English author A. A. Milne had moderate success as a novelist but gained the highest level of notoriety in 1926 when he first published Winnie-the-Pooh. The rest, folks, is history. Disney has put up some good works over the decades but interest seemed to have trailed off over the last quarter century. Marc Forster, known for movies such as Monster’s Ball (2001), Machine Gun Preacher (2011) and World War Z (2013), has going totally off script to bring audiences a classic blast from the past. It’s difficult to anticipate what type of movie Forster will give audiences as he has completely stepped away from his bread and butter, although he did give us the extremely solid Finding Neverland (2004). How will Christopher Robin turn out? Let’s find out.
Christopher Robin starts off with the young version of this character as he says goodbye to his friends in The Hundred Acre Wood. Young Christopher has plans to return but life would have other ideas. Soon his special visit to this fun place became an almost forgotten afterthought as the years passed by. Now, Christopher (Ewan McGregor) has started a family of his own and works tirelessly to provide for them. In doing so, he has become all work and no play. Alienating his wife (Hayley Atwell) and daughter (Bronte Carmichael) are unintended consequences of Christopher putting in extra hours to maybe save jobs at his struggling job. He almost reaches a breaking point when some old friends come back into his life just in the nick of time. Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore give Christopher a not-so-gentle reminder of what it’s like to live a fun care-free lifestyle. As it turns out, this may be just the type of medicine he needs to get him out of this adult funk.
Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell and Bronte Carmichael do great jobs humanizing their characters with both the triumphs and struggles as they try to find their collective happy place. And the voice talents of the lovable little animals also deserve their praise. Jim Cummings (Pooh/Tigger), Nick Mohammed (Piglet), Peter Capaldi (Rabbit), Sophie Okonedo (Kanga), Sara Sheen (Roo) and Toby Jones (Owl) give their characters proper voice to their characters and help them become even more complete characters. I’m taking time to dedicate this next part to Brad Garrett who voices Eeyore. For me, Brad Garrett steals any scenes in which he’s given a speaking part. The deep sulky voice of Garrett captures the essence of his character perfectly. You won’t be able to help yourself whenever he starts talking. Love. Love. Love.
One of the things that Christopher Robin does, and does it well I might add, is that it puts more of the focus on the human character aka Christopher and his point of view on everything rather than retelling the same story from Pooh Bear’s perspective that we’ve seen so many times before. There is a freshness about this story which is what helps put it over the top. And bringing in his life as an adult separates this story even further.
Christopher Robin packs a nostalgic punch that will take you back to when movies were cute and pure almost all of the time, rather than being the exception to the rule. Parents taking children to meet Winnie the Pooh and friends for the first time will be quite pleased that they did. The cuteness factor transcends ethnicity, class and gender. This movie is simply a good time to be had by all and there’s zero reason to not see this classic reborn and looking as authentic and “snuggly” as ever in theaters now.
