Movie Review: Christopher Robin · 1:17am Aug 30th, 2018
I'd been meaning to see this movie for quite a few weeks now. I'd have actually gone about two weeks ago, but unfortunately real life bit me hard and held me back from going then.
So I got to go see Christopher Robin with my dad, on Saturday of last week instead.
And the wait was well worth it. 
From the first trailer dropped for this film, I was intrigued by the premise of Christopher Robin. Sure, it bore a lot of similarities to Hook, but I felt the concept worked a lot better than Spielberg's movie ever would.
(To be honest, I feel that it makes far more sense to do an "all grown up" movie with Christopher Robin, who was always just a regular English boy and not "the boy who refused to grow up." Having Peter Pan grow up completely defeats the point of the character. But Christopher Robin growing up makes perfect sense, because he doesn't have that nature to him.)
Anyway, with that editorial out of the way, let's dive into Christopher Robin!
Let me say, immediately... the beginning of this movie is outstanding. Starting with Christopher Robin's last day in the Hundred-Acre Wood, with his friends all throwing him a going-away party, the opening sequence of the film is both charming, bittersweet and sad too. It's charming because it perfectly captures the whimsy and wordplay of the original stories by Milne (a particularly clever touch being scene transitions that evoke the feel of the old books), and has plenty of sweet and fun moments with Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings), Tigger (also voiced by Cummings), Rabbit (Peter Capaldi), Eeyore (Brad Garrett), Owl (Toby Jones) and Piglet (Nick Mohammed), among others... but of course, this is a moment of farewell.
After a wonderfully heartwarming farewell, with Christopher Robin promising he'll never forget Pooh and his friends, Christopher is off to boarding school...
And real life progresses to grind him down.
Christopher's imagination is stifled at his strict new school. His father dies (implied to be a casualty of World War One) and he is told he must be the man of the house. By the time he is an adult, Christopher (played by Ewan MacGregor) is still a good man at heart, but he's been through quite a lot. And while he finds love with Evelyn (played by Hayley Atwell), Christopher is eventually shipped off to the front lines of World War Two, and the horrors there are another, awful burden placed on the poor man.
(Adding to the poignant effect of this sequence, is the recurring sight of Pooh going to wait by the old tree that's the entrance to the Hundred-Acre Wood, to see if Christopher Robin will come back...)
By the time he returns home to his wife, and their daughter Madeline, poor Christopher Robin has had pretty much all of his joy and innocence worn out of him.
That's not to say that he's a bad man, though. Christopher is still very much a good man at heart... but he struggles to be a good father (wanting Madeline to attend boarding school in the hope that it will give her good education and career prospects, though she doesn't want to go), a good husband (he's so dedicated to his work to keep his family afloat that he habitually comes home quite late)… and a good boss too.
You see, Christopher works at a luggage company, and thanks to hard times, Christopher's boss Mr. Winslow (played by Mark Gatiss) wants him to cut expenses by laying off employees, and to work through the weekend on it. Christopher protests that he can't fire men and women who were promised good paying jobs, but with his own on the line, he reluctantly agrees, and cancels his plan to join Evelyn and Madeline for an end-of-summer holiday at his childhood vacation home in Sussex. Poor Christopher is trapped and miserable, and can only wonder "What to do?"
….
Meanwhile, Winnie the Pooh suddenly wakes up from a long nap, and is unable to find his friends. Going through the door out of the Hundred-Acre Wood, Pooh suddenly finds himself in London, and he and Christopher Robin reunite in the little park outside Christopher's home.
This part of the movie is a great exercise in bittersweet humor. Pooh's absentminded nature, sweet innocence and whimsical logic are utterly hilarious, and making it even funnier is seeing Christopher Robin's stress and exasperation as he tries to keep an eye on his old childhood friend and get him back to the Hundred-Acre Wood. (A particular standout bit that had my theater in stitches was a sequence where Pooh walks through Christopher's house with honey on his feet, while Christopher tries frantically to clean up behind him.)
Christopher Robin takes Pooh out to Sussex to try and get him back to the Hundred-Acre Wood and out of his hair. After getting lost in the woods - in a genuinely spooky sequence alluding to the dreaded Heffalumps - Christopher eventually finds the rest of Pooh's friends and starts to rediscover his sense of fun and imagination.
I know I've used the word "bittersweet" already, but it really applies this sequence in particular. There is a very sad and hard-to-watch scene where Christopher loses his temper with Pooh's absentmindedness, but the reunion of the Hundred-Acre Wood gang and Christopher Robin is a pure joy to watch. (A particular delight in this part of the movie is Eeyore, whose hilariously morose nature constantly had the theater in stitches.) The laughs come thick and fast in a delightful sequence where Christopher Robin pretends to battle a Heffalump, and the reunion between him and Pooh is both touching and incredibly poignant.
However, the reunion between Christopher Robin and his friends is all too brief, and very soon Christopher has to leave and figure out some way to save his job and that of his coworkers.
Saddened by his leaving so quickly, Pooh and some of his friends decide to go after him, deciding that they must help Christopher Robin with his problems...
Thus begins an absolutely delightful, madcap third act of the film, involving Pooh and Tigger and Piglet and Eeyore meeting Christopher's daughter Madeline (played by Bronte Carmichael) and going on an expedition to try and help Christopher Robin. I don't want to give away any more of the details, but it's quite the treat: equal parts hilarious and sweet, all leading up to a beautiful ending. 
I absolutely loved Christopher Robin. It's a great film with a lot of fantastic performances and a very touching story.
Ewan MacGregor delivers a fantastic performance as the older, wearier Christopher Robin. He portrays a fundamentally good and compassionate man wearied and burdened by the sorrows and misery he's had to live through, leading to one of the film's most moving scenes in his aforementioned reunion with Pooh in the Hundred-Acre Wood. It is a delight to witness Christopher laugh as he begins to regain a sense of joy, and it is also a very sad moment when he realizes his mistakes too. MacGregor delivers the part totally, and I was quite impressed. ^_^
While I wish that Hayley Atwell had gotten more screentime, she is also quite serviceable as Christopher Robin's wife. In the latter half of the film Atwell's performance really shines, especially in a very sweet scene where Evelyn goes to comfort an upset Madeline, and gives her some motherly advice too.
A particular bit of praise I have to give, by the way, goes to Bronte Carmichael as Madeline. Again, in the second half of the film, as Christopher's family comes more into focus, she really shines, showing both Madeline's frustration with her well-meaning-but-distant father, and her own adventurous playful spirit. Her interactions with Pooh and his friends are a constant delight, especially when they all get to London
Rounding out my thoughts on the human characters in the movie... Mark Gatiss plays a hilariously slimy, self-satisfied jerk as Christopher Robin's overbearing boss Winslow. He's a terrible person (and terrible at his job - he's only the boss because his father owns the company) but yet delivers his dialogue and actions in such a funny way that it's quite enjoyable to hate him... and very funny to see him get his eventual karma. XD
However, in many ways, the real standout performances in Christopher Robin go to some of the voice actors who bring Pooh and his friends to life.
Jim Cummings delivers an incredibly moving, heartwarming performance as Winnie the Pooh. That silly old bear is caring, gentle, friendly, forgiving... many of Pooh's lines are both funny and moving, because of the sheer innocence in them. Cummings' voice has aged, definitely, but this works quite well to the character's impact, as it gives the impression that Pooh has aged - and yet, in so many ways, stayed exactly the same. He is still a bear of very little brain, and very big heart.
Cummings' performance as Tigger is also worth speaking about. Tigger also sounds older, but is still as eager and joyous as ever. It's a delight to hear him break into the Tigger Song Though besides the humorous parts with the character, I did quite like this one moment in the film where Tigger puts some mementos of the Hundred-Acre Wood in Christopher's suitcase. It's funny, but also moving, as it does show a nice thoughtfulness to the bounce-loving tiger.
And finally, again I have to give credit to Brad Garrett as Eeyore. While not the main voice actor for the morose donkey, he is a consistent joy throughout the movie, delivering his gloomy remarks in a way that had me (and the rest of the audience) constantly laughing. ("Thanks for noticing me...") A particular standout is in Christopher Robin's mock battle with the Heffalump - it's both funny and touching to watch Eeyore in that scene.
So, one final time, I loved Christopher Robin. XD
And I highly recommend it.
Saw it with my girlfriend not too long ago, and this was definitely a solid film.
4928180
Nice! ^_^
Indeed, I'm quite happy I finally got to see it. It was just a very enjoyable, pleasing experience.
Very cute movie.
Though I kinda preferred all of the Winnie the Pooh and friends scenes a lot more than the others... And was kinda sad we didn't see much of them.
4948837
That's perfectly fair. While I liked most of the human actors, I will concede I was most moved by Pooh and his friends. ^_^
Thanks for commenting!
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No regrets.
4956096
Ah, yes, I am well familiar with that meme.
4956101
All jokes aside, I loved this movie. I like how it's never explains just how the animals are real, but I do like the old and worn out look to them. They've been played with a LOT. ESPECIALLY Pooh Bear to the point where he looks like he's a few years away from falling apart. And Tigger, most of the color has washed off him, no longer bright orange and black. Also, not gonna lie, the entirety of the scene in the fog after Pooh vanished (again, glad that was never explained) was creepy as hell. You're never entirely sure of just how much is real and how much is his imagination and paranoia playing tricks on him. Honestly, probably a bit of both. Also, Eeyore is a DELIGHT.
4956105
Well said, all around. Fully agree with you!
"Thanks for noticing me."
4956106
Seriously, we know the Hundred Acre Woods is a place where the laws of reality are a little more, flexible, than usual, so it could very well be that is Christopher believed hard enough, a Heffalump could be a real thing. But I like that we never truly see it. Nothing is Scarier. Our imagination does the work.
Also, "How are you, talking donkey?"
"Don't get me started."
4956107
Indeed so. ^_^
That one brought down the house in my theater. XD
4956113
We've all had those days. Also, not gonna lie, the whole "a fish in the sea" scene gave me CHILLS, just seeing Pooh vanish. That is never explained. Just, ooh.
4956116
Yeah, that scene was genuinely spooky. The sheer ambiguity of it - Pooh's disappearance, the nightmare, the Heffalump - all made it wonderfully unsettling, which is something I never really thought I'd be saying about a Winnie the Pooh movie.
(Similarly, how I never expected a film with the silly old bear to have a scene of Christopher Robin fighting in the hellish winter of WWII's Western Front. Damn.)
4956129
Reminds me of the scene with Rabbit lost in the woods and his own paranoia driving him mad.
Also yeah, that scene alone earned it it's PG rating. Otherwise, it would probably have been fine as G rated.
4956134
Yeah, that was a spooky bit too.
4956138
I can stone face my way through a lot but that scene still makes me uncomfortable.
4956140
Yeah, that was just... wow...
4956146
Also, Eeyore's reaction to Tigger beginning to sing. He's seen this song and dance before, this is nothing new. Just, the 'Oh this is going to suck.' Reaction. Eeyore in general was amazing in this.