Disney’s latest live-action adaptation arrives with mixed results
Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, and midway through Disney’s live-action “Christopher Robin,” Winnie the Pooh and a grown-up Christopher Robin try to find their way through a spooky fog. They walk and walk. And walk and walk and walk.
That’s when Christopher Robin, played by an earnest Ewan McGregor, realizes the mistake he made in putting Pooh in charge of the compass. Turns out, bears of very little brain — as we all know Pooh is, but which Christopher seems to have forgotten — are poor navigators. Instead of following the compass, Pooh has been following a set of footprints he sees in the mud. They are his and Christopher Robin’s footprints, of course, and they’ve been walking in circles.
While “Christopher Robin” is certainly sweet stuff, buoyed by undeniably beautiful visuals — at least, once you get past the faintly bewitched feel of its computer-generated characters, which feel as if they could’ve been plucked out of one of those “Conjuring” movies — it’s hard not to think director Marc Forster and his team have similarly lost their way.
Abandoning much of what made A. Milne’s stories so magical in the first place, they work diligently to reshape it all into a predictable and threadbare parable about the importance of hanging on to a sense of childhood wonder.
In a word: Yawn. There’s nothing original to offer here, nothing we haven’t heard before, and nothing that will make anyone forget the built-in loveliness of the old-school animation of Disney’s original Pooh films, most recently on display in 2011’s charming throwback “Winnie the Pooh.”
What’s worse, while watching “Christopher Robin” — which, as fetching as it looks, must be counted among the more disappointing of Disney’s recent live-action adaptations of its animated classics — I couldn’t help but wonder who the target audience is for Forster’s film.
Its slog of a first half focuses almost entirely on the now-grown Christopher Robin who, with the horrors of World War II still fresh in every Londoner’s mind, toils away diligently as an office worker at a cash-strapped luggage factory. His boss, from behind a cruel, disingenuous smile, has tasked him with streamlining the operation. Should he fail, he is told, untold numbers of his co-workers will find themselves jobless.
Suffice it to say, this is no mere game of Pooh sticks for poor Christopher.
Making matters worse is that he’s got just one weekend to do it — a weekend he was planning on spending with his wife and young daughter at his boyhood home in Sussex.
So, while his family goes off to the country for some fresh air, he — the responsible grown-up that he is — must stay behind in London to work. “Nothing comes from nothing,” he is told. “Nothing comes from nothing,” he repeats gloomily.
After 20 minutes of this decidedly dreary introduction, a computer-generated Pooh finally, thankfully, enters the picture. Voiced with perfection by pre-eminent voice actor (and former New Orleans resident and float-builder) Jim Cummings, he undeniably brightens things up. But there’s still something missing from the whole affair. Ironically, it’s the sense of childhood wonder about which Forster and company are so eager to preach.
Instead, the first hour of “Christopher Robin” is the story of a man suffering a severe psychotic break. It’s a psychotic break that involves Pooh Bear, so it’s not as scary it sounds. Still, I can’t imagine many children will find much enchantment in one man’s mid-life crisis.
“Christopher Robin” finally begins to find its feet in its second half, which will be much more appealing to little ones, as the pace picks up and the rest of the Hundred Acre Wood gang join the fun for a faintly “Paddington”-flavored adventure through London. So at least the film ends on a high note.
It’s also much easier to enjoy than 2017’s similar but much more manipulative ” Goodbye, Christopher Robin .”
It’s still, however, a long way from the Hundred Acre Wood that most “Pooh” fans remember so fondly.
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CHRISTOPHER ROBIN 2 stars, out of 5
Snapshot: The latest of Disney’s live-action adaptations of films from its classic catalog tackles “Winnie the Pooh,” with a tale about a grown-up Christopher Robin who must learn to rediscover his sense of childhood wonder.
What works: It’s an undeniably fetching film, and voice actor Jim Cummings does pitch-perfect work as Pooh.
What doesn’t: Thanks mostly to its dreary slog of a first half, it lacks the sense of magic from A. Milne’s original texts and Disney’s previous animated “Pooh” films.
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, Cummings, Toby Jones, Peter Capaldi, Brad Garrett. Director: Marc Forster. MPAA rating: PG, for some action. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Where: Find New Orleans showtimes.
