Disney likes to go to their well quite often—the latest being Christopher Robin. Who can blame them? What with an iconic history that other studios can only dream of having. In the next two years alone, the Mouse House will give us updates on a classic with Mary Poppins Returns, a live action version of three animated classics—Dumbo, The Lion King and Aladdin—and a film based on one of their theme park’s most popular rides in Jungle Cruise.
Christopher Robin chronicles what happens between Winnie the Pooh (voiced as always by Jim Cummings) and the British child with an endless imagination, after he grew up and life took him away from Hundred Acre Wood. Ewan McGregor portrays Robin as an adult and it’s a fascinating look at a legendary character all grown up. He leaves home, goes to boarding school, fights in a World War and winds up an in-demand executive at a suitcase company.
As our film truly gets going, pressure is put upon Robin to cut costs at the company or face having to lay off some devoted employees. Yet again, Robin must cancel on his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell, who plays Peggy Carter from the MCU) and daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) as the clan was planning to go to the Robin family country home. Mommy and daughter head out to the country and father gets to work. When a surprise visitor—Pooh—arrives in London at the same park that finds Robin taking a breather, past and present collide, and it affects all in the most delightful, endearing and life affirming manner.
One can easily discern how this story plays out and its predictability, in terms of plot, takes nothing away from the charm with how we get there. What’s refreshing is how director Marc Foster weaves together this web of family friendly fare. Christopher Robin is never too sugary sweet, has not one eye-rolling moment (that many family films suffer from… many with multiple opportunities to roll eyes and shake heads), and elicits three things from its audience by the time all is said and done.
First, it is an ode to childhood in the best of ways that never has the viewer wishing they were still firmly entrenched in that world. The modern world of our lives has greatness, but the tip of the hat to younger days is done in a way that is a love letter to those formative years and not a lifeline that has one yearning to relive that time. Second, it celebrates the wonder of childhood where imagination and an ever-growing world combine to provide endless opportunities for self-play that we all know is integral to successful growth. Third, and most importantly, Christopher Robin has its adult viewers marveling at the miracle that is parenthood by utilizing our childhood as a springboard for wanting to deliver the best upbringing possible for our kids.
There is a pitch perfect collective of writers that bring this film to the screen. Allison Schroeder, Tom McCarthy and Alex Ross Perry joined forces to pen a prolific screenplay from a story by Greg Booker and Mark Steven Johnson, based on iconic characters brought to life by A.A. Milne and Ernest Shepard. That brain trust of creative minds puts a litany of love into every single page and it shows on every frame. Winnie the Pooh (and his world) is one of childhood literature’s most successful, adored and treasured group of characters. How this team have taken Milne and Shepard’s creations and built a world around them for a fresh story is stunning in the most beautiful and heartwarming of ways.
McGregor, as he always is, is divine. He captures the wonder of childhood as an adult that firmly connects us to the younger Christopher Robin (Orton O’Brien) character we briefly meet at the beginning of the film. That is no easy task. Mirroring the work of a child actor can be a thankless task for an adult thespian. It should be like the roots of a tree, deeply underground and hardly seen or felt, but firmly supporting everything we witness in the film’s “present.” McGregor balances that fine line between work, family and the literal representation of his own youth—through the arrival of Pooh—with the subtlest style and grace.
Atwell, sadly, is not given all that much to do with her role. We would have liked to have seen her part given a bit more presence, somehow. It would have been a tough task, given the triumphant story itself. But, when she gets pulled into this Pooh world later in the film, it’s the first we’ve seen of her since she and Madeline headed out to the country. Thankfully, it’s not quite a “thankless wife” role that so many actresses have to add to their resume due to the empty vat of characters available to them. That is due largely to the vast talent the actress brings to what she has been given.
The voice actors who portray Pooh’s merry band of stuffed animals could not be better cast. Cummings, who has been voicing Pooh since 1988, provides yet again the gold standard of vocal performances as not only the treasured bear, but also Tigger the Tiger. Cannot imagine anyone ever voicing Winnie the Pooh and thankfully, as Cummings is in his sixties and could easily keep doing this for another decade or more. Now that we’ve heard him voicing Eeyore, the same things could be said for Cummings as Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond). Never in a million years would have put Garrett’s voice with Eeyore—the droll donkey—but now that Christopher Robin has given us the pairing, we cannot imagine anyone else voicing the character…ever!
Foster’s is the man who gave us Finding Neverland, is no stranger to taking adored tales and expanding their universe. He could not have been a better choice. There are moments in the late second act and early third act that should be tighter, but overall, the director delivers what fans of the beloved bear would want from a film that looks at what happens to Robin when bear and human part ways and life takes over.
Turns out, we may be done with childhood, but thankfully for us with Christopher Robin, it is never done with us.
Grade: B