Heffalumps and Woozles
| "Heffalumps and Woozles" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"Heffalumps and Woozles" is a song from the 1968 Walt Disney musical film featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. It was written by the Sherman Brothers,[1] and performed by The Mellomen.
The song is about phantasmagoria elephants (heffalumps) and weasels (woozles) becoming a threat to Pooh and his food source (honey). The song serves as a soundtrack to the iconic, psychedelic "Pooh Nightmare" sequence where Pooh subconsciously deals with the theft of his all-too-precious honey. The sequence is generally considered by audiences to be quite eerie for a children's film. Elements from this song are played when Pooh can hear growling and banging noises from outside his house, which turn out to be Tigger.
It was shown in A Disney Halloween which aired every year from 1983 to the late 1990s.
Although the song is not used in the 2005 feature, Pooh's Heffalump Movie; it is generally accepted that the song and accompanying visual montage is the inspiration of the Heffalump film. Such is more definitively the case with the relationship between the Sherman Brothers' song, The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and the 2000 release of The Tigger Movie.
The song bears a strong resemblance to the Pink Elephants on Parade animated sequence from the 1941 film Dumbo.[1] Part of the melody is highly reminiscent of the chorus of the traditional Scottish song Charlie Is My Darling.
The song is the main theme in dream scenes of the Winnie the Pooh series of rides at the Disney Parks. Part of the song is played as part of the soundtrack of HalloWishes, a Halloween-themed fireworks display held during Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
See also
References
Literary sources
- Sherman, Robert B. Walt's Time: from before to beyond. Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers, 1998.
- Peterson, Monique. Disney's The Little Big Book of Pooh. New York: Disney Editions, 2002.
