Piglet is dismayed when he feels that his friends are disregarding and excluding him from their activities thanks to his small size and supposed uselessness. However, when Piglet goes missing after the gang ignores his latest contributions, the group realizes that Piglet is a vital part of their family. They find Piglet's scrapbook of hand-drawn memories of various stories (which are new adaptations of A.A. Milne's stories) in which they realize Piglet played an unsung, but important part in. Realizing Piglet's importance to them, the group races through the Hundred Acre Wood to try to find their small friend.
American singer-songwriter Carly Simon provides seven original songs for this film, performing on six of themnote and on the Sherman Brothers' iconic "Winnie the Pooh" theme song.
Piglet's Big Movie includes examples of:
- Accidental Ventriloquism: In the "Expotition to the North Pole" flashback, Roo falls into the river and calls out to Pooh; but Pooh mistakes his calls as his tummy talking to him.Roo: Pooooooh?!
Pooh: (giggles) I just fed my tummy and it's still calling me! (giggles again)
Roo: Hey, look at me, Pooh!
Pooh: I am.
Roo: Pooh, I'm swimming!
Pooh: Just a moment, Roo. I'm talking to my tummy. Of course you're swimming! You shouldn't have had that second cookie.
Piglet: That's not your stomach, Pooh! It's Roo! - Adaptational Badass: Many of the novel adaptations are tweaked so Piglet has a more important part.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Kanga is more welcoming and sweet instead of apathetic to the others during their first meeting. She also shows mercy on Piglet after her prank and develops a close bond with him, while in the novels he escaped traumatised and still kept his distance even after Pooh and Rabbit made friends with her and Roo.
- Adaptational Wimp: The result of Piglet becoming playing Adaptational Badass means a few other characters' roles get downplayed to comic relief, especially Pooh.
- Adapted In: Tigger appears in the flashback segments that are directly based on A. A. Milne's stories taking place before Tigger's debut. Most notably, his presence in the story when Kanga and Roo first arrive in the Hundred Acre Wood doesn’t line up with Disney’s original film, where Pooh already knew Kanga and Roo before he met Tigger.
- Arc Words: "Big" for the film overall, and "Aha!" for the segment "In which Kanga and Roo move into the Hundred Acre Wood and Piglet has a bath", and "Eureka!" for the segment "In Which Christopher Robin leads an Expotition to the North Pole".
- Argument of Contradictions: Between Rabbit and Tigger which leads to the loss of the scrapbook.Tigger: You're ruinin' it, Rabbit!
Rabbit: I am not!
Tigger: Hand it over, bunny boy! Finding Piglets is what Tiggers do best!
Rabbit: It's what Rabbits do best!
Tigger: Tiggers!
Rabbit: No, Rabbits!
Tigger: Tiggers!
Rabbit: Rabbits!
Tigger: No, Tiggers!
Rabbit: Rabbits!
Roo: STOP IT! STOP FIGHTING!
Pooh: Oh, be careful! - Art Shift: We see the gang drawing new imaginary stories where Piglet is the star, and the animation shifts to look like it was drawn with crayons.
- Ascended Extra: Roo shows off more of his Breakout Character status by joining the rescue team about halfway through the film.
- Award-Bait Song: "With a Few Good Friends" by Carly Simon.
- Banana Peel: This is what sends Roo into the river during one of the flashbacks.
- Big Damn Heroes: Piglet swoops in to save Pooh from falling off a tall waterfall in the film's climax.
- Big Shadow, Little Creature: The film closes with a zoom-out from the whole gang to reveal Piglet's enormous shadow on the hill behind them.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Roo shouts, "STOP IT! STOP FIGHTING!" when he tries to intervene with Tigger and Rabbit's argument on the bridge, just before they lost the scrapbook.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the start of "Sing-Ho (For the Life of a Bear)", when Carly Simon sings the first line, Pooh says "That's me!"
- Brick Joke: When Pooh tries to distract Kanga, he claims to see an offscreen fish in a tree, though Kanga claims it’s actually a bird. In the next scene, we see an actual fish sitting in a tree.
- Butt-Monkey: Eeyore (who is abandoned by the others during the Expotition) and Rabbit (whose plans to evict Kanga from the Hundred Acre Wood continuously backfire on him).
- Continuity Nod: Piglet's book of memories features an illustration of the gang in their Tigger costumes.
- Covered in Gunge: After the bees are tricked into getting trapped in a fake hive, Pooh and Tigger accidentally get covered in honey after Rabbit pours it out of the real hive.Tigger: We're geniuses! (Rabbit accidentally pours the honey on him and Pooh instead of into the honey pot.) Sticky geniuses!
- Creative Closing Credits: The first part of the end credits are interspersed throughout Carly Simon's music video for "With a Few Good Friends". The credit crawl is also pink, and feature several of Piglet's scrapbook pictures.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Piglet, of course.
- Demoted to Extra: Most of Christopher Robin's roles in the stories from the novels are cut down greatly or Adapted Out.
- Diegetic Switch: "Sing-Ho (For the Life of a Bear)" starts with Carly Simon singing in the background before switching to Pooh and his friends singing it.
- Disney Acid Sequence: A non-trippy and heartwarming one where the imaginary scenarios where Piglet saves the day for the gang play out in their crayon drawings.
- Disney Death: Piglet rescues Pooh from the log, but it breaks with them still on it; seconds later, however, they emerge from the other side unharmed, having clung to the edge when the log broke.
- Disneyfication: The film's adaptation of "In Which Kanga and Roo Come to the Forest" ends with Kanga taking pity on Piglet and befriending him after her revenge prank (in the novel, Piglet ran out of the house terrified after Christopher Robin entered). Played with since Rabbit also becomes a Badly Battered Babysitter, downplaying his Karma Houdini status, though he still becomes attached to Roo in the end.
- Don't Explain the Joke:Tigger: Y'know, I tried to stop, but it's snow use. Get it? Snow use! Hoohoohoohoo!
- Dreadful Musician: Rabbit and his violin. It's so bad that the bees break his violin into pieces.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Poor Piglet's contributions are always ignored or unseen.
- Zigzagged for the main plot itself, as the fact the others failed to notice Piglet leave beforehand leads them all to believe he got lost in their mishap with the bees. Cue the frantic search party.
- Eaten Alive: What the gang fears happened to Roo when they see him jump in his mother's pouch. Piglet also fears he's going to be eaten when he's trapped in Kanga's house.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The first flashback.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Not counting the flashbacks, the whole movie is set over a period of a little over 24 hours.
- Fantastic Racism: Rabbit convinces the others that they must force the strange, unfamiliar Kanga and Roo to leave the Hundred Acre Wood. He gets over it when he has a fun time playing with Roo.
- Failed a Spot Check: Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore completely failed to realize Piglet helped them outsmart the bees.
- Foul Medicine: During a flashback, Kanga pretends to think Piglet is Roo and makes him swallow "fishy oil" medicine to make him bounce. He cringes and gags before he literally bounces off the walls.
- Good All Along: In the first flashback after Piglet spends time with Kanga, he discovers she isn't as fierce as he and the others thought and she's very nice, and everyone welcomes her.
- Hates Baths: Piglet would rather have Kanga cook and eat him than give him a bath.
- Heroic BSoD: Piglet goes off on his own into the woods, saddened when his friends once again are oblivious to his contributions that actually were the entire reason their Honey Harvest even worked.
- The cast gets this when they accidentally drop Piglet's book of memories into the river.
- I'm Thinking It Over!: When the bees escape from the trap, Rabbit, Eeyore, and Tigger make a break for it, while Pooh hesitates.Pooh: But what about our honey?Rabbit: It's either your honey or your life! (Pooh gets into his "think think think" pose) Come on! (Yanks Pooh along)
- Innocently Insensitive: None of the characters mean to be so abusive to Piglet, and they realize just how badly they've taken him for granted as the film goes on.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When Rabbit looks through Piglet's scrapbook, he comes across a photo of himself looking rather displeased. He then says, "That doesn't look a thing like me!" while striking the same expression and pose as the picture.
- MacGuffin: Piglet's scrapbook.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, and Eeyore have this reaction when the bees are about to escape from their new hive.
- Pooh, Roo, and Eeyore when they see Tigger and Rabbit arguing over the scrapbook which soon leads to them losing it in the river.
- Mythology Gag:
- The segments are adaptations of some of the iconic A.A. Milne Pooh stories (specifically, "In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet has a Bath", "In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole" and "In Which A House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore") that had not been adapted until this pointnote .
- Piglet's scrapbook picture of Pooh in a pit with a honey jar on his head also references "In Which Piglet Meets A Heffalump".
- Pooh recalls that Tigger hates honey, but it turns out he loves to use it as an itching cream of sorts.
- "Sing Ho For Life of a Bear" is also a song from the original book, though the film's take is almost In Name Only besides the title line.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: When the group thinks Pooh and Piglet fell down the waterfall, they start crying, failing to realise Pooh walking up next to them. What pushes it beyond most examples of this trope is that Pooh joins in on the crying without knowing what it is they were crying about.
- Ocular Gushers: Tigger starts shedding sprinkles of tears when he sees the memory from The Tigger Movie in Piglet's scrapbook.
- Old Shame: Rabbit's suspicion of Kanga and Roo, and his plan to run them out of the Hundred Acre Wood, became this when he realised how friendly they were, so much so he denies remembering it when the others bring it up.
- Oh, Crap!: All over the place.
- Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit and Eeyore when the bees are about to break out of their new hive.
- Piglet when he sees what appears to be Kanga about to cook him for dinner.
- The whole gang when they see Roo floating down the river.
- Roo, Eeyore and Pooh when they see Tigger and Rabbit fighting over the scrapbook, followed by an even bigger one by the whole gang when it falls into the river.
- Out of Focus: Owl has a minor role in the film, appearing briefly about 10 minutes in and then making a few scant appearances during the "Expotition" and the ending.
- Overcrank: The animation slows down to half-speed when Tigger and Rabbit's argument causes the scrapbook to slip out of their hands and fly away before splashing into the river.
- Personal Raincloud: Eeyore has one of these before joining in the march to the North Pole.
- "Setting Off" Song: "Sing ho, for the life of a bear! Sing ho, for the expedition!"
- Series Continuity Error: The flashback to Kanga and Roo first moving to the Hundred Acre Wood features Tigger. This contradicts The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (and the original books) where Kanga and Roo were already residents before Tigger first appeared. An episode from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh where Roo is switched with Piglet (willingly in said episode for avoiding the bath instead of the movie's attempt to drive the new arrivals off) also counts as one.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Ironically, despite the movie being about him, Piglet disappears from the movie after he realizes his friends had gone and he's now lost, and doesn't reappear until the climatic waterfall scene. Most of his prominence throughout the movie is through the flashbacks.
- Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification: Most of the adapted Milne flashbacks fall into Pragmatic Adaptation territory, in that they take some noteworthy liberties (such as adding Tigger into all of them, giving Piglet greater importance, and a higher emphasis on slapstick) but still have the same basic story flow.
- Something We Forgot:
- The "North Pole" segment ends with Christopher Robin realizing Eeyore never came back, and he's shown on the side of the river still waiting for Roo.
- A pivot for the main plot. The gang weren't paying attention to Piglet before the bee chase. Thus when they regroup and find he's not there, they think he got lost in all the commotion.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Done in-universe (both figuratively and literally), the group recall past misadventures and remember Piglet playing a vital role while their usual antics happened.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The others, in their usual naïveté, try to find Piglet using the scrapbook. None of the stories lead them any closer and after losing the book, realise they don't have a clue how to go about this and return home in dispair. They give it another go by trying to recover the book's pages, but only meet Piglet by coincidence.
- Suddenly Speaking: For the first time in any Pooh movie, the bees actually talk — specifically in the scene where Piglet is running from them (they did speak in a few episodes of New Adventures).Bee: Get the little guy!
- Tears of Joy: Piglet sheds Manly Tears after seeing the huge wall of drawings his friends made of him.
- The Cavalry: Piglet usually ends up fulfilling this role when the others are going through some sort of plan. They always end up attributing the actual credit to somebody or something else, however. They get better at recognising his contributions before the end.
- This Is No Time to Panic: Rabbit suffers this when Pooh attempts to rescue the scrapbook.
- Triumphant Reprise: An instrumental and more lively version of "With A Few Good Friends" plays during the party at the end.
- True Companions: Reconstructed. It is the others' recurring lack of attention towards Piglet that leads them all to think something terrible has happened to him and begin frantically searching the entire wood for him.
- Unexpected Kindness: Piglet expects Kanga to cook and eat him or do something equally horrid. In a way, she does something horrid: she gives him a bath; but afterwards she takes pity on him and befriends him, and he tells his friends that they were wrong in their suspicions of Kanga and that she is very kind.
- Unwanted Rescue: One flashback has Roo slip into the river. The other frantically try to save him from drowning, while he is swimming around quite ably and enjoying himself. That is, until Roo approaches a waterfall and that's when he needs to be rescued.
- We ARE Struggling Together: This between Tigger and Rabbit is what leads to Piglet's diary being lost.
- When He Smiles: Eeyore displays a surprised and happy smile when Piglet makes his Big Damn Heroes moment.
- Your Size May Vary: To punctuate Piglet's Height Angst, some scenes exaggerate his small stature against the other characters. While usually Piglet is about Kanga's waist height for example, in the flashback in her house, he can practically fit in her hand.
- Yes, Piglet. It's the least we can do for a very small Piglet...who's done such very big things...Thank you, Piglet.
