Film Review: "Christopher Robin" (2018).

"Sooner or later, your past catches up to you." This is at the heart of Christopher Robin. This fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Marc Forster, written by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, and Allison Schroeder, and inspired by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Winnie the Pooh enters the life of a now-grown-up Christopher Robin, to seek his help in finding his lost friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

In 2003, inspired by the last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner, Brigham Taylor pitched to Disney an idea about a Winnie the Pooh film focusing on an adult Christopher Robin. However, due to other Pooh projects being in development at the time, the project was not pitched for a film. In 2015, Kristin Burr later convinced Taylor to resurrect the project, which the two then started working on it. In early April, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a live-action adaptation based on the characters from the Winnie the Pooh franchise was in development which would take a similar pattern to their live-action remakes of their animated classics. Perry was hired to pen the script. In late November 2016, it was reported that the studio had hired Forster to direct the film, titled Christopher Robin, and the project would have "strong elements of magical realism as it seeks to tell an emotional journey with heartwarming adventure." On early March 2017, McCarthy was hired for rewrites. In late April, Ewan McGregor was cast to play the title role. Additionally, Allison Schroeder was hired to do additional rewrites. By early August 2017, Hayley Atwell, Mark Gatiss, Oliver Ford Davies, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett, Nick Mohammed, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, Sara Sheen, and Toby Jones rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early November. Filming took place in Bloomsbury; County Durham; Dover, Kent; East Sussex; London; Windsor, Berkshire; and Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey, England.

The films stars McGregor in the title role, with Atwell, Gatiss, Davies, Ashton-Griffiths, Cummings, Garrett, Mohammed, Capaldi, Okonedo, Sheen, and Jones. With all the money and talent and hype that went into this film, it should have been a lot better, but it is entertaining enough to rate a passing grade, especially for fans of the cast. 

The film is a huge and impressive one. One could say it's the ultimate baby-boomer fantasy. Sadly, it's too loaded down with grown-up compromises and calculated Hollywood devices to really makes us think happy thoughts. For very much like Christopher Robin, it has clearly gotten harder for this director to break free of the lure of material things and believe in simple magic. Unhappily, however, the transformation of a Type A businessman into his old boyhood self unfolds with an uncertainty and clumsiness atypical of Forster. Winnie Pooh stories are great ones, so that keeps this modern retelling going for the most part, but on the whole it's too corny and not magical enough.

Simon says Christopher Robin receives:

Also, see my reviews for All I See Is You and Pete's Dragon.