Christopher Robin Review: The Winnie The Pooh Film Makes a Pleasant Nostalgia Trip, Say International Critics

Winnie The Pooh, the popular cartoon character for so many years, is making a returning on the big screen with Christopher Robin. If you are aware of the lore of Winnie The Pooh, you know that Christopher Robin is based on the son of Pooh's creator, AA Milne, and is an important character in the storybooks. The live-action adaption movie will follow an adult Christopher Robin, in his mid-life crisis, reconnects with his old friends like Winnie, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl, and Rabbit.

Ewan McGregor plays the titular character, while the movie also stars Hayley Atwell and Mark Gatiss. Christopher Robin is directed by Marc Forster, known for making Brad Pitt's zombie apocalypse thriller, World War Z. The Disney movie opened last week in the USA to a good reception, both at the box office as well as with the critics. Many of the reviews have called the film, a harmless nostalgic trip for those who have grown up on Winnie the Pooh stories.

Check out some of the reviews below -

Vulture says, "Christopher Robin is faithful to A.A. Milne’s sensibilities, to the letter in some respects, and his little profundities remain intact in the script. “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been,” Pooh ruminates at one point. I find it odd that a figure that has since been appropriated as a kind of Western Zen master has been used in service of a story so invested in stopping that walk altogether."

NY Times says, "Once “Christopher Robin” softens its insufferable, needlessly cynical conception of the title character, it offers more or less what a Pooh reboot should: a lot of nostalgia, a bit of humor (Brad Garrett’s vocal deadpanning as Eeyore is a standout) and tactile computer animation that, even for the effects-jaded, makes it look as if the actors are interacting with real stuffed animals."

The Atlantic says, "I’m not quite sure which madman at Disney gave the green light to a movie that uses the Winnie the Pooh series as a way into the emotional drudgery of Britain’s returning soldiers. Christopher Robin is the kind of uncanny experiment that only gets to happen in children’s films once every few years. But any time that underlying weirdness threatens to overwhelm everything, Pooh is there to urge the viewer not to stress—a message that, especially in 2018, couldn’t be more helpful."

Time says, "It’s doubtful the movie would work at all if not for McGregor: He turns Christopher’s anxiety into a haunting presence, the kind of storm cloud that we can all, now and then, feel hovering above us. Yet McGregor is also an actor capable of expressing unalloyed delight. And when, as Christopher Robin, he finally does, some of that delight rubs off on us too. It’s just the thing when it’s time for a little something, even if you’re not quite sure what that something is."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 04, 2018 11:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).