Winnie the Pooh must be a little bothered. Paddington has taken his movie corner as the reigning British bear that every kid loves. But only a little, as the bear will probably see a honey pot and all will be right in his world. Christopher Robin, at least the one in this film, might go off the handle though (in a British way), freaking out over his bosses (the Disney execs) manipulating his friends for something so mediocre. Oh, bother indeed.
Christopher Robin is about what happens at the end of the A.A. Milne stories, when Christopher Robin goes to boarding school and leaves Pooh, Tigger, and the others behind. Christopher (Ewan McGregor) grows up, marries a lovely woman named Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and has an adorable daughter named Madeline (Bronte Carmichael). You’d think Christopher would be happy, but his job has been slowly consuming his time, forcing him to neglect his family. Things have gotten so bleak he doesn’t go on his family vacation to try to save the company money. At the same time, Pooh has lost all of his friends, and desperate for help, he goes to find Christopher Robin to help solve his problem.
Rest, easy, Pooh fans. The problems with this movie do NOT lie with the lovable companions of Christopher Robin (more on him later) in the Hundred Acre Wood. The CGI to create the stuffed animals is quite amazing: it’s really hard to believe Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore are not playthings for kids. Jim Cummings is back voicing Pooh and Tigger; he famously has been doing the voice for the character for years. Here, he’s never been better, capturing Tigger’s frenetic energy and Pooh’s dopey affable Forrest Gump like charisma. It’s very easy for both of those characters to become off balance and nearly unwatchable, but Cummings perpetually rights the ship (the movie, in this metaphor) with some great line readings or emotional beats or recantation of Tigger’s famous song. Brad Garrett must have been thrilled to get Eeyore once he read the script. That deep, melancholic voice of Garrett’s is perfectly suited to deliver the plethora of punch lines given to Eeyore, and Garrett delivers them with aplomb. When Christopher Robin goes to the Hundred Acre Wood, the movie falls back on nostalgia, famous lines (and maybe a famous theme song 😉 ), and lets all our favorite animal friends just be themselves, which makes the movie come alive.
Unfortunately, we have to split time in the Wood with business meetings in London. Looking at the writers for Christopher Robin, there are 3 screenplay writers and 2 story writers, which explains the herky jerkiness of the screenplay. It’s clear that someone had the idea of “old Christopher Robin forgets his friends.” However, instead of spending a weekend in the countryside dwelling on work, and running into and sharing his animal friends with his daughter where he gets fresh ideas for work. Simple enough right? Like Hook. Instead, we get a horrifying montage of how Christopher Robin became a jaded adult, concluding with the focal point of the story revolving around Robin’s London business, presumably so you could have a chase in London. What this movie does is separate Christopher from his family, meaning the family has to learn about his walking/talking friends on their own, and marginalizes their involvement in the story, making them either just cute or a wet blanket (what a waste of Hayley Atwell) in favor of…more time with an uptight jerk of a boss? I’m sure kids will love that. So the audience is just dying to get back to the wood to be with Pooh et all. But even there, Christopher learns many lessons through a chase or running scene, and punctuates the lesson with Ewan McGregor saying something, as if the movie doesn’t trust kids to get it. Um, aren’t these books insanely popular? Looking around the theater, the most moving stuff I saw was when Christopher Robin crossed his famous bridge wordlessly for the first time in a while, or Pooh waiting for Christopher at their spot. This tug of war between writers means Christopher Robin the movie is a messy mixture of stuff that doesn’t quite gel unless we’re watching a stuffed or real animal.
In time, I’m pretty certain I’ll forget that Christopher Robin existed. But if I don’t, what I’ll remember is how awesome it is to see Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore so beautifully rendered, and how wonderful Winnie the Pooh’s dialogue can be in it’s simple minded brilliance. Silly old bear.