Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Christopher Robin (2018)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Christopher Robin (2018)

Adding to the ever increasing list of live action remakes of animated films Christopher Robin came out in 2018 to mostly positive reviews but never really seemed to make an impact with audiences.  Maybe it was it’s August release date and action movies were dominating the box office, maybe it just seemed like a knockoff of Hook, or people just thought Disney was trying to cash in on the Paddington craze.   Whatever the reason I feel like the movie went under the radar, which is unfortunate.  

In Christopher Robin we have the titular character who after he went to school slowly forgot about Pooh and his friends in Hundred Acre Wood.  We find Christopher as a grown man, married with a daughter. His job is putting a lot of stress on him and he has to miss a vacation away with his family to do business.  But as he is nearing his lowest point Winnie the Pooh suddenly appears and forces him to revisit his childhood.  He returns to Hundred Acre Wood and the cynical side slowly fades away.  But when he leaves to go back to London for work he forgets his papers and Pooh and gang team up with Christopher’s daughter to get the papers back to him before his meeting.  

The Hook comparison is fair.  Both films deal with a character that lived in a fantasy world who grew up and forgot how to have fun.  While I can see this feeling like a retread I think this one stands on its own.  It’s not overly complicated and you can see where it is going from the start. You know Pooh is going to teach Christopher how to recapture his imagination, that family is important, and help him figure out how to save the company he is working for.  But the journey is a satisfying one. It manages to capture the essence of Pooh and what Pooh means to so many people.  It’s charming and funny.  Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin is spot on.  The guy does not get enough credit for the range he is able to play.  In this film you see him as a downtrodden man who slowly discovers the fun in life again.  Marc Forster who also directed the story of Peter Pan’s author J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland once again creates a world where fairy tales come to life.  While this movie has more stakes than a typical Pooh movie it still doesn’t get real dark and keeps things light.  Seeing Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore in London creates a lot of opportunities for fun shenanigans, the score does a great job setting the mood, and the CGI looks great.  

Overall: I really enjoyed this movie.  My kid watched most of it with me and he usually hates the live action remakes.  The most surprising thing for me was how funny it really was.  Pooh has some great one liners and watching Ewan McGregor react to them is really a lot of fun.  Again the stakes are low but it’s a great movie for family night when you want something light and fun to watch. 

Random Facts:

Jim Cummings did the voice of Pooh and Tigger he has been doing the voices since the 80’s and is a spot on for the original voice actors from the animated films of the 60’s.  Chris O’Dowd was originally hired for the voice of Tigger but test audiences didn’t like the way his voice sounded so Cummings returned to voice Tigger.  

Some of the Sherman Brothers original songs were used in the film.  Richard Sherman returned to write 3 new songs for the film.  

Jóhann Jóhannsson (one of my favorite composers)  was hired to do the score but died shortly after he was hired.  Would have love to see what he would have done but the new composers did a great job. The movie is dedicated to Jóhannsson.  

Found out that in the original story Owl and Rabbit are the only two real animals in the books and the rest are stuffed animals.  The movie continued that tradition.  

  

Disney Movie Challenge: The Many of Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

 Disney Movie Challenge

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

How this movie is considered  Disney Cannon baffles me.  Similar to the 1940’s Package films this one is made up of shorter films, but in this case they are all shorts that previously screened. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was released in 1966 as the pre-feature to The Ugly Dachshund.  Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was released in 1968 as the pre-feature to The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit.  The final short that makes up the film is  Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too was released in 1974 as the pre-feature to The Island at the Top of the World.  Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day won the Oscar for Best Animated Short and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too was nominated but lost the Oscar.  

The three shorts are based on the books by A.A. Milne and follow Pooh and his friends Rabbit, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and of course Tigger. To summarize  The Honey Tree has Pooh pretending to be a rain cloud to get honey. He also eats all of Rabbit's honey and gets stuck in Rabbit’s doorway.  The Blustery Day involves a windy day with  Piglet and Pooh being blown into Owl’s house.  It also introduces us to Tigger who is hiding out in Pooh’s house. He tells Pooh about the evil Heffalumps and Woozles.  This gives Pooh a bizarre nightmare. There is also a flood where Piglet gets washed down a river and Pooh ends up saving him. Winnie the Pooh and TIgger Too has rabbit trying to teach Tigger a lesson that backfires on Rabbit.  It also has a story of Tigger bouncing too high and getting stuck in a tree.  

There really isn’t much story going on in these shorts.  Mostly silly stuff with very low stakes.  But they do leave an impression.  I have never seen this movie but as I watched it I remember seeing bits and pieces of them as a kid. The strangest sequence in the film is Pooh’s nightmare during the “Hephalumps and Woozles” song. This trippy nightmare is reminiscent of the Pink Elephants scene in Dumbo. It has bizarre creatures changing shape and colors while trying to steal Pooh’s honey.  The scene stands out in a movie that is mostly gentle and soothing in it’s story telling. 

Even though the Sherman Brothers left Disney by this point since all of these were older shorts we got a few more songs from them. Including the Winnie the Pooh theme song, “The Wonderful thing about Tiggers”, and “Heffalumps and Woozles”. 

Overall:  The film is relaxing and strangely comforting.  It's a movie that is perfect for little kids.  Nothing too scary, no bad guy, and silly situations.  If you are looking for action or adventure you won’t find it here, but there is plenty of memorable scenes that stick with you.  While the movie is made up of previously released shorts they do a really good job of combining the films in a wraparound story that feels coherent.

Random Facts: 

In Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree there is a gopher that mentions he isn't in the books.  When it was first released they had used a gopher instead of Piglet.  This made many fans of the original books upset and Piglet was then added in the future shorts. 

Since each short was made in different years Christopher Robin was voiced by a different actor.   Jon Walmsley came in and re-recorded all of Christopher Robin's dialogue to keep it consistent.