Emily S. Whitten Interviews Jim Cummings

Winnie the Pooh Tigger

Is there aaaaanyone here who hasn’t seen at least a video clip of Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger Too at some point? I know I’ve seen plenty – Winnie-the-Pooh was a part of my childhood, and is now a part of the childhood of this Auntie Em’s little nephew and nieces. And would it blow your mind to learn that since the 1990s, Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger too have been…dun dun duuuuunthe same person? Because they have! Well, at least when it comes to the guy who does their voices.

This is one of the things I adore about voice actors – how versatile they are, and how they can do so many voices that just sound nothing like each other; even when the characters are in conversation together. It’s really amazing.

If you know anything about voice actors, you’ll know that when I talk about the voice of Pooh and Tigger, I’m talking about the epically talented voice actor and voice of all of our childhoods, Jim Cummings. Along with Pooh and Tigger, Jim’s voices include The Terror That Flaps in the Night (Darkwing Duck]! I watched that show religiously); Disney’s Pete (Goof Troop, yay!); Mr. Bumpy of Bump in the Night (My tiny hamster Squishington approves); Looney Tunes’ Tazmanian Devil; Ray from The Princess and the Frog; Fat Cat and Monterey Jack from Rescue Rangers; and sooooo many others.

I had a chance to chat with Jim about his work while at Awesome Con 2015 in Washington DC (and if you missed my previous coverage, check out my con round-up and my interview with voice actor Jess Harnell at the links), and it was a real pleasure. We discussed all sorts of things, including his approach to voicing legacy characters versus original characters, the recording process, singing as a character, and advice for aspiring voice actors. And, of course, he bounced (as Tigger would say) into character and did a few voices for me, as well!

You can check out the video of my interview with the amazing Jim Cummings here. And if you prefer the audio instead, you can head over to SoundCloud here and give it a listen.

So enjoy! And until next time, go have yourself a snack (maybe a smackerel of honey?) and Servo Lectio!