I just watched the 2018 movie Christopher Robin. They ripped off the plot and the themes from the movie version of Mary Poppins and from Hook, imported the Disney Pooh characters and some Pooohisms, and pared it all down to the essence of boring. Christopher Robin is all grown up, and he’s the such a baddie because he won’t leave his work to go for a holiday in the country with his daughter and wife. He’s forgotten his childhood and his childhood friends, Pooh and Piglet and the rest of the denizens of the Hundred Acre Woods.
I’m not a fan of movies that that say that growing up is a bad thing, and we should all just forget our responsibilities and our work and play like children. That’s not what Jesus meant when he said we were to become as children. to enter the kingdom of heaven. He wasn’t talking about some Disney version of “let’s go fly a kite” or the catchphrase in this movie, which was something like “doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something.” (Try that one on your boss the next time you want a day off.) Not that Christopher Robin mentions Jesus or childlike faith or anything else very deep or interesting. I guess we can be thankful that the movie doesn’t give us any post-modern wisdom, just Pooh uttering his simple proverbs, nor does it have any scenes or language that would earn it anything more than a G rating, just a couple of very mild war scenes at the beginning when Christopher Robin is off fighting in World War II.
Silly old Disney. How about you quit giving us recycled blather for a movie and try to do something new and real?
I did think the plot was a lot like Hook and Mary Poppins. And it’s not at all true to life. Christopher Robin Milne enjoyed life as the famous Christopher Robin as a child but then distanced himself from all the hubbub as an adult. His one daughter had cerebral palsy.
But even with all that, I enjoyed the movie. We were big fans of the classic Pooh videos as my kids were growing up, and there was even a Sat. morning cartoon on at that time based on the characters. I loved that the film used voice actors for the animals that were very much like the voices on the old videos. I watched this new film with my adult sons, and we had a lot of “Awww” moments reminiscing.
I think these movies do fall too far on the “just forget work and play” aspect, which just isn’t possible in real life. But too many adults do get caught up in their own world at the neglect of their children, so it’s good to be reminded that is is ok to just play at times.
I haven’t watched this or the newer Mary Poppins movies yet either. I was kinda worried that it was going to go the route that you described. Hmm, have to think on it some more.
I guess Disney himself was very creative, but whoever runs the show now…? I’m so sorry to hear that there is another movie of this sort.
Funny, I just read The Tao of Pooh which was written 30+ years ago. It was depressing the way the author appropriated and reduced for his own use Milne’s characters, and then he didn’t even do a good job with the Tao.