Christopher Robin (2018)

Movie Info

I’ll be your friend forever…until I forget and abandon you in the woods

Christopher Robin (Orton O’Brien) is forced to grow up when he goes to boarding school.  Joining the war effort, Robin (Ewan McGregor) finds love and a job…and puts childish things behind him.  Now, Robin is stuck at a job at a luggage manufacturer and hounded by his boss for cuts.  His wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) is seeing less and less of him and his daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) is soon going to boarding school like Christopher.  When Christopher encounters his old bear Winnie the Pooh, Christopher finds himself on an adventure and rediscovering his childhood…but is it too late to save his job and family?

Directed by Marc Forster, Christopher Robin is a Disney family drama.  The movie is based on the A.A. Milne books of Winnie-the-Pooh which were first published in 1926 and focused around Milne’s son Christopher Robin.  The film was released to a strong box office and average reviews.  The movie received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Dude…Christopher. You’re such a buzzkill

Christopher Robin isn’t a movie I would normally seek out.  I never was a huge fan of Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh designs and preferred the original.  Christopher Robin shows Disney crashing together with the original Winnie-the-Pooh…in a rather depressing story.

Christopher Robin is essentially Hook.  You have Christopher being an adult who has lost his dreaming, with his family disliking him, and a depressing job.  He rediscovers this childhood and essentially is reborn.  It’s the same plot with more subtle looks.  Unlike Hook, the story keeps focusing on the depressing part, and like Toy Story 3, it has you questioning if you have mistreated your childhood toys that meant so much to you.

The actors feel really uninspired in this general family film.  Ewan McGregor doesn’t seem to capture the joy of being young and free in the same way he captured it in movies like Big Fish or Moulin Rouge which both featured dreamers.  Hayley Atwell also doesn’t have much to do in the film with her character just wanting more from her husband.

We should be the stars…

The characters of the Hundred Acre Woods are pretty spectacular to look at, but the mix is odd.  Pooh comes off as more annoying in the real world and Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore are both more interesting and underplayed than the “lead” character of Pooh.  I do like how they appear in the environment, but I wish the story was more developed to better incorporate the characters (it was rather odd that they really were “alive” since everyone could see it).

Christopher Robin feels like filler movie.  This means it isn’t good, it isn’t bad, but it passes time, and doesn’t leave you feeling much at the end.  It tries to induce emotions by playing on classic tropes of “getting old and growing up”, but the movie doesn’t seem to offer anything new…and I can’t imagine enjoying it as a kid.

Related Links:

The 91st Academy Award Nominations

The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (1977)

Winnie the Pooh (2011)

The Tigger Movie (2000)