If you’re a longtime fan of A. A. Milne’s delightful creation, Winnie the Pooh, and well outside of the intended demographic (by a considerable margin), you may initially look at My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie and wonder where all the British wit and whimsy went.
But fear not, it is very much in evidence.
In this 2007 movie-length instalment of My Friends Tigger & Pooh, which ran for three seasons from 2007 to 2010, everything you love about Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit and the rest of the Hundred Acres Wood gang is present and adorably accounted for.
Granted, Pooh and Tigger are now super sleuth detectives, famed throughout the Hundred Acres Wood and well beyond – Santa has even heard of them at the North Pole which is famous, my friends – and Christopher Robin has been replaced by Darby, voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz, but they are still very much the characters you fell in love with.
Tigger (Jim Cummings) is, of course, irrepressibly bouncy and upbeat (unless his detective masks chances to be lost and then sadness takes over with all the world-ending catastrophe that only an extrovert, of which this reviewer is one, are capable of), Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings) remains sweetly and charming befuddled and unsure of what to do next, and Piglet, dear, lovely Piglet (Travis Oates) is still unable to reach the top of present piles and fears being ignored when riding in Santa’s sleigh.
Present and accounted for too are Rabbit (Ken Ransom) who only wants a subscription from Rudebaga Monthly from Santa and leaves carrots out for Santa’s reindeer, Eeyore (Peter Cullen) who would like to wish for a gift from Mr Claud but isn’t sure he’d be listened to, and Kanga (Kath Soucie), Roo (Max Burkholder) and his new bestie Lumpy (Kyole Stranger), who brings the Heffalumps very much into the fold.
All these friends are getting ready for Christmas in Super Sleuth Christmas Movie with Pooh worried that if he gets jars or honey for Christmas, he may get caught in an escalating spiral of buying more of both, and the joy and festive bonhomie is palpable.
Even though the Super Sleuth Christmas Movie was released in 2007, it is precisely the kind of hug from a cosy old friend that we all need in a year which has been felt as warm and welcoming as a Siberian winter.
Speaking of which, it is cold very cold in the Hundred Acre Wood when Roo and Lumpy discover an empty red sack with green Christmas trees on it, and cute girl reindeer called Holly (Mikaila Baumel) and discover the sack is magic, it belongs to Santa and if it’s returned to the North Pole, that’ll be the end of Christmas.
Yup, Christmas is in peril again and only the plucky Super Sleuths can save it!
So they do, with Tigger and Pooh and Darby, aided by the rest of the Hundred Acres Wood troop, doing everything they can, quite successfully it won’t surprise you to learn, to keep Christmas and Santa’s key role in it, very much on track.
As a grown-up watching the movie, you might wonder how Holly or the sack got to be in the Hundred Acres Wood since everyone else in Santa’s crew is very much back at the North Pole, or how Christmas can be imperilled when there are already so many presents under the Christmas tree and … and … and …
But that is hardly the point of the Super Sleuth Christmas Movie which is all about reassuring kids that by working together, and loving and supporting each other, that you can do anything, which includes naturally enough rescuing Christmas from the jaws of oblivion.
Don’t worry that this all sounds very ominous and scary; while the group are worried about there being no Christmas, the truth of the matter is that they have each other’s back, they aren’t giving up until Christmas is saved and they will be in the thick of it together until it’s mission accomplished.
As uplifting, heartfelt festive adventures go, you can do much better than Super Sleuth Christmas Movie which is all love and joy and Christmas loveliness, bolstered by a robust sense of how much friendship and love can accomplish when you put your mind to it.
It doesn’t matter if you’re six or sixty-six, Super Sleuth Christmas Movie is a glowing delight, a return to the simply but desperately important idea that even the very worst of situations can be rescued by love, determination and togetherness and that, given the right circumstances, even Eeyores, with a little assist from Santa, can have their wish granted to fly!