With the recent release of the new trailer for Christopher Robin, people were very pleased with Tigger’s voice reveal in the trailer. However, it has been revealed that Chris O’Dowd will no longer be voicing the iconic character. Instead Jim Cummings will reprise his role as Tigger for the film as previously hinted in our interview with Jim Cummings.
After learning this news, we reached out to our sources to try to figure out why Chris O’Dowd was replaced as Tigger. We discovered that Chris O’Dowd’s performance as Tigger was not met with well praise at test screenings. Multiple sources who heard the original O’Dowd voice all described it as inconsistent. First of all, O’Dowd’s Tigger sounded a little more like he was British. Piglet in the film speaks with a British accent, so this is not totally inconsistent. However, his voice would fluctuate from being low to high quite often. Secondly, sources described his voice to being almost too “clown” like. Lastly, test audiences did not seem convinced that O’Dowd had a specifc interpretation down for the role. One of our sources went as far to say that he/she could identify all the characters voices as sounding accurate to the Disney versions blindfolded except Tigger. Even though he/she said that they were open to new interpretations, the voice first came off as a “British Jester” instead of Tigger. Additionally, O’Dowd’s Tigger didn’t use any of the trademark character sounds or phrases. This could have also upset test audiences considering how Disney accurate the other characters are.
It is a shame that O’Dowd was not able to nail the role of Tigger for test audiences. Despite that, he’s a fantastic actor and was arguably the best part of Netflix’s The Cloverfield Paradox that released earlier this year. With his role on Get Shorty still ongoing and with his upcoming film, Adventures of Super Frank, in development with him set to produce, write, and star in- it is clear that O’Dowd’s career is still on the constant rise and that’s great to see!
Let us know your thoughts, would you like to see O’Dowd’s interpretation in the future? And are you excited to see Jim Cummings return to the role?
In the heartwarming live action adventure Disney’s “Christopher Robin,” the young boy who shared countless adventures with his band of lovable stuffed animals in the Hundred Acre Wood is now grown up and living in London but he has lost his way. Now it is up to his childhood friends to venture into our world and help Christopher Robin rediscover the joys of family life, the value of friendship and to appreciate the simple pleasures in life once again.
Disney’s “Christopher Robin” is directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder and a story by Perry based on characters created by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard. The producers are Brigham Taylor and Kristin Burr with Renée Wolfe and Jeremy Johns serving as executive producers. The film stars Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin; Hayley Atwell as his wife Evelyn; Bronte Carmichael as his daughter Madeline; and Mark Gatiss as Giles Winslow, Robin’s boss. The film also features the voices of: Jim Cummings as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger; Brad Garrett as Eeyore; Toby Jones as Owl; Nick Mohammed as Piglet; Peter Capaldi as Rabbit; and Sophie Okonedo as Kanga.
