Christopher Robin is all grown up and needs to be reminded of what’s truly important in life.
That is the basic premise of Disney’s Christopher Robin, which stars Ewan McGregor as the titular character in his middle-aged years. We find Christopher Robin married to Evelyn (Hayley Atwell), an architect, and the couple has a daughter, Madeline (Bronte Carmichael).
As tends to be the case in films such as this, Christopher Robin focuses much of his time at work and neglects spending time with his family. Things come to a head when Christopher Robin has to work on a weekend that he promised he would spend with Evelyn and Madeline at his childhood home. Wife and daughter go on the trip without him and Christopher Robin tries to figure out how to cut 20 percent in costs at work.
By happy accident, Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) wanders into Christopher Robin’s life again while searching for all of his friends. Together, Pooh and Christopher Robin return to the Hundred Acre Wood to find the rest of their fans.
The film has a feel-good feeling about it the whole time. With the furry friends having somewhat childish behavior, it brings a feeling of nostalgia to the older viewers and allows the younger viewers to relate to the story, including on how to overcome your fears, and that friendship and family are the most important part of life.
Christopher Robin has a climax that is somewhat cheesy, but that’s to be expected in a film made for kids.
And of course there are the characters we know and love: Pooh, Piglet (Nick Mohammed), Tigger (Cummings), Eeyore (Brad Garrett), Rabbit (Peter Capaldi), Kanga (Sophie Okonedo), Roo (Sara Sheen) and Owl (Toby Jones). They are as lovable as they were before and remind of us the innocence of childhood. While Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore all come into Christopher Robin’s world, the others remain behind in the Hundred Acre Wood, which makes us yearn for more of them.
As for Ewan McGregor, he is certainly no stranger to a fantasy world like this. McGregor is best known for his role as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In Christopher Robin, he steps up his game and makes us believe all of those characters are right there with him, acting alongside him just as every other person. McGregor doesn’t overdo his acting at all and pulls off this difficult role brilliantly.
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