him up, his old pals, including the dour Eeyore (Peter Cullen), don Tigger costumes and pretend they're his long-lost kin, but when he clues in on the masquerade, he sets off in the middle of a winter storm and resumes his search for the "biggest and most gigantical" family tree around.

Of course, in the end Tigger is made to realize that his true family -- those who love and care for him -- have always been there all along.

Director Jun Falkenstein, who also wrote the inventive, character-rich script, makes an impressive feature debut here after previously getting to know the characters in the 1998 primetime special "A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving". Her writing remains very true to the Milne spirit, while art director Toby Bluth has lovingly retained illustrator E. H. Shepard's stylized watercolors.

Their efforts are complemented by a talented group of voice actors, also including "Rugrats" regular Kath Soucie (Kanga), Nikita Hopkins (Roo), Ken Sansom (Rabbit) and John Fiedler (Piglet), who first lent his distinctive voice to the character in "Blustery Day". John Hurt, meanwhile, provides the warm narration.

To further boost the preservation aspect of the entire production, Disney veterans Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman were brought on board to contribute six new tunes, including the appropriately bouncy "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers" and the showstopper "Round My Family Tree", and, while maybe not up there with their "Jungle Book" and "Mary Poppins" song books, they handily capture the very specific Pooh brand of whimsy.

And who else but that "House at Pooh Corner" guy Kenny Loggins, in collaboration with the Sherman brothers, croons the end title song, "Your Heart Will Lead You Home".

THE TIGGER MOVIE

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Walt Disney Pictures

Producer: Cheryl Abood

Director-screenwriter: Jun Falkenstein

Story: Eddie Guzelian

Based on characters by: A.A. Milne

Art director: Toby Bluth

Editor: Robert Fisher Jr.

Score: Harry Gregson-Williams

Songs: Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman

Color/stereo

Voices:

Tigger, Winnie the Pooh: Jim Cummings

Roo: Nikita Hopkins

Rabbit: Ken Sansom

Piglet: John Fiedler

Eeyore: Peter Cullen

Owl: Andre Stojka

Kanga: Kath Soucie

Christopher Robin: Tom Attenborough

Narrator: John Hurt

Running time -- 76 minutes

MPAA Rating: G...