IT’S NO BOTHER
Live-action Pooh movie combines wisdom and kindness.
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Two key dates in the annals of Winnie-the-Pooh:
Dec. 24, 1925: A.A. Milne publishes a front-page children’s story in the London Evening News, changing the name of his nascent bear character (formerly Edward) to Winnie-the-Pooh. The bear is inspired by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, his stuffed teddy and the Ashdown Forest near Milne’s residence in East Sussex, England. The name Winnie came from a famous bear housed in the London zoo.
Aug. 3, 2018: Disney, the commercial proprietor of Milne’s characters since 1961, releases its latest brand extension, “Christopher Robin,” combining liveaction and discreet digital animation. The story concerns a middle-age and beleaguered Christopher Robin, played by Ewan McGregor, a World War II veteran employed as an efficiency expert at a struggling London luggage company. He has a wife (Hayley Atwell) and a daughter (Bronte Carmichael) he loves but neglects; he is, in other words, suffering from Mr. Banks Syndrome, named after the character in “Mary Poppins.” Faced with the grim prospect of downsizing his staff, Christopher Robin has all but forgotten his childhood playmates Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, et al.
Then, popping through a magic portal in his tree-trunk home, Pooh magically appears in London to reacquaint himself with his sad old friend. After Christopher Robin’s initial shock, increasing exasperation and, back at the Hundred Acre Wood, another separation, the film lands on a mossy bed of warm feeling.
The film is directed by Marc Forster, of “Finding Neverland,” and it comes from a curious and talented collection of screenwriters and rewriters, beginning with Alex Ross Perry, best known for the fantastically jaundiced comedies “The Color Wheel” and “Listen Up Philip”; Tom McCarthy, who scored with “The Visitor” and as one of the writers of “Spotlight”; and
finally Allison Schroeder, co-adapter of “Hidden Figures.”
And the results? Quite good, it turns out. Forster has his strident, pushy side (“The Kite Runner,” “Quantum of Solace”) and he has absolutely no sense of directorial or visual humor. But he made some shrewd key decisions on this project, starting with how to blend the two worlds, London and the Hundred Acre Wood, and the live action with the digitally realized lives of the wee stuffed creatures who are, in fact, real: walking, talking, bouncing, caring animals.
The McGregor character isn’t simply self-absorbed and emotionally distant; he’s trying to save his colleagues’ jobs while cutting expenses on order from above. Once Forster and his design team get McGregor back to the Hundred Acre Wood, and in the bosom of his dear childhood friends, “Christopher Robin” finds its way. The interplay between humans and stuffed-but-very-lively animals is lovely. The voice work from Jim Cummings (Pooh, sweet and sincere), Brad Garrett (a wittily morose Eeyore), Peter Capaldi (Rabbit), Toby Jones (Owl) and the rest holds to a high standard.
Movies about saying goodbye to childhood friends, and finding them again, work on our emotional defenses like nothing else. Unusually for director Forster, “Christopher Robin” doesn’t go for the throat. The core human-bear connection is treated with respect. Pooh’s wisdom and kindness cannot be denied. The same impulses worked for the two “Paddington” movies, God knows. “Christopher Robin” isn’t quite in their league, but it’s affecting nonetheless.