Piglet's Big Movie

In the story about Kanga and Roo moving into the neighborhood, all the characters are afraid of them because they are new. Rabbit concocts a plan to get them to leave by kidnapping Roo and holding him for the "ransom" of Kanga agreeing to leave the forest. They carry out the plan, and while they learn not to be afraid of the newcomers, they do succeed in the kidnapping. I found it shocking, but it was a good opportunity to talk to my kids about "tricky people" and how it's never ok for an anyone to take you away from your parents/guardians. The movie is otherwise boring and disappointing.

The Roo kidnapping story should be eliminated of this age group; we always skip that chapter when we read the original stories. It isn't like they were all that concerned about being faithful to the original text, which is expected, but their choices were odd. My child and I were both confused at how all the movies always seem to take Pooh's clever victories away from him and give them to different characters. But the most heartbreaking part for my 4 year old child was the loss of Piglet's memory book. We kept thinking it would be saved, and to find out it wasn't just crushed him. We talked about the value of his friends' re-creations and how Piglet got what he really wanted, but he cried for the loss of Piglet's hard work. He wants to write a letter to Disney that says: "I am 4 years old. I just watched Piglet’s Big Movie and it made me feel sad. They lost all of Piglet’s memories. I want you to change the ending so they save the memories." While there is an important lesson here about the importance of friendship, rather than things, it's a bit hard for younger kids, especially just after processing the near-death of Pooh and Piglet. One or the other would have been enough stress for a Piglet movie. It did not need both. I guess he'll be ready for Amy to through Jo's manuscript in the fire when we get to Little Women.