Jim Cummings was shocked when he wasn’t asked to voice Tigger in ‘Christopher Robin’.
The 65-year-old actor had originally voiced both the bouncing tiger and the main character Winnie-the-Pooh so he was understandably taken back when he found out that Disney were only planning to use him for the latter in the new live-action comedy film.
Speaking to Cinema Blend, he said: "It was a surprise [not playing Tigger]. It took some wind out of my sails, but, you know, like the song says, ‘Put one foot in front of the other [foot]’. That’s, that’s all you can do anyway.
"I guess, what would you say, it was an interpretation? It seemed to me, because my 13 year old and I saw it, and she just didn’t know [what to make of it]."
Chris O’Dowd was initially being lined up to voice the fictional character in the forthcoming flick but bosses made a last-minute change and asked Jim to do it instead.
Asked why he thinks producers made the change, Jim said: "I think what happened was you just get used to a sound, a voice, an attitude.
"And in this case it was decades old, you know, they were used to me for forever. I think they just said, ‘Well, gosh, it’s such a wonderful project… maybe we don’t want to introduce such a radically new wrinkle, maybe, and maybe we just go back with something that everybody’s going to glom onto, and something that they’ve heard.’ Next thing I know I was looping in the Tigger lines, and I hope it worked."
‘Christopher Robin’ will hit cinema screens today (03.08.18) as Ewan McGregor portrays the businessman who bumps into his old childhood friend Winnie-the-Pooh on a park bench in London, while Hayley Atwell plays his wife Evelyn Robin.
Jim Cummings was shocked when he was snubbed from Tigger in Christopher Robin
