"Heffalumps and Woozles" is a song featured in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and later The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It is sung by the Mellomen (portrayed by four talking honey pots at some points, but mostly offscreen) during Pooh's nightmare caused by Tigger. During it, Pooh is terrorized by Heffalumps and Woozles until he awakens.
This song was included on the VHS Disney Sing Along Songs: Be Our Guest and Sing a Song with Pooh Bear.
Visual Sequence
After being told about Heffalumps and Woozles by Tigger, Pooh becomes worried that they will try to steal his honey. He stands guard over his honey pots until he falls asleep and has a dream about them.
In the beginning of the dream, Pooh floats out of his body and flies down to the ground as Tigger's voice tells him that Heffalumps and Woozles steal honey. He lands in a dreamy area, still asleep, when suddenly a group of singing honey pots, the same ones he fell asleep guarding, appear and warn him to beware of the Heffalumps and Woozles. He listens to them until, to his surprise, they suddenly vanish. As he looks around for them (which are continuing to sing), they reappear and begin chanting that he must beware. He gets scared by their sudden reappearance and runs away from them.
Pooh runs off, looking behind him in case the honey pots are following. Up ahead, a large green and yellow checkered Heffalump is bending over with its face to the ground. Pooh, still looking behind him, runs right up its trunk and smacks into its face, landing on top of the its trunk as it stands up swiftly, launching him into the air. It bats him away, transforming into a Woozle as it does so. Its head then turns back into a Heffalump's, but its body remains that of a Woozle.
The Heffalump smiles mischievously as the scene zooms in on its eyes, which merge together and turn into a blue and pink Heffalump, which then splits into two. They look at each other, wink, and then multiply rapidly to create a large group, before the scene zooms out to show that they all are designs on the shirt of a large male Heffalump with an umbrella, a hat, and a yo-yo. As he plays with the yo-yo, the smaller ones on his shirt dance, then suddenly vanish, and he collapses, transforming into a smaller one in a red shirt (much like the one Pooh wears) as he stands back up.
The Heffalump then lifts up his hat and becomes a Woozle, who waggles his eyebrows at the viewer, and then suddenly turns into a pot of honey, which begins to bounce (when the fat Heffalump collapses, his umbrella and a yo-yo both fly out of his hands and off-screen, but his hat just flies up and lands back on his head, and when the Woozle becomes a honey pot his hat then lands on it, acting as its lid).
Pooh runs over to the honey pot and picks it up, but then a transparent Heffalump, just a head with no body (but still wearing the hat), suddenly appears from out of it. Pooh stumbles back in surprise and falls down, pulling the Heffalump down with him. It flinches as they fall, but then begins to happily gulp down the honey.
Pooh stares at the transparent Heffalump as it eats. Though it starts as just a head, after only a few gulps it has grown a full body, which begins to swell rapidly as it eats the honey. As it reaches what seems a normal size, Pooh looks down at the honey pot (likely to see how much is left in it) as the Heffalump continues to guzzle up its contents, still growing as it does. When Pooh looks back up at it, it has grown extremely fat, nearly filling the screen, and is still growing. Pooh starts to check the honey pot again, but as he does so the Heffalump takes one gulp too many and explodes, sending Pooh, the hat, and the honey pot flying. Pooh tries to hold on to the pot, but loses his grip as the force of the exploding Heffalump launches him away.
A female Heffalump and male Woozle skip rope while showing off their powers. They first change their colors, then the Heffalump turns into a sphere while the Woozle turns into a cube (the jump rope vanishes). They stand up and glare menacingly at the screen, then tie themselves in knots. They then untie themselves and change their patterns as they pose, the Heffalump making herself striped as the Woozle covers himself with spots.
The honey pots warn Pooh to beware again as he tries to hide from them. He ignores the warnings of the honey pots and tries to run away from them, but stops in surprise. It turns out that he has almost run into a parade of Heffalumps and Woozles. The Woozle bandleader transforms his nose into a flute and begins to march while playing it.
Then, a beautiful blue female Heffalump wearing a red hair bow and a turquoise blue tutu walks behind a walking honey pot, flapping her arms as she walks. She takes the lid off the pot, but it starts to laugh crazily and stumble around, and she slams the lid back on, then continues following the pot. Three Woozles and a large Heffalump with a tuba for a trunk march behind the Woozle bandleader. The tuba Heffalump accidentally steps on the tail of one of the Woozles, who falls over, and before he can stand up, the Heffalump stomps first on his butt, then on his head, squishing him.
Pooh walks along happily, carrying a honey pot which resembles the one he took from the transparent Heffalump. A bee-like Heffalump flies right behind him, buzzing loudly, but he doesn't notice her. She taps him on the head with her trunk, and when he turns to look, she grabs the honey pot from him and flies off.
Pooh chases the bee, but falls down and is laughed at by a trio of Jack-in-the-Box Woozles. The bee, happily holding the honey pot with her trunk, dives to the ground and turns herself into a lake of honey. A beautiful pink female Heffalump wearing a red hair bow and a pink tutu and a handsome brown male Heffalump wearing a tuxedo outfit and a top hat come out of the lake, both covered in honey from swimming in it. The female Heffalump bats her eyelashes at the male, they fall in love with each other, and begin to dance with each other as a spotlight appears and focuses on them, while another beautiful female pink Heffalump wearing a necklace and a light blue hair bow plays a harp made of honey on her tummy, and a blue Woozle rope-charmer with a turban plays a flute and makes a rope come out of a large honey pot.
Pooh comes out of the pot and climbs up the rope. When he gets to the top of it, he and the Woozle notice each other at the same time and he leans over to see the Woozle's flute, however the Woozle blows it in his face. He tries to back away, but the Woozle blows it for a third time and makes him disappear. Then two young male Heffalumps with yellow eyes and wearing collars on their necks play accordion music with their trunks.
The dream then shifts away from the lake of honey to a stormier-looking area. A small flying Heffalump sees Pooh walking past with a red honey pot, laughs, and dives at him, but instead smashes into the ground and transforms into a larger Heffalump in a military uniform with a pop gun for a nose. He marches behind Pooh, who doesn't notice him, then crouches down, shaking his butt in the air, and sucks in his trunk as he takes aim. Then, he shoots Pooh in the back with his pop gun.
Pooh goes flying. The lid flies off the honey pot but Pooh holds tightly onto it. As he flies, he ends up getting it stuck on his head. He bounces off the ground and continues flying forward until he flies into the trunk of a Heffalump that has a stick of dynamite attached to his head, making him flinch and close his eyes as he goes skidding backwards.
Pooh's butt is too big to fit, and he gets stuck in the Heffalump's trunk, with only his butt and legs sticking out. He looks at Pooh as he kicks wildly, trying to get out.
But as the Heffalump watches Pooh's attempts to get free, a uniformed Woozle marches over from behind the Heffalump and pulls out a large match, banging it on the ground and then twirling it until the Heffalump notices him. As soon as the Heffalump notices the match, the Woozle places it on the end of his trunk and slides it into his face, lighting it. He closes his eyes to avoid the fire, then opens them and looks for where the match went.
The Heffalump looks up right as the Woozle lights the dynamite on his head. He squeezes his eyes tightly shut as the Woozle tosses the match aside. The Woozle leans in to check the fuse, opening his eyes for the first time. He sees it burn up fully, panics, and runs away.
Pooh continues kicking in an effort to free himself, but the dynamite goes off and the Heffalump explodes. Pooh falls to the ground with the honey pot still stuck to his head.
Pooh tries to pull the honey pot off his head, but it covers him with honey as it transforms into a hot air balloon Heffalump. The honey turns into the balloon's basket and carries away Pooh, who fruitlessly tries to grab hold of the ground. The balloon carries him into the sky, where a number of other Heffalump balloons are.
All the balloons have empty honey pots attached to them in place of baskets (including Pooh's), except for a green Heffalump one right next to it. It notices that its pot is full of honey, smiles widely, and begins to eat it (Pooh, however, actually noticed its honey even before it did, and was staring at it almost as soon as he could see it).
As the green balloon happily eats the honey, Pooh tries to grab the honey pot from it. Realizing he can't reach it, he jumps over to the balloon. He barely makes it, managing to grab onto the pot and hang from the side. His added weight pulls it down, preventing the Heffalump from reaching it.
Thunder and lightning flash as Pooh hears the voices of the singing honey pots again, warning him once more that the Heffalumps and Woozles are everywhere. As he looks down and around at them all, the balloon whose honey pot he is holding onto begins to swing wildly back and forth, attempting to shake him off so it can resume eating the honey. But right as it seems he is about to lose his grip on the pot, the balloon shrinks and vanishes in a flash of light.
Before Pooh can react, the balloon is replaced by a watering can Heffalump. He tries to grab onto its trunk to avoid falling, but it douses him with water.
As Pooh falls from the sky, an umbrella suddenly appears next to him. He grabs it and floats down, until he lands back in his body and wakes up from his dream to discover that his house has flooded (in one version of the Disneyland ride, he instead wakes up to find that he has climbed a honey tree in his sleep, and begins to eat the honey, commenting, "What a wonderful dream!").
Lyrics
Tigger: Heffalumps and Woozles, Heffalumps and Woozles steal honey, beware, beware!
They're black, they're brown, they're up, they're down
They're in, they're out, they're all about
They're far, they're near, they're gone, they're here
They're quick and slick, they're insincere
Beware, beware
Be a very wary bear
A Heffalump or Woozle
Is very "confuzle"
A Heffalump or Woozle's very sly
Sly, sly, sly
They come in ones and twosles
But if they so choozles
Before your eyes you'll see them multiply
Ply, ply, ply
They're extraordinary
So better be wary
Because they come in every shape and size
Size, size, size
If honey's what you covet
You'll find that they love it
Because they'll guzzle up the thing you prize
They're green, they're blue, they're pink, they're white
They're round, they're square, they're a terrible sight
They tie themselves in horrible knots
They come in stripes or polka dots
Beware, beware
Be a very wary bear
(Musical interlude)
They're extraordinary
So better be wary
Because they come in every shape and size
Size, size, size
If honey's what you covet
You'll find that they love it
Because they'll guzzle up the things you prize
They're black, they're brown, they're up, they're down
They're in, they're out, they're all about
They're far, they're near, they're gone, they're here
They're quick and slick, they're insincere
Beware, beware
Beware, beware
Beware!
Trivia
- In some languages, the "Heffalumps and Woozles" pun has been slightly modified, as the names of the Heffalumps and Woozles in these languages look more like the real words for "elephants" and "weasels". For example, in French, where elephant is "éléphant" and weasel "Fouines", they basically just reversed some letters, making "Ephélants et Nouifes". Same goes for the Arabic term for Heffalumps.
- Elements of the song are played earlier when Pooh heard growling and banging noises outside his house that turn out to be Tigger.
- The song is very similar to "Pink Elephants on Parade".
- In the soundtrack version of the song, the lyrics describing the colors and patterns on the Heffalumps and Woozles has been left out.
