"Christopher Robin" Review - Lots of Fluff and Beauty To Go Around

When “Christopher Robin” was announced and the plot synopsis was revealed about three years ago, I gave a really big sigh. Considering it was basically going to be “Hook” with Winnie the Pooh and the long streak of simply fair yet overly CGI films Disney was putting out, I didn’t have any confidence this would be good at all.

Well flash forward to now, and I must say, this film absolutely surprised me. It’s not perfect by all means. The plot is a little rushed at some points and the ending is very Scooby Doo-esque, which killed the mood a bit for me. But overall, this movie has a very heartwarming story that doesn’t try to pull Christopher back to being his 8 year old self, but more so just finding his old ways and having a little more fun in life (I'm looking at you “Hook”, even though I still love you). This heart-warming Disney film was able to find the most perfect balance of drama while still being able to bring out the joy and silliness that made the world of Winnie The Pooh so enjoyable.

I was also blown away at how much realism was given to the characters and settings of both London and the Hundred Acre Wood. Whatever is CGI in this film, it’s taken as seriously as the way "Ted" handled its CGI. With the slightest exception of Owl, the VFX in “Christopher Robin” truly makes the characters stand out and you can feel every bit of emotion from the characters. Plus, unlike “Solo”, this movie is shot so beautifuly and not all gloomy like you see in the trailers. You can tell easily there are a lot of real life settings and not some Wonderland green screen sets being used.

This leads into the main reason why “Christopher Robin” succeeds. It aims for your heart. So many times, when characters are brought to the screen, they’re changed or made way too dumb for the sake of kids’ enjoyment. Not only does the main story stay pretty serious the entire time, but every single character does not change. I watched Winnie the Pooh a lot as a kid. I remember seeing the cartoons, the DVD movies, and even “The Tigger Movie” as a kid. I can tell you whoever wrote the screenplay for this movie deserves a medal for taking the cartoons you know and love, and putting them into a live-action medium without sacrificing anything that makes them so great. The voice actors who are new, like Brad Garrett and Nick Mohammed, bring exactly what you’d expect from Eeyore and Piglet, along with all the other talented as hell actors who voice Kanga, Rabbit, etc. The real star though is voice acting giant, Jim Cummings, who voices both Pooh and Tigger. For those who don’t know, Jim has been a voice actor for over 30 years, voicing characters like Pete from the Goofy Cartoons, Darkwing Duck, Fuzzy Lumpkins, you name it. I consider him a legend in the world of voice actors up there with Tara Strong. Anyways, he’s voiced these two Winnie the Pooh characters since the late 1980s. He’s been with Pooh and Tigger for the longest time now. For Disney to let him go behind the wheel again and drive these wonderfully joyful characters once again is probably the best thing about this film. Whatever faults “Christopher Robin” may have, Jim Cummings will blur those faults by simply "acting" silly or bouncy.

Overall, “Christopher Robin” is a truly sad and heartwarming film that has a very moving script, a perfect amount of realism and well done CGI, and a perfect as hell voice cast along (with awesome actors Ewan McGreggor and Hayley Atwell). All of this together puts this film as one of the much better live action takes Disney has put out. Now here's hoping Dumbo can surprise me just as much. Crossing my fingers....oh bother.

Two Nebs Up!