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When Jim Cummings is sick, Winnie-the-Pooh disappears.

Cummings’ vocal cords give life to Disney’s animated Winnie-the-Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain created by A.A. Milne.

“Pooh is not quite a falsetto; he’s kind of like a high tenor, or a low tenor with a lot of rasp in there, just like a wind blowing through the cattails sort of sound,” the voice actor crooned in perfect Pooh timbre. “If I get an allergy or a cold, Pooh goes away, so I have to eat my vitamin C.

Pooh might suggest a remedy that soothes both the throat and tummy: honey.

Agoura Hills resident Cummings, 56, is a cartoon chameleon. He has been the voice of Pooh for Disney since 1988, then took over as Tigger.

Pooh and Tigger, however, are just two of the characters listed on Cummings’ 10-page “voiceography.”

You might have heard him as Kaa the snake in “The Jungle Book 2,” Ed the hyena in “The

Lion King” and assorted characters in “Aladdin,” “Antz,” Babe: Pig in the City,” “Bee Movie,” The Little Mermaid,” Pocahontas,” “Shrek” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

For Warner Bros., he’s Taz the Tasmanian devil (“the anti-Pooh,” he says). Other credits include “Animaniacs,” “Pinky and the Brain,” ”Curious George,” “King of the Hill,” “The Simpsons” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

And wildfire-prone California is proud to call him one of the voices of Smokey Bear.

“I do all the better bears,” said Cummings during an interview at his home.

Next up is his role as Ray, a laid-back, lovesick Cajun firefly in “The Princess and the Frog,” a new, traditionally 2-D animated Disney film set in New Orleans. The film, a musical, will have a score by Randy Newman and, in a first for Disney, a black princess. The movie, also featuring the voice of Oprah Winfrey (as the princess’ mom), is still in postproduction and scheduled for a December release.

This week, however, Cummings’ attention is on a certain boisterous tiger.

As the free-spirited Tigger on Disney Channel’s “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” which airs each morning, Cummings has received a 2009 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding performer in an animated program. The winner will be announced Saturday during the Creative Arts portion of the awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles; the more mainstream awards (such as honors for soap opera stars and talk show hosts, etc.) will be handed out Aug. 30 at L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre and televised on The CW.

Notice the Emmy category is titled “outstanding performer in an animated program,” not “outstanding voice.”

Cummings and his brethren truly are actors, not just script readers.

Brian Hohlfeld, executive director of “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” said that, to be a good voice actor, “you have to be an actor. People forget that. It’s not just the voice. There’s such a small group of people who do this because it’s really hard.”

With Cummings, he said, “you can see the physical changes in his face and body as he’s doing the voices.”

Cummings calls his work “acting for the ears.” Cartoons, he said, “are not called ‘animated’ for nothing.

“A lot of people think they draw the movie or cartoon first, but the fact is they record the voices first, then they animate to that,” he explained. “You can’t really draw comic timing out of thin air; you’ve got to hear it and go, ‘Oh, that I can draw.’”

Finding his voices

Cummings started out at the top of the cartoon chain, landing at animation exemplar Disney in the 1980s. Born and raised in Ohio, Cummings said he listened to Paul Winchell (the original voice of Tigger) and Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and many others) as a kid and thought, “Man, they’re having a great time.”

He didn’t have any formal stage or voice training, aside from a book about ventriloquism, but did act in plays as a child.

Onstage, he said, “I would rather be the wizard than the prince because the wizard was a little more interesting and had more cool stuff to do. I was doing accidental research for my career later in life.”

At age 19, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Cummings moved to the Big Easy. He worked as a deckhand on riverboats, and fulfilled his artsy side by designing and painting Mardi Gras floats, and performing as a drummer and singer in bands.

In 1979 Cummings, his first wife and their two daughters moved to California, where from 1979-84 he ran a video store in Anaheim Hills. While there, he made a demo voice tape, and was fortunate to get it into the right hands: a customer who was a movie producer.

“I got an audition out of that without an agent,” Cummings said.

He first real role was a plum Disney one, playing Lionel the Lion in “Dumbo’s Circus,” a TV show featuring live-action puppets.

Halfway through his 120-episode stint on “Dumbo’s Circus,” Cummings hired an agent and started working in radio and TV. (He also does voice-overs, movie trailers previews and commercials, everything from J.C. Penney to AutoZone.)

He moved from Anaheim to Westlake Village and the Santa Rosa Valley, then to Agoura Hills about three years ago. He and his wife Stephanie, who’ve been married for eight years, have two daughters, Gracie, 4, and Lulu, 2; Cummings’ older daughters are in their 20s.

Ducks and dust bunnies

Cummings is proud of some of his lesser-known roles, such as the title character in “Darkwing Duck,” an Emmy-nominated animated Disney program that aired in the early 1990s. Darkwing, “the terror that flaps in the night,” was a bumbling superhero in the town of St. Canard.

He’s also fond of a monster named Mr. Bumpy from “Bump in the Night.”

“He was this funky little guy who lived under the bed and thought eating dust bunnies was a delicacy,” Cummings said. “He was as cool as he could be, and ate dirty socks.”

In 1995, Cummings received an Annie Award nomination for voice acting as Mr. Bumpy but was beaten by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

The competition is stiff for this week’s Emmy Award, too, with celebs better known for their live-action work nominated in the animation category. Cummings is vying for the award with Amy Poehler (as Bessie Higgenbottom in “The Mighty B!” on Nickelodeon), Joan Rivers (Bubbe in “Arthur” on PBS), Vanessa Williams (Mama in “Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies” on PBS) and Jim Ward (Eyemore in “Biker Mice from Mars” on Fox).

“This year I’m going with either Vanessa or Amy,” Cummings said, summing up his competition. “I think folks go down the line and go: ‘Jim Cummings? I don’t really know who that is. Oh, Joan Rivers, Vanessa Williams, I love her; let’s vote for her.’ You can’t fight that. I understand why they do it.”

What does he think about the trend of celebrities taking on the lead voice roles in animated movies?

“I have some calls out to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Eddie Murphy,” Cummings said, laughing. “I said, ‘I won’t star in any blockbuster films if you stay out of animated films.’ They just won’t call me back.”

Cummings does get feedback, however, from another telephone venture, this one for charity.

Hundreds of sick children each year receive a phone call from one of the Hundred Acre Woods’ (and Agoura Hills’) famous denizens, Winnie-the-Pooh or Tigger, aka Cummings. He works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, and Famous Fone Friends, which connects sick kids to entertainers and athletes via phone.

Cummings recalled one such phone session with a little girl with cancer, not quite 3, who had been on chemotherapy for six months. “I had to gear up for that one,” he said. “‘I love you, Winnie-the-Pooh,’ she said. Stuff like that is so rewarding; it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Keeping it fresh

Cummings models his Pooh and Tigger voices after the men who first voiced the characters: Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell, respectively.

(Holloway died in 1992. Winchell, a Moorpark resident when he died in 2005, lived in Ventura County for more than 15 years.)

“That’s one thing I think Disney is right on the money with — they keep their characters sounding the same,” Cummings said. “They could run a Winnie-the-Pooh from the ’60s and one from 2008 and have the consistency there.”

Still, he said, “you don’t want to stagnate. You ad lib and do different things to keep it fresh.”

“My Friends Tigger and Pooh” director Hohlfeld said Cummings is “true to Sterling vocally, but he’s made it his own as well. Pooh is still the befuddled bear. Jim just brings more heart to it; his Pooh has a little more warmth.”

One thing you might not want to hear, however, is Pooh as pugilist.

Cummings “does a fantastic Mike Tyson imitation,” Hohlfeld said. “Sometimes he’ll do Pooh’s lines using Mike Tyson’s voice.”

He doesn’t even need to alter Pooh’s “I am a Bear of Very Little Brain” line.

Jim Cummings holds daughters Grace, 4, and Lulu, 2, near a garden statue of Taz the Tazmanian devil — he calls him “the anti-Pooh” — for which he also provides the voice.

In his 25 years being often heard and seldom seen, Jim Cummings has voiced a host of characters and won many honors. He’s up for a possible Daytime Emmy this year as outstanding performer for his work as Tigger’s voice.

Jim Cummings, a voice actor who´s done numerous animated characters since 1984, carries his daughter Lulu 2, out of their Curious George playhouse July 23, 2009.

Voice actor Jim Cummings rehearses a current project in his home studio in Agoura Hills. He’s been the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh for Disney since 1988 and does Tigger, too.

“It’s a tough job,” says the recognizable voice from the other end of the phone, “and somebody’s got to do it! It might as well be me. Hoo Hoo!”

To 40 years of fans the bouncy bravado can come from one of A.A. Milne’s most beloved creations, Tigger. The spring-tailed super-feline has been charming the socks off of kids since he exploded on the big screen in the Oscar-winning Disney short “Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day” back in 1968.

Of course, in those days, Pooh and Tigger were voiced by two legends in the acting field, Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell, respectively. Holloway passed away decades ago while Winchell left this plane in 2005.

So who is the voice on the other end of the line? Why the man who replaced both of them, a man who is not exactly considered a lightweight in the voice world either, Jim Cummings.

“I feel pretty honored to be walking in their footsteps,” says Cummings, back in his natural voice. “I honestly feel I’m the torchbearer for the trail they blazed. One thing I’ve learned is a generation, when you talk in terms of Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, is only about three years. After that amount of time, the last batch has grown to more mature things and you have a whole new batch of sweetie pies out there all enamored with Winnie The Pooh. I’ve got some of my own, so I know what it’s like.”

Indeed, Cummings does. He started in animation in the mid-80s, quickly picking up work on Transformers (Afterburner), Duck Tales (El Capitan) and Chip’n Dale’s Rescue Rangers (Monterey Jack).  His incredible range and versatility was noted by no less than Mel Blanc, who was quoted as telling the industry to look out for Cummings.

“This guy’s really got something,” Blanc said, a line Cummings likes to use a lot these days. Who can blame him?

His real breakthrough into lead work came in 1988, when he did his first job as Pooh in Winnie The Pooh Friend-ship: Tigger-ific Tales. As intimated before, Holloway was long gone from this planet, but Paul Winchell was still Tigger at that time. Cummings would first step into the role of Tigger in 1996 with a Pooh Halloween special entitled Boo To You, Too. Things started to get interesting after that.

“I absolutely did know Paul,” says Cummings. “I knew him well during the last years of his life, when he was going back and forth from South Africa, doing research. He was really like Da Vinci. He designed one of the prototypes for one of the first artificial hearts. He was also going back and forth to Africa to try and solve some of the hunger problems there. In fact, how I got the role of Tigger is initially when he would go I would pinch hit for him.”

Indeed. In 1998, on A Winnie The Pooh Thanksgiving special, both Cummings and Winchell are credited on the role of the terrific tiger. By 1999, it was handed over completely to Cummings with The Tigger Movie. From that point on, Cummings would voice both Pooh and Tigger. There’s some controversy over the transition. Rumors said Winchell didn’t take losing the job too well, apparently. Cummings has his own point of view.

“What actually happened is they decided to recast the entire cast,” he says. “They then did some tests and I came in first as Pooh and second on Tigger. Now when Paul was around, he was certainly Tigger. Then in 1999 he apparently decided to retire and I’ve been the voices of Tigger and Pooh since then, full time.”

If you want to see just how stellar Cummings’ work (with or without Winchell) truly is, you’d find no better example than the just re-released, 10th Anniversary edition of The Tigger Movie.

Originally released in 2000, the film revolves around Tigger realizing he really is, as his song about himself declares, “the only one” of his kind. As far as he knows, he has no family, no family tree. This sets him on a quest that is probably one of the darkest in the Pooh universe, actually putting the characters in the equivalent of life-threatening situations.

Of course, it gets resolved; it’s a Pooh movie after all. Still, with songs from the legendary Sherman Brothers, solid directing and screenplay by Jun Falkenstein and a voice cast that includes the likes of the late John Fiedler (Piglet), Peter Cullen (Eeyore) and John Hurt (Narrator), it stands as one of the best of the post-60s Pooh films made.

Another reason, obviously, is Cummings work on both Tigger and Pooh. The DVD includes some earlier Pooh projects; ones where Winchell and Cummings worked together. The amazing thing is Cummings’ Tigger is almost indistinguishable from Winchell’s. Then again, it seems Cummings has created a solid routine about both these characters.

“Actually, I would do Winnie first,” says Cummings. “Then I would bounce over to do my Tigger chores. Pooh is a little bit easier to do. He’s a little higher in register, which is another reason why I address him first. Actually, the voice of Pooh comes from a different spot in the instrument than Tigger.

“Then again, I think it’s important to keep the performances pristine. I don’t want any spillover. I’m one of those guys who doesn’t take himself very seriously, but I do take my work very seriously. As a result I try to put out the best that I can because–My gosh!–they go out and stay out there forever.”

Apparently this kind of work habits have truly paid off for Cummings. If you look under his name on the IMDB, he is listed in over 300 different animation projects.

“I don’t know who at the IMDB puts all that I’ve done on there, but bless their hearts because I wouldn’t have done it,” Cummings says with tongue firmly planted in cheek. “Then again, I’m glad someone did. What can I tell you? It was the stuff that used to get me kicked out of class. The joke’s on them now. The dog barking in the back of the room was always me. Now I get paid to do Tigger.”

In fact, he’s still being paid to do Tigger, and that willy nilly silly old honey loving bear, Pooh, too. During the interview he also did a mean version of Eeyore (although one gets the impression Peter Cullen’s job is safe in that department). His more recent work in that arena was a TV movie entitled Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too, and before that a Disney CGI series entitled My Friends Tigger & Pooh. In between he’s appeared in everything from Star Wars Clone Wars (Hondo) to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Pete), subbed for Dustin Hoffman on The Secrets of the Furious Five D2D and will be in the upcoming Disney feature film The Princess and the Frog.

In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised if, at this rate, he is rapidly approaching his 500th or so job.

“…Well, someone’s gotta do it!” Cummings again says in his Tigger voice…and it feels right when he says it, too.

The wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things. But being the only one starts to lose its bounce in “The Tigger Movie” which finds Winnie the Pooh’s buddy searching for his family. To celebrate the release of the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD, we spoke to Jim Cummings, who gives voice to the cuddly Hundred Acre Wood’s fella.

What was the most fun part of the “The Tigger Movie” for you?
[Sings] The Whoop-de-Dooper Loop-de-Looper?Alley-Ooper Bounce! That was great, because it was when I originally met the Sherman Brothers, Dick and Robert Sherman. They are true characters and have so many Academy Awards and Grammys. They wrote all the songs from “Jungle Book,” “Mary Poppins” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” It was like meeting the musical Smithsonian Institute, you know? It was wonderful working with them and definitely one of the highlights of “The Tigger Movie.”

And do you have a favorite part of this new 10th anniversary DVD?
You know what? I don’t know what’s in there. They never tell me anything. Honestly, I love Disney, but get a load of this…Winnie the Pooh had his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and they didn’t tell me. I’ve been doing the voice of Winnie the Pooh since 1987 and Disney doesn’t call! As much as you love them, its not like they want to make you the star—they want the character to be the star, which is cool. I understand that. [And] who knows? Maybe they’re afraid I’ll ask for a raise. [Laughs]

You might if you win the Daytime Emmy (broadcast August 30th) this year! What an honor, especially considering the competition: Joan Rivers, Vanessa Williams, Amy Poehler and Jim Ward…
Yeah, knock on wood. This is the third time I’ve been nominated. I would love it, I would just be threw the roof, but I’m trying to lower my expectations when you’re up against Hollywood actors like this.

On December 11, “The Princess and the Frog” hits theaters, which introduces the first black Disney Princess.
My little girls, Lulu and Gracie, are of mixed race and every time I play the teaser trailer for Gracie, who is 4, she’ll look and say, “Daddy, that’s me!” Then the firefly, my character, will come on, and she’ll say, “And that’s my daddy!” We’re very excited—it’s going to be great.

Of the several hundred voices you have done, which hold a special place in your heart?
Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, Don Karnage from TaleSpin, and there was a great little guy called Mr. Bumpy on an ABC series called Bump in the Night. It’s the stuff that used to get me kicked out of class, now the joke’s on them.

Looking back on your 25-year career, what are you proudest of?
Being able to bring these characters, especially Pooh and Tigger, to new generations. I just feel like a torchbearer—it’s really a blessing. I work with the Make a Wish Foundation and it’s so rewarding to put a smile on the face of a little girl who’s undergoing chemotherapy. Those are the best things—there’s no money there, but boy, it’s worth a million dollars.