A Heffalump is a type of fictional elephant in the Winnie the Pooh stories
by A. A. Milne. Heffalumps are mentioned, but never appear, in
Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. Physically, they resemble
elephants; Shepard's illustration shows an Indian Elephant. They are later
featured in the animated television series The New Adventures of Winnie the
Pooh, followed by two animated films in 2005, Pooh's Heffalump Movie and Pooh's
Heffalump Halloween Movie. Origins
Although the fifth chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh is titled ‍ '​In Which
Piglet Meets a Heffalump‍ '​, Piglet only actually meets a Heffalump in his
imagination. In this chapter, Pooh and Piglet attempt bravely to capture a
heffalump in a clever trap; however, no heffalumps are ever caught, and indeed
they never meet a heffalump in the course of the books. The sole appearance
of heffalumps in the books is imagined, 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 Heffalump was licking its jaws, and saying to itself, 'Very
good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better', Pooh could bear it no
longer." In the third chapter of The House at
Pooh Corner, Pooh and Piglet fall into a similar trap 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 elephants from a child's
viewpoint E. H. Shepard's illustrations in A. A. Milne's original books depict
heffalumps 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, and seem to be a product
of Tigger's imagination. Heffalumps' first actual appearance was in the
television series The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. 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, with rabbit-like tails and stitches as would be found on
a stuffed animal. 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 woozles. One particular heffalump named Heff was
the dim-witted sidekick of Stan the Woozle and was afraid of Roo because he
thought Roo was a giant mouse. Piglet 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. 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 woozles, in the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Here, Tigger described them as honey-eating elephants. They and the
song are also featured in the attraction at Walt Disney World, also called The
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 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.
The protagonist in Richard Fariña's 1966 novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up
to Me 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 by Willem Frederik Bon. Expressen's Heffalump is an annual
literary prize awarded to year's best Swedish author for children and young
adults. A search for "heffalon" particles is the
subject of an April Fool's day paper posted on a scientific pre-print server.
Pooh's Heffalump Movie, released in 2005, looks at the differences between
the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood, and the Heffalumps, cleared up after Roo
becomes friends with a Heffalump named Lumpy. A sequel 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. References