Review of Christopher Robin (2018) by Davidwashere — 17 Aug 2018

This movie is disappointingly okay. There is an idea here to make it really good, even great! The groundwork is there. However Disney plays it super safe with a same-old story without much subversion, and blatant emotional manipulation.

So what does work about the movie? Well it has heart, that's for one. There certainly is a warm and fuzzy center to the film that doesn't feel like blatant tugs at the heart-string. A large portion of this does come with Pooh and the gang. The designs are great and they do animate well. Sure they do look weird being worn down toys, but it makes sense in the movie and they do look as realistic as they can without feeling out of place, like Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, and everyone else of the 100 Acre Woods feel like real things. And the voice cast also do a solid job, with Jim Cummings returning as the voices of Pooh and Tigger. Unfortunately a lot of the usual cast for the rest of the characters do not return, which is pretty obvious with Nich Mohammond as Piglet and Peter Capaldi as Rabbit being very obvious and does make you ask why they didn't just get the voice cast from 2011's Winnie the Pooh, but they do a good job regardless. Major props to Brad Garrett as Eeyore, who does a spot on job that I was surprised to know this was his first time voicing the character. Ewan McGregor does make for a great lead as the titular character. It's not like an Oscar-worthy performance, but he does bring his usual charm and charisma as an actor. McGregor is also really the only great live-action actor of the film. He has no chemistry with Hayley Atwell, who is just too stiff in this, Bronte Carmichael doesn't do a terrible child actor performance, but she does fall into a lot of child actor performances where she acts more like an adult than a kid (I blame that on the writing and directing), and Mark Gatiss chews the scenery as the closet thing to an antagonist of the film. Marc Forster, who directs this, and has a weird filmography (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stay, Stranger than Fiction, Quantum of Solace, and World War Z!) does an alright job outside of the acting, it's shot competently and doesn't rely too much on the 180 degree shot reverse shot style. Although it is weird because it feels like an arthouse film! Like the camera work is done with a handheld like style, not exactly going too much of shaky cam like the first Hunger Games movie, but it is clear that it's not film with tripods. It feels weird seeing Pooh shot in a style reminiscent of someone like Terrence Malick. It's not bad, but it can be distracting at times.

The biggest problem with the movie is the story. I don't mind that the movie is low-key and doesn't have much at stake. Like anything that is bigger for a Winnie the Pooh story would feel totally out of place! The general plot is fine, but it feels SO obvious with the emotional manipulation. So many of the dialogue and even the scenes that play out, including a pot of honey falling off the table and smashing, is such blatant appeals to the heart that it is obnoxious and groan worthy. Which just makes the overall story line of Christopher Robin working too hard and not being there for his family feel all the more tired and trite. The general idea isn't terrible, but instead of playing the movie with a little bit more artistic risk, take a few chances and subversion of the story, try for more subtly, and make work on a greater theme overall, instead of a played out "father learns to be a family man" that you have seen so much in family movies before. I'm not saying they needed to go full on Hook, but at least something with more tact.

I can't in good faith say this movie is bad, the movie did it's job bringing nostalgic memories to the adult audience while providing something harmless but not pandering for kids. But there was so much potential that was not reached here, unfortunately. What could have been great, just came out average.