Christopher Robin Review

A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh is a one of the most popular children’s book and the character has had a long association with Disney. Disney has turned Winnie the Pooh and his friends into live-action characters for a sequel in Christopher Robin.

In the Hundred-Acre Wood the residents host a farewell party for their friend Christopher Robin (Orton O’Brien) who’s set to start boarding school. As Christopher grows up into Ewan McGregor he falls in love, has a daughter, serves in the army and becomes an over-worked manager at a corporation – leading him to ignore his family. When Christopher is forced to work over a weekend which leads to his family going to his childhood home in Sussex without him. On his long weekend Christopher’s old friend Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings) to return as the middle-aged man to ask him to help find his friends.

Christopher Robin is basically Disney’s Paddington. StudioCanal struck gold when they made Paddington – giving audiences two delightful family films and other studios have caught wind. Sony made their version of Peter Rabbit, much to the chagrin of Beatrice Potter fans and now Disney is jumping on the Paddington bandwagon.

Like Paddington, Christopher Robin takes a popular children’s character and puts him into a live-action setting. The special effects team deserve a lot of praise for what they have done with Milne’s character; they look like stuff toys come to life and the CGI is seamless. Christopher Robin also matches some of Paddington style of humour – both Winnie and Paddington cause havoc when they come to London – resulting in moments of physical comedy and there some witty lines throughout Christopher Robin.

However, the main way Christopher Robin is like Paddington is through its themes. Paul King, the writer/director of the Paddington films described Paddington’s role as being one who brings the family together and changes them for the better – especially Mr. Brown. Winnie the Pooh has that role for Christopher – showing him that he shouldn’t be so uptight and serious and if he doesn’t loosen up he risks missing out on the important things in life – his family. Pooh and his friends’ role is to get Christopher to embrace his imagination.

The end of Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories Christopher had to put away his childish things as he moves onto the next stage in his life. Christopher Robin picks up on those ideas and twists them to show that Christopher needs to accept his childhood and most importantly let his daughter, Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) be a child.

Other attempts to be like Paddington don’t work as well for Christopher Robin. The best example of this is quirky side characters in Christopher’s London. Paul King had a surrealist style of filmmaking which allowed for a world to be inhabited by larger-than-life characters. Marc Forster’s approach for Christopher Robin was more grounded and realistic if romanticised approach and this down-to-Earth look does not suit characters like Robin’s next door neighbour – they appear in the film to tell a joke instead of being a character or a part of the plot.

Christopher Robin is a beautiful looking film. As already stated the Winnie and his friends are brilliantly realized and the film has a chocolate box look – it is a tasty looking chocolate box. There is a great amount of detail with the costumes and set design and cinematographer Matthias Koenigswieser deserves of praise for his photography of the Hundred Acre Wood, whether during a sunset or covered in a cloud of fog.

Christopher Robin also had a great cast. Ewan McGregor and Hayley Atwell are naturally talented with McGregor having the most varied role as both the stuffy management type and letting out his inner child whilst Atwell is the voice of reason. Bronte Carmichael is clearly a talent to watch out for – she already had small roles in Darkest Hour and On Chesil Beach and her role as Madeline Robin is her biggest role yet, being a girl who has to embrace being a child.

Jim Cummings and Brad Garrett have voiced Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore for years so they know these characters inside and out. Garrett is great as Eeyore who makes self-deprecating comments throughout the film in his depressed monotone and Winnie the Pooh is just so lovable.  Nick Mohammed made for a fine Piglet and Winnie, Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet are the main characters in the adventure. Whilst the rest of the Hundred Acre gang are voiced by big-name actors their roles are not as prominent.

Christopher Robin is a charming, innocent film for the whole family. It is more gentile offering in the family genre that treats its audience and source material with respect.