Heffalump
Encyclopedia
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
in the Winnie the Pooh stories by A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
. Heffalumps are mentioned, but never appear, in Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
(1926) and The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
(1928) and later featured in the animated The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television that ran from 1988 to 1991, inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.-Overview:...
(1988–1991) and Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
(2005). Physically, they resemble elephants; Shepard
E. H. Shepard
Ernest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He was known especially for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne....
's illustration shows an Indian Elephant
Indian Elephant
The Indian Elephant is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, Elephas maximus has been listed as endangered by IUCN as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations, estimated to be 60–75 years...
.
Origins
In the fifth chapter of Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh (book)
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
, Pooh and Piglet
Piglet (Winnie the Pooh)
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie-the-Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys/animals featured in the stories...
attempt bravely to capture a heffalump in a trap. However, no heffalumps are ever caught in their trap, and indeed they never meet a heffalump in the course of the books. The sole actual appearance of heffalumps in the books come as Pooh tries to put himself to sleep: "[H]e tried counting Heffalumps [but] every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey ... [and] when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalumps were licking their jaws, and saying to themselves, 'Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better', Pooh could bear it no longer." We learn nothing more about the nature of the beasts in the writings.
In the third chapter of The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
, Pooh and Piglet fall into a similar trap (it's implied it was the same one) and think that it was made by a Heffalump to catch them. Pooh and Piglet rehearse the conversation they'll have when the Heffalump comes, but Pooh falls asleep and when Piglet hears a voice, he panics and says the wrong thing. He is mortified when the voice turns out to be that of Christopher Robin.
Explanation
Although this is never explicitly stated, it is generally thought that heffalumps are elephantElephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
s from a child's viewpoint (the word "heffalump" being a child's attempt at pronouncing "elephant"): E. H. Shepard
E. H. Shepard
Ernest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He was known especially for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne....
's illustrations in A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
's original books depict heffalumps (as seen in Piglet's dreams) as looking very much like elephants.
In Disney's adaptations of the stories, Heffalumps are first mentioned in the 1968 featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was...
, and seem to be a product of Tigger
Tigger
Tigger is a fictional tiger-like character originally introduced in A. A. Milne's book The House at Pooh Corner. Like other Pooh characters, Tigger is based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals...
's imagination. Heffalumps first actual appearance was in the television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television that ran from 1988 to 1991, inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.-Overview:...
. In both the animated films and all subsequent television series, they are also depicted as looking like elephants, albeit slightly cuddlier and less fierce than those Pooh imagines in the books and with rabbit-like tails.
In the animated television series, most heffalumps are enemies of Pooh and his friends. They are known to steal honey and are often associated with woozle
Woozle
A woozle is a fictional weasel-like creature mentioned in the Winnie the Pooh stories.No woozle illustrations appear in A. A...
s. One particular heffalump named Heff was the dim-witted sidekick of Stan the Woozle and was afraid of Roo
Roo
Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book Winnie-the-Pooh. He is a young kangaroo and his mother is Kanga...
because he thought Roo was a giant mouse. (This is perhaps a reference to the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
running gag of Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
mistaking Hippety Hopper
Hippety Hopper
Hippety Hopper is a young kangaroo cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons. Robert McKimson introduced Hippety Hopper in Hop, Look and Listen , which established the pattern for future Hippety Hopper cartoons....
for a giant mouse and the fear of mice
Fear of mice
Fear of mice and rats is one of the most common specific phobias. It is sometimes referred to as musophobia or murophobia , or as suriphobia, from the French souris, meaning mouse. Dr...
inherent in elephants.)
Piglet
Piglet (Winnie the Pooh)
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie-the-Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys/animals featured in the stories...
also befriended a young heffalump named Junior in two episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Junior lived with his parents, and his father, Papa Heffalump, was voiced by Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
. Mama Heffalump often had to remind Papa Heffalump of his many allergies. They appeared in a song called "Heffalumps and Woozles" with their partners, the woozle
Woozle
A woozle is a fictional weasel-like creature mentioned in the Winnie the Pooh stories.No woozle illustrations appear in A. A...
s, in the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Here, Tigger described them as honey-eating monsters. They and the song are also featured in the attraction at Walt Disney World, also called The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, and Hong...
, where the riders travel through the heffalumps and woozles in Pooh's dream.
Cultural impact
Since the 1950s heffalumps have gained substantial fame outside the Pooh stories.- The term "heffalump" is whimsically used by adults to describe an elephant, or a child's view of an elephant.
- The term "heffalump trap" has been used in political journalism for a trap that is set up to catch an opponent but ends up trapping the person who set the trap (as happens to Winnie the Pooh in The House at Pooh Corner).
- The protagonist (Gnossos Pappadopoulis) in Richard FariñaRichard FariñaRichard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
's 1966 novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to MeBeen Down So Long It Looks Like Up to MeBeen Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me is a novel by Richard Fariña. First published in the United States during 1966 the novel, based largely on Fariña's college experiences and travels, is a comic picaresque story that is set in the American West, in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, and at an...
believes his best friend to be named Heffalump for the majority of the novel, although Gnossos discovers in Cuba that Heffalump's birth name was Abraham Jackson White. - There is a musical score called To Catch a Heffalump (1971) by Willem Frederik Bon.
- Expressen's Heffalump is an annual literary prize awarded to year's best Swedish author for children and young adults.
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
, released in 2005, looks at the differences between the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood, and the Heffalumps, whom they fear as predators, cleared up after Roo becomes friends with a Heffalump named Lumpy.
A sequal to this movie called Pooh's Heffalump Halloween, was later released.
Lumpy the Heffalump later appears in the television program, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, on the Disney Channel. He continues to appear as Roo's friend and joins the gang on many adventures.