Plot: It’s Lumpy’s first ever Halloween, but he’s finding the occasion much too scary to enjoy. When Pooh eats all of the candy in the Hundred Acre Wood, Roo and Lumpy head out on a quest to find the legendary Gabloon, who can supposedly grant their wish of mounds of candy or turn them into “jaggedy lanterns.”
Breakdown:
Disney: “Hey there, Twix!”
Oh….Uhmmm….Hi there…Disney….???
Disney: “We heard you recently finished watching and reviewing all of the Disquels!”
Yeah, I did….
Disney: “Do you want a BONUS Disquel experience!?”
….What are you implying by that?
Disney: “Here’s Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie!”
That title is very awkward. Also, again, what did you mean by that? This is a Winnie the Pooh movie. It can’t be a Disquel.
Disney: “Watch it and seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
*sigh* There’s something seriously wrong with that guy.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..
I get it.
So yeah, this isn’t a Disquel. It was a direct-to-video movie made in 2005 that was a sequel to another direct-to-video movie, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, which I’ve never seen. It WAS made by DisneyToon Studios, who were notorious for making the Disquels, so make of that what you will.
Why am I comparing it to a Disquel otherwise? Before I answer that, let me ask you a question. Why do you think Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh is lumped (haha, puns) in on the title?
That’s right, you guessed it! They pulled a total Disquel move. This movie includes the ENTIRETY of that special played off like a flashback. There is only a little more than a half hour of new animation in this hour long movie.
I mean, it is a little better than having three episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (of which Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh is based from) stapled together with hardly any new animation, but still. Lazy, lazy, lazy executives trying to get money for old rope while ripping off people who have already seen that special.
It’s really jarring, too. This movie came out in 2005, and has sharper animation as well as stronger lines and more saturated colors. Boo to You Too! came out in 1996 and has obviously lower quality than the movie we’re watching.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the fact that they shove in the entirety of Boo to You Too! as an example of how Lumpy can be brave and enjoy Halloween highlights the fact that….this entire movie is basically just a copy of that special….Like…nearly beat for beat.
Piglet/Lumpy is too scared to enjoy Halloween, which nearly causes him to ruin the holiday for everyone else. He’s encouraged by his best friend Pooh/Roo, but it takes Piglet/Lumpy mistakenly believing Pooh/Roo is in danger to get him to brave the scariness. Meanwhile, Pooh/Roo and friends mistakenly believe Piglet/Lumpy is in danger and try to save him. When Piglet/Lumpy believes he’s defeated the nonexistent threat, he finally enjoys Halloween with his friends by his side.
There’s another reason they would have been way better off if they had omitted the Boo to You Too! segment. I’ve never seen it, and I never would never have noticed it was a rip-off of that story if they hadn’t literally shoehorned it into this movie to force me to take notice of their plagiarism. Good job, DisneyToon. You never cease to disappoint.
On its own, it’s a pretty alright movie, same with Boo to You Too! Predictable, sure, but that’s pretty much to be expected with any Winnie the Pooh story. However, I can’t ignore how lazy and obtrusive it is to just chuck Boo to You Too! into this movie.
Give the TV Frankenstein’d Disquels some credit. At least they didn’t tend to ruin their entire movie’s structure by including stories from unaired or aired TV shows that had stories that were exactly the same as their new bookends. Imagine if, in The Little Mermaid 2, they had a scene where Ariel was talking to Melody in the middle of the movie and she went “This reminds me a lot of what I went through at your age.” and then they just played the entirety of The Little Mermaid before cutting back to the main movie.
I wouldn’t be as bothered if it was just another random old Halloween special crammed in there. It’d still be intrusive and lazy, but it’d be adding some variety of content. Here, though, it’s very clear that this story is just a revamp of Boo to You Too! and they shove this fact in your face.
Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie is a perfectly fine Halloween watch, especially for little kids. It teaches good lessons, and by that I mean it teaches the same good lessons twice in a row, and there are some pretty entertaining and heartwarming moments. If you’ve seen Boo to You Too! though, it’s probably best to keep your finger on the fast forward button. Lumpy’s a very cute character, even if he is a bit too much like Piglet, and Roo was always one of my favorites.
The art and animation is pretty nice, especially for DisneyToon Studios. There was one moment that nearly made me barf though, and that was when they did a completely overly done slow motion cheer in the climax. Seriously, what the hell was that? Saving money by barely animating that part? The musical numbers are also pretty decent, although I can guarantee I’ll forget all of them by the time I’m done writing this review. I just really, really, REALLY wish they had chosen to make the entire movie original instead of putting in an old special to pad it out.
And as sad as it is to say this, I learned that this isn’t the only Winnie the Pooh movie they’ve done this with. They also did the exact same thing with A Very Merry Pooh Year by jamming in Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too in the middle of it…Guess I have something to look forward to this December….
Most of the same points can be said of Boo to You Too! Winnie the Pooh, barring the art and animation note, which takes a few hits because of the tighter budget and being nearly a decade older than our feature presentation, and, of course, the fact that it’s an entirely original story with nothing placed in the middle of it. It’s a cute Halloween story that people of all ages would enjoy this time of year.
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The Anime Madhouse 
Dang it all, Disney must have your number if they’re so quick to make you watch more stuff from their DisneyToon division. That was really lazy on they’re part if they’re resorting to self-plagiarism as well as tacking on another project from almost a decade prior. Hahaha! It was still a good read nonetheless.
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Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
I legit didn’t have a clue DisneyToon was involved until I sat through the Boo to You Too! Segment, noticed the weird contrast in art and animation quality and then looked up the Wiki page to see what was up with that. I nearly fell over in my chair from the realization XD They duped me good. I fear I may have to finish off the rest of their filmography in order to finally be rid of them D:
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You’re welcome.
Yeah, DisneyToon is Mickey Mouse’s junior varsity animation team and that’s putting it nicely. Oh, no! That would be a headache and a half to complete that studio’s filmography with all the random movies and TV series they’ve worked on. Completing an entire filmography is no easy feat and I have 2021 review goals in mind when it comes to that especially since I technically haven’t completed a certain acclaimed anime director’s portfolio anymore after he came out with a movie recently.
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Yeah, they’re technically all on my radar anyway considering I’m trying to do Disney’s entire (animated) filmography but by the time I get to DisneyToon I’ll be so old I’ll probably be coughing up dust all over my keyboard as I write the reviews XD I mean, technically I’ve already reviewed over half of their filmography given that most of their movie work was Disquels, but it also took me seven years to get all of that done. D:
I am a slow-ass blogger lol
A lot of their non-Disquel stuff is Winnie the Pooh related. I wonder if I should be concerned…
Good luck with your filmography reviews! I look forward to what you come out with. 🙂
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I figured you were going to cover the Disquels and the animated canon, but I wasn’t aware about their entire animated filmography. That is a huge undertaking especially with the anime and non-Disney stuff you cover on your blog. That makes sense with the Disquels being half the studio’s filmography since they specialized in that as well as the TV series tied into the movies as well as other pre-established characters from the House of Mouse. 7 years? I don’t think I really realized that. WOW!
I do believe you mentioned your gradual pace when it comes to reviewing things before, but to each their own. If anything, I used to be too fast popping out 3 reviews every Saturday until life, my creative works and increased responsibilities at work caused me to bring it to once a week).
That’s not a good sign if it’s mostly Winnie the Pooh with how much damage they could do to the franchise. I would be cautious at minimum. No lie, I used to love The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh when I was a kid and my family had a bunch of the VHS tapes of the show.
Thanks! I have some plans on who’s filmography I should complete. So far, I’ve reviewed everything from Satoshi Kon, Yoshitoshi ABe, and Lorena Alvarado (a Venezuelan documentary filmmaker) to the best of my knowledge. I have more goals that I will mention in the near future. Fortunately, I scheduled all my reviews for the rest of 2020 so I can focus on other things.
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Yeah I’m not really optimistic that I’ll succeed in my venture, especially since they continue to make new stuff as I make my way through the old, but it’s something to keep me busy. Yup seven long years lol – started before the Anime Madhouse was established. Was a long, long road, but I’m proud I actually finished it.
I try to be faster with my reviews considering the ridiculous goals I sometimes set for myself (like…say, one Halloween based review a day during all of October lol), but I also find that an even pace works better because I have more time to overlook what I’ve written or noted down and better organize my thoughts.
I can manage three posts a week, but that’s only because I have quite a lot of old stuff stored in my backlog, and if a schedule series update isn’t ready yet I have other stuff I can post.
I haven’t really heard anything bad about the Winnie the Pooh movies listed on their filmography, but that’s a valid concern. I mean, I don’t tend to hear anything about most Winnie the Pooh movies besides that they’re cute and good family movies, but DisneyToon has proven they can screw anything up.
That’s awesome! You sound like you have everything very nicely organized for the future. 🙂
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Gotcha. There’s so many movies to cover with just the animated canon alone. Maybe you can separate them by eras (golden age, renaissance, etc.) for certain time periods every year or so. Even though I’ve been vocal about my criticisms of Disney, I’m glad you were still able to complete the DtD series. Yes, I know you cover anime as well (obviously given the name of the blog), but I was able to respect you as a reviewer since you’re not a sycophant for Disney and your reviews have been fun to read.
That’s understandable. Around this time of year, I tend to churn out more reviews to post on time because I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo for 6 years now and I need as much writing time as I can when I’m not at work to finish that novel before the end of November.
That’s great how you have a backlog for posts. I’ve managed three posts a week, but there should be an asterisk because it’s between all of my blogs. Haha! I also want to have more content with more collab reviews and a monthly Top 7 list on my review blog which I’ve been doing this year as a part of my goals.
I see. It makes sense with the Winnie the Pooh movies being cute and family-friendly. I’m not expecting DisneyToon to make something avant-garde or grisly for the franchise (nor would I want to), but they could get something wrong here and there besides the variable animation quality of that subsidiary.
Thanks. I try to be organized, but that’s only one sector of my life with film and anime reviews compared to anything else. I’m trying to come up with more ideas for all my blogs to have some good and innovative content. Besides my annual 2020 recap posts when January rolls around, I’ve been thinking up Top 7 list ideas that are creative and engaging.
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