Tigger movie jumps onto video, DVD

NEW VIDEO RELEASES Releasing August 22: The Tigger Movie Beyond the Mat Simpatico Supernova

By Scott Hettrick

The Tigger Movie

(Buena Vista, VHS $24.99, DVD $29.99, rated G) 2000.
Directed by Jun Falkenstein; narrated by John Hurt; voices by Jim Cummings, Nikita Hopkins, Ken Sansom, John Fiedler, Peter Cullen, Kath Soucie and Tom Attenborough.

The Winnie the Pooh family of characters remains among the most charming and enduring of all animated franchises. But this 70-minute extension of Disney's TV series nearly throws away the charm in an effort to create the kind of excitement, action and big musical numbers that kids and parents are used to seeing in cartoons and animated films these days.

As Tigger searches for his "family tree" and his relatives in the hundred-acre wood, we see that the once quaint wooded area has grown to include giant mountains and cliffs with drop-offs hundreds of feet deep. And tiny little Roo now has near-superhero powers that allow him to wind up his tail and fly through the air in order to make a daring rescue.

There are several cute musical numbers by the venerable Disney songsmiths the Sherman Brothers, but they feel derivative of such other Disney fare as "Dumbo," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin."

The DVD version of the movie -- the first-ever "Winnie the Pooh" title on DVD -- offers a number of extra features, including the Kenny Loggins music video "Your Heart Will Lead You Home," an interactive trivia game, an interactive storybook with optional narration, the sing-along song "Round My Family Tree," an interactive color matching game, and a feature on how to make a family tree.

(Universal, VHS priced for rental, DVD $29.98, rated R and a second unrated version) 1999.
Directed by Barry W. Blaustein; starring The Rock, Mick "Mankind" Foley, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Chyna, Terry Funk and Vince McMahon.

Slightly embarrassed and partially apologetic lifetime pro-wrestling fan Barry Blaustein tries to produce something of a Michael Moore-style look at the controversial subject with "Beyond the Mat."

But instead it comes off as Michael Moore-lite, with a confusing alternately reverential, condemning, admiring, exposing and sympathetic look at the world of contemporary pro wrestling.

The 103-minute documentary (with five extra minutes of WWF chairman Vince McMahon on the DVD version) is also unfocused. While it begins as a seeming examination of wrestling in general, with descriptions and video of what goes on behind the scenes and with interviews and footage of independent regional and touring wrestling organizations, it then shifts the spotlight to profile the personal and professional lives of several wrestlers who allowed Blaustein to film them.

Both segments are marginally engaging even though it's unclear what the message or intent of the filmmaker is. In fact, it appears that Blaustein may not have had any particular message or point, but was just thrilled to have the opportunity to meet and hang out with some of his idols, whom he is only too happy to give free publicity with this film.

One wants to feel sympathy when viewing certain sequences, such as when kind-hearted and misunderstood wrestlers are shown to struggle to maintain relationships with their wives or children or parents. But then we see a wife and her two small children, filmed while being horrified and crying uncontrollably as they watch from their front-row seats as her husband/their father takes a bloody beating in the ring.

Yet, one can't help but be suspicious. Is all this emotion just as phony as the wrestling itself?

(c) 2000, Scott Hettrick. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

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