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Christopher Robin

At times this Disney live-action, animated comedy/melodrama is actually good.

Christopher Robin

Grade: B-

Director: Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland)

Screenplay: Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Phillip), et al.

Cast: Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, Trainspotting)

Rating: PG

Runtime: 1 hr 4 min

by John DeSando

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” Winnie the Pooh

The pervasive mantra of Christopher Robin is an exhortation to do nothing to let something happen, usually creative and different. This is a live action, animated story of the titular famed boy who talks to stuffed animals and grows up into a colorless, work-alcoholic efficiency manager of a suitcase company after WWII.

The half of the film dedicated to his depression about his failing company and his failure to connect with his wife, Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter, Madeline (Bronte Carmichael) is too long and boring. That part of the film is truly where nothing happens except a gloomy, melancholic Christopher in London charged with saving his company.

Similar to last year’s Goodbye Christopher Robin, this film spends too much time with the depression that comes before creation, here as Christopher renews his life with a return to his Hundred Acre Wood, in Goodbye as author A.A. Milne discovers his Christopher through the inspiration of his son. Goodbye has variety and sense of discovery that this Christopher Robin lacks.

The film picks up after he goes back to find his childhood friends, including Pooh, Tigger, Eyore, Piglet, Rabbit, and Owl. It becomes a charming allegory about friendship and happiness tied to creative solutions that come from nothing. Memorable is the “say-what-you-see” game on the train with Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings) doing the routine.

The ever gloomy Eyore (voice of Brad Garrett) has the best lines even though he is one gloomy donkey (“Disgrace.” “Shame.” “Humiliation,”) perhaps as good an emblem of the film’s ambivalence that spends too much time on the negative but charms when it goes to the positive.

As adult Christopher Robin searches for how he can be a happier father and more productive man, director Marc Forster reinforces a popular theme of current super hero films in which a parent is struggling to reconcile duties to the world and connection with family. Fortunately as in the case of Christopher Robin, family wins.

Parents and children will love the hand-drawn illustrations and race through London with talking teddies.  Otherwise, they should check out the real Pooh in a book, the most-read kiddy lit of all time, and know that even our great movie kingdom cannot depose the original paper delivery.

John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com

John DeSando holds a BA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in English from The University of Arizona. He served several universities as a professor, dean, and academic vice president. He has been producing and broadcasting as a film critic on It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics for more than two decades. DeSando received the Los Angeles Press Club's first-place honors for national entertainment journalism.