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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Children > TV > Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (Disney DVD)

Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Main Program: C

 

 

The original animated Winnie The Pooh was as charming as the early Peanuts animated specials, but later installments have lost some of that charm.  Since Disney took over the franchise (leaving any legal controversies aside), the animation has taken a step further away form the charm and gentleness of the original works and trying to make the characters part of the “happy family” of Disney characters has sort of backfired.  Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie is a good example of why.  First of all, what are they doing celebrating Halloween?

 

Not that the characters should not, but having watched even parts of the many productions that followed, I have never seen this group of characters so out of their element and I do find them appealing otherwise.  The script is odd and really offers nothing new.  The chemistry between the characters is fading and the talk between the characters even seems shrill at times.  I even enjoy Halloween, but this just does not work.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is softer than expected, despite the simple animation, which is too simple for my tastes.  I do not like the color either, which seems less natural than past animated programs with the Pooh characters.  It makes them seem overly processed, when their connection to nature is so key to this material working.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is fairly good, but is it me, or are these musical numbers getting worse?  Extras include some DVD-ROM materials, games and a booklet for kids with coupons to buy more stuff.  If this is trick or treat, we sadly get too much of the former in this case.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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