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Christopher Robin Review
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Directed By: Marc Forster
Written By: Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, Allison Schroeder, Greg Brooker and Mark Steven Johnson; Based on the characters created by A.A. Milne and Ernest Shepard
Runtime: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for some action
Ewan McGregor – Christopher Robin
Hayley Atwell – Evelyn Robin
Bronte Carmichael – Madeline Robin
Mark Gatiss – Giles Winslow
Jim Cummings – Winnie the Pooh/Tigger
Brad Garrett – Eeyore
Nick Mohammed – Piglet
Peter Capaldi – Rabbit
Sophie Okonedo – Kanga
Sara Sheen – Roo
Toby Jones – Owl
Disney brings its Winnie the Pooh franchise out of the mothballs with a new live-action film, Christopher Robin. The film arrives in theaters almost a year after the biopic, Goodbye Christopher Robin, which featured the real-life people and events that inspired the original Winnie the Pooh story. That particular film focused on the relationship between A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin Milne, of who the young boy of the same name in the original Winnie the Pooh stories was based. Goodbye Christopher Robin was an interesting examination on post-war trauma and also a very early example of child celebrity, as the success of Milne’s stories thrust his young son in the spotlight.
The new Christopher Robin feature from Disney and filmmaker Marc Forster instead opts for a more fictional, supernatural and juvenile take. Ewan McGregor stars as the Christopher Robin from the stories, grown up and living in London with his own family. However, his adventures with Winnie the Pooh and their friends were all real, with the Hundred Acre Wood being a real place that simply exists on the other side of a magic treehouse, similar to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
McGregor’s Robin had to leave his friends behind after he was sent off to boarding school. Adult life took over as he had to fight in the war and eventually married Evelyn (Atwell) and started a family with her. Together, they share a daughter named Madeline (Carmichael). Unfortunately, Robin has become a stereotypical working father, giving up time with his family to an uncaring boss, Giles Winslow (Gatiss), while his wife and daughter sulk that they must go on holiday by themselves.
Meanwhile in the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh wakes up unable to find any of his friends, and his home has become a much drearier place without Christopher Robin around for the last 30 years. When Robin is forced to stay in London at work to manage a business crisis, while his family goes away on holiday, Pooh Bear is unexpectedly thrust back into his life. And it seems Pooh has arrived when Robin needed a friend the most. The most likely, predictable and expected events soon follow.
Christopher Robin is a fairly watchable, yet more than a little pedestrian, family movie. Its clearly aimed at a lower age set. Thankfully, Christopher Robin does not depict these characters in the outright offensive and low-brow manner Sony’s Peter Rabbit did earlier this year, which was awful.
The movie is incredibly predictable, and it’s basically family movie 101. At the same time, once Christopher Robin does reconnect with Pooh and his other friends of the Hundred Acre Wood, there’s an undeniable charm. Most of the narrative’s untapped potential comes from the characters interacting with the real world of 1950s London. There’s far too little of Pooh and his friends experiencing the real world.
Additionally, the writers and Forster essentially gloss over what could’ve been the most introspective and emotional moments. Goodbye Christopher Robin spends a great deal of time with the pain and trauma A.A. Milne experienced coming home from the Great War, as well as the pain of his son going off to fight in another world war. The idea of Christopher Robin being a war veteran is introduced, but the script seldom addresses it.
Obviously, Christopher Robin is aimed and small children and families. It’s understandable that there wasn’t much thought given to such a harsh and painful subject, but that’s where some of the interesting questions could’ve come up for the story. Did Christopher Robin going to war cause him to let go of his childish friends and dreams? Did thoughts of Pooh Bear give him comfort in his darkest hours? Unfortunately, such questions are never truly addressed.
Jim Cummings is still in top form voicing Pooh and Tigger. Brad Garrett is probably the best vocal performer as Eeyore since Peter Cullen, and he easily has some of the best lines and moments in the film.
Hayley Atwell is great, but her talents are somewhat wasted in a rather thankless role playing Christopher Robin’s concerned wife. There are hints of her character having artistic talents that are not really explored.
Additionally, little time is spent on addressing whether Pooh and his friends were imaginary creatures who existed in Christopher Robin’s dreams or something else. Here, they are magical creatures from another dimension, and there’s little elaboration. They exist, and they can interact with the world and people around them. Not much time is really spent on this device. The appearance is that the filmmakers simply want the audience to accept this reality and not focus on any questions that may arise from it.
The design choices for the animal characters are strange. While characters such as Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo look like stuffed animals that have come to life, Rabbit and Owl are animated in a more realistic fashion. They are the odd ones out in this story and have little to do either. Stylistically, the rendering of Rabbit and Owl comes off as a conflicting, if not lazy, choice in terms of design.
Regardless, Christopher Robin is fairly innocuous, inoffensive and uncynical family entertainment. It’s far from a family masterpiece, and the plot is woefully predictable. However, the charm of these characters, even in a live-action setting, is undeniable. Pooh getting into mischief is still amusing.
