Christopher Robin 2018

The new Winnie-the-Pooh film is just superb! I absolutely love it. When I first heard it was coming out, I was very apprehensive as a Pooh fan. Especially when the title "Christopher Robin" is too similar to the title of the biopic about A.A. Milne that came out last year, "Goodbye Christopher Robin".... I had a feeling that Disney might have just been jumping on the bandwagon, following the success of that film.

But even if they WERE jumping on the bandwagon, I'm pleased to say they have jumped on it beautifully. They have captured the characters exactly how they should be. The film is genuinely hilarious in parts, and certain moments had me laughing to the point where I didn't think I'd stop. They also had little touches of Milne's type of subtle, whimsical humour. There were emotional moments, and beautiful storytelling with deep meaning and messages throughout, just like the books.

It's difficult to predict how much the kids would enjoy it compared to the cartoons we’re so familiar with. I wonder if there were too many scenes of being an adult, and not enough scenes of playing in the forest. But I'm certain that there's a huge audience out there of grown up Winnie-the-Pooh fans, who aren’t really grown up at heart. (I can’t be the only one!) And for us, this film is perfect. I hope the kids enjoy it too.

I would absolutely love it if they do a live action version of the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Disney has already covered these books in the original cartoon series of features back in the ‘60s. However, I genuinely believe that if they find the right actor to play Christopher Robin as a young boy, then it would be brilliant. They would have to work really hard on capturing essence of the characters and the stories, and so there would be a lot of pressure. But this film proves that it can be done.

This film’s opening scene is based on the last story from “The House At Pooh Corner”. My only small criticism is that I don’t think they chose the right actor to play Christopher Robin as a boy. He was good, but he looked like he was acting. For me, he just didn’t play it realistic enough. I’m probably being too picky!

The boy who played Christopher Robin in last year’s film, Will Tilston, has set the standard high. But if someone could play him as well as he did, then a live action based on the original books would be perfect. I may well get in touch with Disney myself and suggest it.

Everyone needs this film in their life. I cried. No, really, I did. I can't believe it myself. Disney's put out both one of the worst films in their catalogue, and now one of the best in the same year. Three years ago, I was chastising Disney for even conceptualizing a live action Winnie The Pooh, screaming lack of a creative vision and banking off the tired nostalgia of a once great little franchise. I haven't held Disney in the highest regard at all in recent years, criticizing many of their decisions and downright refusing to visit their theme parks or stores. Now, I'm not going to come at you with some bullshit Stuckmann comment, "I grew up with Winnie The Pooh," even though I did, Christopher Robin succeeds entirely on it's own and can be loved by people of all ages. I rack on movies for their structural problems, sometimes ignoring the feeling I'm supposed to be having from the viewing experience, but films like this remind me how emotion can overcome any kind of little technical problem, if it's done well. This is the Disney I miss. I'm so tired of the corporate sell out manipulating monster that is the nu-Disney machine, but it seems every couple of years, Disney puts out a film that reminds me why I loved old Disney, the one Walt Disney created. Meet The Robinsons, Up, Saving Mr. Banks, Tomorrowland, and now Christopher Robin all have something in common. There's messages about growing up, remembering to keep moving forward, not letting such menial things get in the way of what's really important, and so on. What I really love what Marc Foster did was put some class and taste into this. This treats the original Hundred Acre Woods story with real respect, not just the original animated film, but the books and illustrations. This has one of the most perfect openings to any movie, implementing the book drawings into the new live action material. Showing Christopher leave, in a scene replicated from the original movie, and then show his life growing up, and even going off to war and leaving his wife behind, started to get to me. It's very tastefully done and doesn't come across as cheesy or childish. One bit of the montage that stuck out, was I think Pooh blows out a candle on a cake, and it cuts to an explosion in a battle Christopher's in. The whole thing was excellently done. Ewan McGregor makes for a fantastic character, we really don't deserve him. His character means so well for the world, but because of the burdens of reality and his job, unfortunately has to put on hold the things that he holds so dear, even going so far as to snap at Pooh in frustration. The dark and gloomy look of the woods built on the heavy tone of the scene, it was nearly heartbreaking to watch. When the two reconciled, at their thinking place, I had tears on my face. Such an innocent little bear, with no clue of the harshness of the outside world, nearly getting hit in the face with it, while simultaneously reminding Christopher of the carelessness of being a child, was both so endearing and so sad at the same time. The movie gradually turns into a silly adventure movie at the second half, but it doesn't lose it's emotional grip, in fact, it carries it proudly on it's shoulders. I don't want to spoil anything more, but any scene with McGregor talking one on one with either his family or Pooh, will put you on the edge of tears. I love the setting of war-era London, and you very quickly get accustomed to the realistic look of the Hundred Acre Woods. Disney, I know I hate you and I know I rag on you, but let me just say thank you for putting this movie out. It makes me ashamed of my fellow movie fans this movie isn't doing well at the box office or even that fantastic critically, but this is the best movie you have released in a while. It doesn't even feel like a nu-Disney movie, this is a true return to form and boy, man, I really wish they would stick with this. It's so pure and full of genuine heart. I hope people look back on this with a fondness and as a classic. Just great shit, silly old bear...

Like many people, I grew up with Winnie The Pooh. The 100 Acre Wood adventures are those sort of childhood stories that it's impossible not to have had them read to you when you were a kid. Christopher Robin, as a result, is a film I have been interested to watch ever since its release. And so it came to today, Easter Sunday, when myself and my parents decided to finally stick it on the television.

Christopher Robin is simply a charming little family flick. Its plot concerns a grown-up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) trying to find his childhood sense of fun once again, with the help of Winnie The Pooh (Jim Cummings) and friends. It's not by any means a masterpiece or a film that is likely to be held in such high esteem alongside the likes of The Godfather or The Wizard of Oz, but it doesn't need to be. It's not that kind of film. It's just a small and lovely narrative about a man who has lost his way, and forgotten how to have fun.

It's great to see such a stellar cast of British acting talent also. In this one film, we have Peter Capaldi as Rabbit, Toby Jones as Owl, Sophie Okonedo as Kanga and, of course, the excellent Hayley Atwell as the wife of Christopher Robin, Evelyn.

The problem with such a large ensemble is that certain characters tend to disappear. For instance, out of the stuffed residents of 100 Acre Wood, the film largely focuses on Winnie The Pooh, Tigger (Jim Cummings), Eeyore (Brad Garrett) and Piglet (Nick Mohammed), which means the others are sidelined, particularly in the third act of the movie. It would have been nice to have seen Kanga, Roo (Sara Sheen), Owl and Rabbit make it to London, as it would have felt like the characters had more to do, beyond simply existing within the world of the story.

The plot does, also, take a while to get going. It takes around thirty/thirty five minutes for the inciting incident to kick in, and another ten/fifteen on top of that until the grown-up Christopher Robin meets the rest of the guest cast. The narrative is quite uneven, with the focus of the story changing completely in the third act, where it moves from a story concerning Christopher Robin rediscovering his inner child to Pooh and friends trying to return his important paperwork to their mate.

Despite that, however, it never gets boring. There's some really great humour throughout, my favourites concerning Christopher reading the wrong book to his child at bedtime, and the stuffed animals surprising the taxi driver when Tigger becomes convinced his reflection in the window is another Tigger.

Mark Gatiss also features in this film as Christopher's boss Giles Winslow, and he is utterly brilliant in the role. He does a really good job at playing the mean boss who lounges around whilst his employees do all the work, and his reaction to the discovery of what Tigger had put in Christopher Robin's briefcase (where the important paperwork should be) is priceless. He is arguably the closest this film has to an antagonist, and Mark Gatiss is on fine form in that sort of narrative role.

Overall, Christopher Robin is a sweet family movie, with oodles of charm and a poignant message about unleashing your inner child. It's light, fun and a hugely enjoyable way to spend an hour and forty minutes, displaying a great sense of humour and an impressive all-British cast. It's just a shame it didn't do better at the Box Office, as it deserved better than the lukewarm reception it received, from critics and viewers alike.

If I had to summarize how I felt after watching this film using only one word, that word would be "underwhelmed".

Maybe I went in with inflated expectations, but this live-action addition to the "Winnie-the-Pooh" film franchise carried over little of the cartoons' charm. It honestly failed to convince me that the stakes were really that important.

Pooh and his friends were not… quite… real. Yes, I know they're really stuffed animals (or most of them are), but I'm referring to the production's technical side. I haven't been able to decide whether they fell into the infamous "uncanny valley" by being too realistic, or just weren't designed well as character models. Pooh in particular never seems to look like he's properly talking, which is a problem when he has the most lines of all the Hundred Acre Wood residents. Actually, I found most of their lip-sync distracting because it was "off".

How the animals looked and moved definitely pulled my attention away from the good parts. There are a number of genuinely funny lines in this movie.¹ Eeyore gets most of them, which meshes with what I remember of the animated installments. (He's got to have something to make up for that dark cloud he lives under, right?) Christopher's heffalump fight and pretty much everything involving Pooh in London did have me grinning, despite the aforementioned animation issues.

As for structure, I thought the use of chapters (complete with "In Which…" titles) in the beginning was great. It was frustrating that most of the film seemed to be one chapter, after burning through something like eight of them in the first few minutes (showing how Christopher Robin goes from childhood to working father). More of those line-drawn animation inserts would have been really nice. Perhaps they could have helped connect the story a bit better; as it was, the plot felt a bit disjointed at times.

I have my own theories on why this is, starting with the fact that there are two "Story by" credits and three "Screenplay by" credits, all separated by "and". That indicates a possible dilution of vision, since so many people touched the script.² It's the opposite of "Written and Directed by", which is akin to publishing a book without an editor's help. A second set of eyes can really help tighten a story, but too many pairs of eyes can melt it into a puddle of conflicting creative visions. It doesn't usually result in an awful script (though it can). Rather, having too many writers involved more often limits how great a script can become.³

I'd actually love to ask the writers if they considered devoting a little more time to explaining how Pooh ends up in London. The Hundred Acre Wood's connection to the real world is kind of just… there, but I think it would have been interesting to explore how the tree tunnel works a bit more. (Fantasy elements are much more fun when we question them and push their limits!)

Christopher Robin was definitely not as great as it could have been. It was enjoyable enough, but it didn't earn a spot in my "Rewatch Over and Over" collection next to The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (1977).

1. How funny is up for debate, since I can't actually remember any of them less than 24 hours later…
2. In film credits, "and" between names usually means those writers worked separately, i.e. writer 1 finishes, then writer 2 is hired to rework it independently, etc. Teams who worked together simultaneously (and presumably collaborated) are joined by "&" instead. These conventions come from the Writers' Guild of America's pile of rules for who gets credited and in what order.
3. It's implied, but bears restating in relation to this specific assertion: This is entirely my own opinion based on observations, not fact.