Christopher Robin: My take on the movie starring Ewan McGregor and Jim Cummings #book2movie

Christopher Robin starring Ewan McGregor & Jim Cummings

I’d like to write a proper review of Christopher Robin starring Ewan McGregor which my husband and I finally got around to seeing over the Labor Day weekend.

But I can’t because I spent most of the movie with tears in my eyes, blurring my vision. Or maybe it was my affection for that ‘silly old bear’ that blurred my vision. 

It’s hard to see how anyone who knew Pooh as a child, who remembers Eyeore and Tigger, Piglet, Kanga and Roo from their own childhoods, could look at the movie with anything like clarity of vision. To make matters worse the silly old bear is voiced by Jim Cummings, the same man who voiced the popular television series in the late 80’s/early 90’s. He’s also the voice of Tigger from the same series. For many of us, that means our memories are mixed up not only with our own childhoods but those of our children! The countless times I watched Winnie the Pooh videos with my son, the Winnie the Pooh playsets, the Pooh-themed birthday cake I made for his third birthday, meeting the characters from the Hundred Acre Woods at Disneyland here in California and the Children’s Museum in New York City, all of that colors my view. 

Something like must have affected my husband too because in the midst of my worst sniffling and wiping away of tears I realized he was crying too! 

So ... that being said ... Ewan McGregor was lovely as the grown-up Christopher Robin, encompassing all our own grown-up fears and worries: balancing work and family, striving to succeed and provide for our children while being there as part of their lives. The plot was simple, tried and true, pushing all our buttons. No less than 5 writers have their fingerprints on the script, based of course on the beloved stories from A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard.

The creative process behind bringing the lovable stuffed animals to life was perfection. Not only did they all look just as they should, they all sounded exactly like themselves as well. Next to Jim Cummings voicing of Pooh (and Tigger too) Brad Garrett’s Eyeore stands out for being just as morose and gloomy as ever one could hope for. Those really are the three key voices and the three key animated characters that both tear at our hearts and make us laugh, even as adults.

As successful as the movie was for all of us adults in the theater, and the laughter it elicited, I think most of the very funny bits made the children giggle too. And there was plenty of that silliness, Pooh getting stuck in his honey jar just never gets old. Seeing Ewan McGregor trying to climb out of a hole in a tree and getting stuck was a good trick too. The movie is full of that, soft, sweet, innocent humor. I found my trip back to the Hundred Acre Woods a sheer delight, I imagine when the movie is released on DVD/BluRay or streaming, I’ll want to go back again.

Stars? How about 5 jars of honey out of 5?