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Christopher Robin (2018) (1 Viewer)

Jason_V

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I've now seen Christopher Robin twice (yeah, I know). What I have come back to with both viewings is how similar the theme is to Savings Mr. Banks. Sidenote: the latter is a film I adore.

The theme of both these films is saving the father figure, which is something I love because the father is too often relegated to a stereotypical construct in movies. A lot of times, Dad needs help, needs someone to understand he can't do it all and remind him of the happiness and joy he used to have.

Can this movie be off putting to people? Sure, because it's not what is expected. The colors are muted and it's not a musical. But heck...the group I was with yesterday all cried at various points. I was also taken baby the score and promptly downloaded it. Stay through the end credits, too.
 

Jake Lipson

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I said I'd be back later with thoughts. It's way later...like days later...but better late than never.

I think there is some stuff in the movie that works very well, and there is some stuff that doesn't work.

What does work is basically every moment that Pooh is on screen. The movie just lights up.

What doesn't work so well is how the movie treats Pooh and friends in relation to Christopher Robin. They look like plush toys, mainly for the purpose of other people in London confusing them for plush toys. But the movie treats them as real, living, breathing animals independent of him. They are not figments of his imagination and have lives separate from his. That makes his abandonment of them hard to reconcile. When Andy stops playing with Woody and Buzz in Toy Story 3, it makes sense because as far as he is concerned, they're plastic, and he has no idea that they're alive. Here, Christopher Robin grows up and abandons actual sentient creatures who he know are alive and have often relied on him for help in the past and forgets about them for 30 years. That's sort of a problematic premise to accept. If they were his toys and he was simply imagining them to life, it wouldn't be, but that's not what is depicted here.

Also, the decision to make "Robin" Christopher's last name is an odd one. It never struck me as his last name but just that he uses his first and middle names together as a single name. It never really occurred to me to wonder what the character's last name was, but I didn't think Robin was it. Obviously, the real namesake was Christopher Robin Milne, and although this is not that since the character is separate, I think it is clear that A.A. Milne never intended Robin to be his last name.

Also, I understand that you're supposed to find Christopher's work life dull and boring because you've got to want him to change, but I liked watching these scenes as much as I thought I would, which is to say not really at all. The film doesn't get going until Pooh re-enters the picture, and that takes longer than it needs to, especially because you can obviously tell where it's going.

But Pooh is great, and the other Hundred Acre Wood characters are on point too. It's a fun movie in places, and it works more often than it doesn't. It's just not great and sometimes feels as if it were written by committee rather than a writer with a distinct vision.

But I'm glad I saw it and liked more of it than I didn't.
 
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Jason_V

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Jake, I get what you're saying in your spoiler, but I reconciled it this way...

We see the montage early on of Christopher leaving the Hundred Acre Wood, leaving his box of Pooh-related items under his bed and going to boarding school, where he is shown once-but likely not the only time-being reprimanded for his drawing in class. Multiply that reinforcement over years at school and he learned it was wrong to focus on those "child" things. So I understand it. And when he does go back home, he has an image to live up to for his parents and about what life should be.

That's what the movie is about for me: that time in life when an adult understands they can have responsibility and be an adult while enjoying the things they did as a child. This saves Christopher in the long run; without this lesson and the joy it brings (imagination, play, taking chances), he will miss his daughter growing up. It's much like Savings Mr. Banks for me. It's all about saving the father.
 

Patrick Sun

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It took a while for me to get used to the life-real design transitions of the cartoon versions for Pooh and the gang. And the start of the film is so dour, it took a while for the movie to get going, and by then, it felt too mellow and sentimental in the end. Can't say I'd recommend it, but maybe worth a #MoviePassRoulette matinee viewing...
 

Jake Lipson

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We see the montage early on of Christopher leaving the Hundred Acre Wood, leaving his box of Pooh-related items under his bed and going to boarding school, where he is shown once-but likely not the only time-being reprimanded for his drawing in class. Multiply that reinforcement over years at school and he learned it was wrong to focus on those "child" things. So I understand it. And when he does go back home, he has an image to live up to for his parents and about what life should be.

That all works perfectly well if in fact they are toys. But with them being actual sentient animals, it's like abandoning a pet. The movie can't figure out if it wants to treat them as toys or animals, so tries to have it both ways and it doesn't work for m the way they portrayed it precisely because it's indecisive.

They could have gotten around this, maybe, if Pooh and friends had been for lack of a better word, frozen in time, or say, asleep (Sleeping Beauty like) until Madeline dug up Christopher's drawing. But they didn't; we're to believe that they've been living in the Hundred Acre Wood without aid from Christopher Robin for 30 years. And that's where it gets dicey for me that he would abandon living creatures, regardless of family pressure to do so.
 
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Jason_V

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That all works perfectly well if in fact they are toys. But with them being actual sentient animals, it's like abandoning a pet. The movie can't figure out if it wants to treat them as toys or animals, so tries to have it both ways and it doesn't work for m the way they portrayed it precisely because it's indecisive.

They could have gotten around this, maybe, if Pooh and friends had been for lack of a better word, frozen in time, or say, asleep (Sleeping Beauty like) until Madeline dug up Christopher's drawing. But they didn't; we're to believe that they've been living in the Hundred Acre Wood without aid from Christopher Robin for 30 years. And that's where it gets dicey for me that he would abandon living creatures, regardless of family pressure to do so.

Well, yes and no. They all rely on him for help, like friends do, but it's never shown they are incapable of taking care of themselves without CR. No one goes hungry or dies. Sure, they get separated and it takes CR to bring them back to together. But I don't see this as akin to a dog or cat (or other pet) who don't necessarily have the skills to fend for themselves.

We actually see Pooh going about his day by doing exercises without CR.
 

Tommy R

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Finally saw it on Saturday night, and I absolutely loved it. Sweet, heartwarming, etc, etc. Ewan was perfect, the voices of the Hundred-Acre friends were spot-on, and the CGI was beautiful. It's crazy how well CGI can come off and occasionally still amaze me these days (though last year's War for the Planet of the Apes amazed me the most in recent years).
As far as the characters actually being real, that angle delighted me. Going in I assumed that a middle aged CR was just going to have a quasi-mental breakdown and hallucinate his old imaginary friends. I'll agree with the explanation that life just beat the childhood fun out of CR rather then him being overtly negligent to his friends. As far as what the Hundred-Acre gang ARE, I'll just go with this: magic. Kind of a cop-out, but hey, this IS Disney. :D
 

GlennF

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Saw it yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. Yes, the plot is predictable, but the CGI of the characters was very good and Ewan was excellent. Even when he was being Mr. Officious at the beginning you could still see he didn't enjoy it and was struggling with what his life had become. And you would swear he was actually talking to Pooh and not emoting to a stuffed animal, or a stick with a head on it, or whatever else they gave him to act with.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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How do the voices of the Pooh characters compare to the Disney cartoon versions? I see they got Jim Cummings back as Pooh and Tigger. But the rest of the voice cast is new to me for these roles. Unfortunately, John Fiedler, Ken Sansom, and Hal Smith have passed away, so I understand why they needed new actors for their characters. I'm not sure why they didn't bring Peter Cullen back as Eeyore, though, since he's still very active. Brad Garrett's screen persona is well suited to the character, but he's a pretty different voice.
 

Colin Jacobson

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I think the voice cast was great. They all sounded like the characters - I didn’t even realize who was who until the end credits.

The Piglet voice is a departure from Fiedler, though, because he now has a British accent.

Seemed weird they'd try so hard to make all the others sound like the "traditional voices" but then alter Piglet in such an obvious way...
 

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