BY LARRY CARROLL | When I went to Disneyland for the first time, the place didn't carry much more resonance for me than your run-of-the-mill amusement park. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy were characters that I may have been familiar with, but they seemed to belong to other generations - so they didn't hold much magic for me. While my parents and grandparents had grown up watching the Walt Disney cartoons that made those characters famous, my experience was little more than the occasional snippet of "Steamboat Willie" that would pop up on TV from time to time. The fact is, those classic Disney characters haven't been relevant to children since the mid-Sixties, and now exist as little more than icons for a brand name.

But when you really think about it, virtually all children's entertainment goes that way. As we get older and grow more skeptical, we begin to see the flaws in what we once held sacred. That, combined with a corporate desire to milk every last dollar out of us all, is usually enough to do in anything. The things that did hold the "magic" for those post-Mickey kids - Looney Tunes, The Muppets, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, etc. - have already begun to lose their hold on successive generations. Space Jam, Muppet Treasure Island, The Phantom Menacethis stuff doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the original works that made us fall in love with those characters. And children aren't stupid - they move right on to something that will bring the magic to them, whether it's Pokemon, Harry Potter or whichever superhero movie has come out in a given month.

How refreshing is it, then, to consider the world of Winnie the Pooh. A.A. Milne created the Hundred Acre Wood and its inhabitants some eighty years ago (with some significant help from illustrator E.H. Shepard), and the stories have remained popular with every successive generation of children. It's amazing that the characters have endured through all the books, television shows and movies - but what's more amazing is how intact that original vision remains so many years after the death of the creator. We've never had to suffer through Tigger and Christopher Robin doing a 1-800-Collect commercial. We've never had to wince as a "Jerry Lewis"-type clown was introduced to liven things up. Nobody has ever made a Pooh live-action CGI movie starring Matthew Lillard. And this is something to be thankful for - now, in 2003, the child in your life can still experience a new "Pooh" product very similar to what you remember from your youth.

Piglet's Big Movie is the latest slice of innocence to come along courtesy of a hopping tiger, a depressed mule, a bear with a big appetite, and their friends. It isn't a complicated movie - Piglet gets lost and the others look for him - but it does the trick quite nicely. Children from two to twelve will smile from the first frame to the last, as will parents filled with their own warm memories of Milne's creations.

Piglet, the tiniest member of Winnie's gang, has always been relegated to side-kick to a side-kick status, spending most of the last eighty years watching Pooh and Tigger get all the good material. But not anymore - Big Movie gives the little guy a chance to shine, fueled by a "small people can do big things" message that will resonate with its target audience. It all starts when the rest of the group come up with a haphazard scheme to trick some bees into giving up their honey. When everything goes wrong (would we expect anything different?), Piglet steps in and saves their hides yet again, but they don't even thank him. Distraught from his lack of recognition, the pink guy wanders off into the woods to do some thinking.

Pooh and the others eventually realize that Piglet is missing, and they head to his house to find clues. What they discover is an animated scrapbook of his memories, prompting them to remember all the times that Piglet helped them out. Bringing the book along, they head out into the wood to find their friend and remind him of how important he is to them.

That framework gives way to three stories, all taken from 1920's Milne texts previously unadapted for film. Some are stronger than others, but none are anything less than delightful to watch. My personal favorite takes place when the gang sets out to find "the north pole", which eventually turns out to be a wooden pole on the other side of the acre. Another tells the story of Kanga and Roo moving into the neighborhood, and the group's initial reluctance to accept them. The final story, which has Piglet and Pooh designing a house for Eeyore, is so heartwarming that when the friends all pile into the little home on top of each other, it'll make you wish you could jump in there too.

These characters bring a warmth to your heart, and a big part of that is the voiceover talents that make them come to life. John Fielder has been performing the skittish, soft-spoken voice of Piglet ever since Walt himself gave him the job in 1968. Jim Cummings, who provides both the honey-like mellowness of Pooh and the manic exuberance of Tigger, is Mel Blanc-like in his ability to carry on both ends of a conversation with two distinct voices. Peter Cullen (Eeyore), Ken Sansom (Rabbit), Kath Soucie (Kanga) and Andre Stojka (Owl) are all veterans of the series to varying degrees, and each give the characters a great zest. Listening to them all, it makes you wonder how many recent animated films could have been better if they had gone with appropriately cast voiceover artists rather than big name celebrities.

Big Movie is solid entertainment, but there are a few things holding it back from taking that next step to "classic" status. The "remember the time we did this" narrative device sometimes teeters on the edge of sitcom clip-show laziness, leaving you with an underwhelmed feeling that the main story really isn't really worth telling. Carly Simon writes and performs several new songs in the film, none of which are bad, but none are very memorable, either. Also, her non-animated appearance at the end of the film may scare some young children - it had that effect on me.

Director Francis Glebas (the "Pomp and Circumstance" segment of Fantasia 2000) strips everything to its bare essence and allows the audience to revel in the little things - Piglet helping a ladybug cross two leaves, Pooh going back for another cookie, Eeyore sitting there with that rain cloud over his head. Everyone shows up for at least a cameo - Rabbit, Christopher Robin, Owl - and they're all exactly as you remember them. Piglet's Big Movie is a success for those who love these characters, but it also would make an excellent introduction for the uninitiated. And if the child in your life has yet to make a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood, what are you waiting for? This is one childhood memory that will be shared for many years to come.

GRADE: B+