Pooh's Heffalump Movie
The Heffalump of "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" is a species of big purple creature that spreads love and cheer to all who encounter it.
No, it's not Barney; it's an elephant. And while it is indigenous to the imaginations of the residents of A.A. Milne's Hundred Acre Wood (Pooh once futilely counted Heffalumps to fall asleep), the creature's arrival as a full-fledged, frolicking character seems more a product of the marketing arm at the Walt Disney Company.
If you're a Milne purist, you've probably stopped reading reviews of the latest installments of the Pooh saga. Of course, if you're between the ages of 2 and 6, your mom, dad, or nanny may be reading this to you. So you deserve to know that "Pooh's Heffalump Movie," with its message of tolerance and open-mindedness, is a fine afternoon at the megaplex. And it will make a welcome addition your home library when it's released on video.
The story follows as Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, Tigger, and sometimes Eeyore venture out beyond the Hundred Acre Wood to hunt and capture the mythic Heffalump. They seem to think this "horrendous" and "hazardous" creature has a spiked tail, "fiery eyes," and "three horns above and 11 below." Pooh and his pals here represent a bumbling yet paranoid adulthood. They're a sort of lynch mob for a culprit who's guilty only of minding his own business.
In their zeal, they've tainted little Roo, who's too young to come along. But he sneaks into Heffalump Hollow anyway, and finds Lumpy, a kid Heffalump who seems to be missing all the devilish traits that Roo has been programmed to look for. Lumpy even has a nice English accent. Roo puts a leash on his new friend, but after they frolic together, realizes that friends don't tie ropes around friends' necks. The child therefore has an enlightening lesson waiting for the surprisingly dense grownups of Hundred Acre Wood.
The movie's message of tolerance is smartly rendered, if slowly delivered. And loyalists will be pleased to know that the animated art direction hasn't changed much in the 39 years since Disney started filming Milne's books. The verdant backgrounds still have that simple sketched quality that looks handmade, quaint even, in the age of "Shrek" and "The Polar Express." And the black lines that contain the colors of all the characters and objects are as thick as ever. Catchy songs by Carly Simon, who also wrote the numbers for 2003's "Piglet's Big Movie," only enrich the feeling of a movie from another era deposited in a time capsule.
This all lends a lullaby quality to "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" that's pleasing, yet perhaps too effective. I caught more than one parent napping through the screening I attended. And the little boy just behind me observed, like someone slipping into a trance, that the movie was making him sleepy. This is the same person who 10 minutes prior couldn't stop pounding the back of my seat with his foot, and exclaimed "I love this new booster seat! Go booster, go!" as though he were about to sit through "Racing Stripes."
This was only a little less annoying than the representatives of the mutual fund that sponsored the screening, who implored kids to use the word "fidelity" as a password with their parents.
"No commercials!" my neighbor shouted back. He didn't like "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" nearly as much as all the kids who clapped when it was over. But he seemed to appreciate the vanishing purity of going to the movies.
Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com.
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