As a kid my mother use to call me Tigger because I used to bounce around all crazy like. The nickname wasn’t the only thing Winnie-the-Pooh related in my house, I had it all, and when my daughter was growing up she latched onto Pooh as well. With all this love for Pooh, hearing they were going with the Hook approach and telling a story with a grown up Christopher Robin, I thought to myself this could be fun or go terribly wrong. Well, I am here to report it is not the latter and for the kid in us all the film Christopher Robin is just the right cup of tea.
Like us all, Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) has to grow up and in doing so forgets the wonders of childhood. Now a man with his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and their daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael), Christopher has discovered the darkness that is called being an adult. No longer having time to play, Christopher works was too much and the disconnect his family is feeling from him is growing. Good friends though know when they are needed and just at the right time Winnie-the-Pooh shows up to Christopher’s disbelief. Time is not on his side as work must be done and Pooh is just in the way, so Christopher gets on a train with his old best friend and heads back to where it all started. That place is where his family is without him and the same place where Christopher Robin finds some old friends and discovers that are more important things worth living for than just work.
Knowing where adulthood takes us, it’s safe to say all work and no play makes Christopher Robin a dull man. Lucky for him a talking bear who loves honey comes to the rescue and saves him from that life. What we get is an entertaining film that will bring out the kid in us all as we are taken back to the Hundred Acre Wood. The reason why it will be hard to not smile is because of the magic of Winnie and the gang as they come to terms with how big their playmate has become is completely and utterly cute. The mixture of classic Pooh n’ friends and Pooh in the city is at times just too much as all those memories come flooding back to remind you why you loved this story in the first place. Not all is sweet in this film though, in fact most of the movie without Pooh is nothing special, but as we all know, even a little Winnie-the-Pooh can make anything better. This movie brought joy to my heart and while it is not a perfect movie, some things can’t be put in a box. Christopher Robin will make a lot of people smile and it makes he happy to see Winnie-the-Pooh back and I am sure I am not alone in saying this, I hope this is just the beginning of more Pooh in our lives.
