Simple. Sweet. Effective.
When last we saw Christopher Robin, he was a grown man who hated that name, resented his father for putting him in those blasted books, enlisted in World War II, was reported missing and finally reconciled with his parents.
That was the story of last year’s Goodbye Christopher Robin.
Now comes Christopher Robin, and once again we see the title character as a grown man, and though it follows essentially the same timeline and there’s a passage in which the title character enlists in the British Army during World War II, this is not the story of A. A. Milne’s son. It’s a live- action/ CGI combo fairy tale about the grown- up Christopher Robin, a humourless, career- obsessed executive who neglects his wife and child in favour of his stressful job, and has lost all sense of whimsy and imagination and playfulness.
Until the day his old friend Winnie the Pooh shows up on a park bench near Christopher’s London home, and asks for Christopher’s help in finding Pooh’s dear old friends, all of whom have gone missing. Ewan McGregor plays the grown- up Christopher Robin, head of efficiency operations for the struggling suitcase department of the gigantic Winslow Corp.
Basically, Christopher’s job is to cut corners every way possible, and he has all of one weekend to figure out how to slash the budget by 20 per cent, or the department will be shut down and his whole team will be out of work.
Wouldn’t you know it, this was the weekend when Christopher was supposed to take his wife, Evelyn ( Hayley Atwell), and their daughter, Madeline ( Bronte Carmichael), to the “cottage” in Sussex that sits on the Hundred Acre Wood.
That’s right, the site of Christopher’s childhood adventures with Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and the gang.
Alas, Christopher once again disappoints Evelyn and Madeline when he tells them he’ll have to stay in London and work through the weekend.
Meanwhile, Pooh ( voiced by Jim Cummings) stumbles about the foggy woods, calling in vain for his friends and finding himself all alone. around the time Christopher’s wife and child are arriving at the country house, our melancholy little bear friend winds up on the aforementioned park bench in London, where he bumps into none other than the grown- up Christopher, whom he instantly recognises even though it’s been some 30 years since they said goodbye.
Christopher is startled but not shocked to see Pooh. This is the fairy tale portion of Christopher Robin.
Pooh and friends really do exist.
They are not invisible to all but Christopher.
When they talk, other humans can hear them and of course freak out at that. Right Jim Cummings, who has voiced Winnie the Pooh on various projects for decades, also voices Tigger. Brad Garrett is perfectly voice- cast as Eeyore; Nick Mohammed is Piglet; Sophie Okonedo is Kanga; Sara Sheen is Roo; Peter Capaldi is Rabbit; Toby Jones is Owl. They’re all terrific at capturing the innocence and the childlike wonder of those characters, the family bond they share and their undying devotion to Christopher Robin even after all these years.
Christopher Robin shares some traits with Hook ( 1991), Finding Neverland ( 2004) and Saving Mr. Banks ( 2013) in that we revisit beloved fairy tales in a new way. The plot, so to speak, isn’t much. Pooh has lost his friends and Christopher Robin has lost sight of what’s important and might just lose his family, unless somehow, some way, they can help each other!
Simple. Sweet. Effective. And it’s always nice to revisit the Hundred Acre Wood.
By arrangement with Asia Features