Tigger

Tigger is a fictional tiger character originally introduced in A. A. Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner. He is easily recognized by his orange and black stripes, beady eyes, a long chin, a springy tail, and his bouncy personality. As he says himself, "Bouncing is what Tiggers do best." Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals.

In literature

Tigger is introduced in Chapter II of House at Pooh Corner, when he shows up on Winnie-the-Pooh's doorstep in the middle of the night, announcing himself with a big bounce. Most of the rest of that chapter is taken up with the characters' search for a food that Tigger can eat for breakfast - despite Tigger's claims to like "everything", it is quickly proven he does not like honey, acorns, thistles, or most of the contents of Kanga's pantry. In a happy coincidence, however, he discovers what Tiggers really like best is extract of malt, which Kanga has on hand because she gives it to her son, Roo, as "strengthening medicine".

From that point on, Tigger lives with Kanga and Roo in their house in the northeastern part of the Hundred Acre Wood near the Sandy Pit. He becomes great friends with Roo, and Kanga treats him in much the same way she does her own son. Tigger also interacts enthusiastically with all the other characters - sometimes too enthusiastically for the likes of Rabbit, who sometimes seems exasperated by Tigger's constant bouncing, Eeyore, who is once bounced into the river by Tigger, and Piglet, who always seems a little nervous about the new, large, bouncy animal in the Forest. Nonetheless, the animals are all shown to be friends.

In addition to chapter II, Tigger also appears in chapters IV, VI, VII, and X of The House at Pooh Corner, and is mentioned in several others. He is the only new major character to be introduced in The House at Pooh Corner; all of the others had been established in the earlier Winnie-the-Pooh book.

Depictions

In Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations, Tigger appears to walk (or more often, bounce) on four feet as opposed to two. He is, however, capable of holding a pen with one of his front paws - at least well enough to make a BLOT. Though Tigger is described by Rabbit and Piglet as "large", he does not seem particularly big in the illustrations. Pooh states once "He always seems bigger because of his bounces", implying that the other animals think of Tigger as being larger than he truly is.

Personality traits

That assessment fits well with Tigger's personality and his assessment of his own abilities, which he always overestimates. He is cheerful, outgoing, competitive in a friendly way, and completely confident in himself. Some of the things which he claims Tiggers can do include flying, jumping farther than a kangaroo, swimming, and climbing trees. He never actually attempts any of the first three things in the course of the story, but he does try to climb a tree. He only succeeds half-way, being able to climb up but not to climb down again. Tigger also says Tiggers "never get lost"; unlike most of his other claims, this one seems to be true - he is able to find his way through the Forest even in a thick mist, despite Rabbit's attempts to lose him.

Like most of the characters in Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger was based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals, in this case a stuffed tiger. However, the word "tiger" is never actually used in the book. The term "Tigger" is used instead, both as the character's name and as a description of his type of animal. No other "Tiggers" appear in the story, and at one point Tigger (who has just seen his reflection in a mirror and mistaken it for another individual) comments he thought he was the only one. Despite that belief, he constantly uses the term in the plural, as in "Tiggers don't like honey." and "So that's what Tiggers like!", etc. The term is always capitalized.

Associates

Some of Tigger's friends in the book include Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Roo, Kanga, Owl, and Christopher Robin.

In film

Tigger also appears in the Disney cartoon versions of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, beginning with Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day in 1968. He has even starred in his own film, The Tigger Movie (Disney, 2000), along with his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.

Tigger was originally voiced by Paul Winchell. Since 1990, he has been voiced by Jim Cummings (who is also the voice of Pooh), with the exception of Pooh's Grand Adventure (1997), in which Winchell reprised the role of Tigger one more time. On June 24, 2005, Winchell died; John Fiedler, the voice of Piglet in some of those films, died the next day.

In the movies, Tigger has his own theme song, "The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers". The music for it was written by Richard M. Sherman, with lyrics by Robert B. Sherman. An interesting quirk about Tigger is that, according to his theme song, "the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is (he's) the only one." This song leads to his search for his family in The Tigger Movie.

In The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and subsequent cartoons, Tigger lives in a large treehouse. A tire swing hangs prominently from a branch of the tree. In The Tigger Movie, Tigger builds a makeshift addition (gluing the shingles on with honey) in anticipation of a hoped-for visit by members of his family. This "family room" is eventually relocated to serve as a replacement for Eeyore's collapse-prone house of sticks.

The Disney version of Tigger was featured in both the TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue and the TV series House of Mouse. Tigger can be also found at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for meet and greets.

Personality traits

Tigger's personality in the cartoons is much like his personality in the book. He is very confident and has quite an ego, he often thinks of himself as being handsome, and some of his other comments suggest he has a high opinion of himself. Also, he often undertakes tasks with gusto, only to later realize they were not as easy as he had originally imagined. As in the books, Tigger never refers to himself as a tiger, just as a "Tigger". When Tigger introduces himself, he often says the proper way to spell his name is: "T-I-double-guh-err (T,i,gg,e,r) , which spells Tigger." .

In The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, he has an alter-ego known as The Masked Offender (A mispronunciation of "masked avenger"), who is featured in Christopher Robin's bedtime stories.

Tigger's birthday is believed to be in October 1928, the year The House at Pooh Corner was first published. However, on Tigger-related merchandise, Disney often indicates Tigger's birthyear as 1968, a reference to the first year Tigger appeared in a Disney production, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.

Disney's Tigger is also remembered for his song The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers when he made his first appearance.

Associates

Some of Tigger's friends in the movies include Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Roo, Owl, [(Winnie the Pooh)|Gopher], Lumpy, and Christopher Robin.

In video games

Kingdom Hearts

Tigger also appears as a character in the video game Kingdom Hearts. In the game, loves to bounce more than anything. Sometimes his bouncing gets out of hand, but he doesn’t mean any harm. Underneath that happy-go-lucky exterior beats a surprisingly sensitive, gentle heart. He is voiced by Jim Cummings in the English version, and Tesshō Genda in the Japanese version.

In popular culture

In a skit on Saturday Night Live, there is a game show where one question is, "What is the name of Winnie the Pooh's feline friend?" When the contestant answers, a censor sign goes up. The game show's host (played by Bernie Mac) is then seen attacking the contestant, who is saying, "I said Tigger, with a T!"