Piglet (Winnie-the-Pooh)

:"This article is about the character in Winnie-the-Pooh. For the real-world animal, see Pig."

Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's "Winnie-the-Pooh" books. Piglet is a baby pig who is the best friend of Winnie-the-Pooh. Despite the fact that he is a "Very Small Animal" with a generally timid disposition, he often conquers his fears and seems to want to be brave.

Like most of the Pooh characters, Piglet was based on one of Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed animals. In the original color versions of Ernest H. Shepard's illustrations in the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Piglet has pale pink skin and a green jumper. He is the second shortest of the animals, with only Roo being slightly smaller (although they are close enough in size that Kanga cannot tell the difference when Piglet jumps in her pouch instead of Roo). His voice is described as "squeaky".

Piglet is introduced in the text of Chapter III of Winnie-the-Pooh, although he is shown earlier in one of the illustrations for Chapter II (helping to pull Pooh out of Rabbit's door). He also appears in Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X of that book, as well as being one of the few characters to appear in all ten chapters of "The House at Pooh Corner".

His adventures in the first book include hunting Woozles, attempting to capture Heffalumps, giving Eeyore a birthday balloon (popped), impersonating Roo in an attempt to trick Kanga, joining the Expotition to the North Pole, and being trapped by a flood. In the second book, he helps build a house for Eeyore, meets Tigger, finds Small while trapped in a gravel pit, plays Poohsticks, gets lost in the mist, and helps rescue Pooh and Owl after they are trapped in Owl's fallen house. For that last feat, Piglet is the subject of a seven-verse "Respectful Pooh Song" that Pooh composes for him.

Piglet himself can read and write, at least well enough for short notes. In the illustrations for "The House at Pooh Corner", it appears that Piglet spells his own name "Piglit", although it is rendered as "Piglet" in the actual text even when describing his signature. In one chapter, Piglet is referred to as "Henry Pootel" by Christopher Robin, who claimed to not recognize Piglet after he was thoroughly cleaned by Kanga. Eeyore likes to refer to him as "Little Piglet".

Piglet's favorite food is acorns (or as the book often spells it, "haycorns"). At one point he plants one just outside his house, in hopes of someday having a handy supply.

Piglet lives in a "very grand house in the middle of a beech tree" in the Hundred Acre Wood, next to a sign which says "TRESPASSERS WILL". According to Piglet, that is short for "Trespassers William", his grandfather's name. Later in "The House at Pooh Corner", Eeyore mistakenly offers Piglet's house as a new home for Owl, after Owl's house had blown down. Piglet does a "Noble Thing" and agrees to let Owl have the house, at which point Pooh asks Piglet to live with him and Piglet accepts.

Piglet is best friends with Pooh, and also seems especially close to Christopher Robin. His other friends include Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore, and Tigger (even if the latter makes him nervous on occasion).

Disney cartoon version

Although featured in every Disney interpretation of Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet was originally omitted by Disney in the first Pooh film, "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (1966). According to the film's director, Wolfgang Reitherman, Piglet was replaced by Gopher, which was thought to have a more "folksy, all-American, grass-roots image". [ [http://www.pooh-corner.org/general.shtml The Page at Pooh Corner --- General Information] ]

Many familiar with the classic Milne books protested Disney's decision to exclude Piglet, and Disney relented. Piglet appeared in the next Pooh film, "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" (1968). John Fiedler provided the voice for Piglet from 1968 until his death on June 25, 2005 (his last appearance as Piglet's voice was in "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie").

Travis Oates has provided Piglet's voice since Fielder's death. He has voiced Piglet in "Kingdom Hearts II", "Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie" (only for the newest material since much of the dialogue is still voiced by Fielder [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457437/ Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie (2005) (V)] ] ) and the "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" television series.

Disney's interpretation of Piglet has pink skin and a magenta jumper.

Piglet can be found at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for meet and greets. He appears less frequently than Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore, but he is more common than the rare Rabbit. He also made a brief cameo in the 1988 movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", seen as the silhouette hanging onto the last car of a passing high-speed train that runs over the Dip truck in Toontown.

Piglet was featured as one of the guests in House of Mouse. It was one of John Fielder's last works before his death.

Kingdom Hearts

He has also appeared in "Kingdom Hearts" and its sequel. In "Kingdom Hearts", nihongo|Piglet|ピグレット|Piguretto is Pooh’s best friend in the 100 Acre Wood. Tiny and timid, Piglet is startled by just about anything and when that happens he covers his eyes with his floppy ears. He is voiced by John Fiedler in the English version of "Kingdom Hearts" and Travis Oates in the English version of "Kingdom Hearts II". He is voiced by Kiyoshi Komiyama in the Japanese version of "Kingdom Hearts" and Mitsuru Ogata in the Japanese version of "Kingdom Hearts II".

Influence on popular culture

"The Te of Piglet" was written by Benjamin Hoff following the publication of "The Tao of Pooh". Both books feature the original drawing of E. H. Shepard. "The Te of Piglet" details Piglet's exemplification of the Taoist concept of "virtue of the small".

Censorship

On June 17 2006, the Turkish center-left, secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper and the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper reported that the Disney cartoon version of Winnie-the-Pooh had been taken off the air in Turkey by the state broadcaster TRT. The ban was reportedly because Piglet is a pig, an animal considered unclean by Muslims. This story was subsequently picked up by the news agencies Agence_France-Presse [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/turkey-bans-winnie-the-pooh/2006/06/17/1149964785112.html "Turkey bans Winnie the Pooh" June 17, 2006 The Age quoting the AFP report] ] and Reuters [ [http://groups.google.de/group/alt.religion.islam/browse_thread/thread/852206d4820ace7e/ef3da5f7153970a3 "Piglet keeps Pooh off air" June 17, 2006 alt.religion.islam Newsgroup (via Google Groups) quoting the Reuters report] ] , and mentioned in the New York Times on June 19 [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E7DD1E31F93AA25755C0A9609C8B63 NYT article mentioning the AFP report on the alleged Winnie-the-Pooh ban] ] . Subsequently, much of the Turkish press picked up the story. Even before the incident, Winnie-the-Pooh videos were already in circulation in Turkey and widely available in stores; the move was considered controversial since Turkey, although predominantly Muslim, is a strictly secular state.

Eventually TRT reacted to the allegations, denying that a ban had ever been discussed, and announcing to air the cartoon "in the near future". [ [http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/trt-denies-it-has-banned-winnie-the-pooh "TRT denies it has banned Winnie-the-Pooh June 19, 2006 RNW Media Network Weblog] ] [ [http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=46598 "TRT denies 'Winnie the Pooh' ban" June 19, 2006 Turkish Daily News quoting an AFP report] ]

References

External links

* [http://lair2000.net/Pooh_Corner/pooh_characters/Animals.html Christopher Robin's Toys] – the inspiration for Piglet
* [http://www.piglettown.com/ Piglet Town.com]