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Whether you are a small child or a grown-up adult; who doesn’t love Winnie The Pooh?
Who would not want to see another great adventure of the world-famous Christopher Robin; even if he has grown up and left The Hundred Acre Woods?
I know I wanted to make this happen in my own life; even though I’m up into those golden years approaching retirement age. I wanted the grand experience of taking my grandkids with me and re-living a wonderful part of a childhood memory with them.
There was so much hype out there about this movie and I fell for it all; hook, line and sinker.
I fell so hard that I made it the main event for my birthday this year; and I invited many other family members to tag along with me as I endeavored to find out what had REALLY happened to Christopher Robin since he left and went away for boarding school.
Also; I wanted to know how those lovable characters named Tiger and Eyeore and Piglet and Kanga and Roo and (most of all) Pooh had survived without Christopher Robin after all of these years. I was highly motivated to attend from a nostalgic and emotional point of view.
I have LOVED Pooh all of my days; from the time of my very first special childhood memories!
This situation however, was a bit of a mistaken desire; because I had seen a trailer of the movie called “Goodbye Christopher Robin” and thought this was the same movie.
It wasn’t.
Disney made one movie recently called “Christopher Robin” and the other movie trailer that I had absent-mindedly viewed was called “Goodbye Christopher Robin.” “Goodbye Christopher Robin”was made a year before this one called “Christopher Robin” by Disney came out.
I plead total ignorance of these facts.
I simply did not know.
However; I had noticed in the viewing of the information about “Goodbye Christopher Robin” that some of the themes were too adult and possibly too sad for young children. Taking this into consideration (not knowing I had the wrong review from the wrong movie) I opted to see it first WITHOUT my grandchildren; then take them back with me for the second viewing if the coast was clear. I was so SURE I would want to see this movie twice.
I can now admit; I was terribly mislead and mistaken in my great enthusiasm for the movie.
It is hard to put into words.
The cast was full of excellent actors. They all played their parts very well, and I especially loved the grown Christopher Robin’s daughter’s role played by Bronte Carmichael. Ewan McGregor played Christopher Robin and his acting was spot on; so it wasn’t the acting that bothered me.
Nor was it the production of the animated movie mixed in with normal scenes. That was all well-done and good. That part was actually excellent. The scenery was absolutely breath-taking at certain points, and it was all very realistic and nostalgic, which is something I can usually love and appreciate.
All of the Pooh characters were just as lovable and adorable as in the past; especially Eyeore and Pooh. They were equally cute, quaint and funny. The people performing their voices were the same endearing voices we have always loved and cherished. They did their job with excellence.
It was none of those things; but there was SOMETHING not quite right about it all.
The movie seemed very S-L-O-W.
The plots were less than exciting, and they seemed to bounce around way too much; there was not a lot of smoothness and a slight hint of chaos in the transitions.
Please forgive me for saying so; since some people will love Winnie the Pooh in any form at all; but honestly; I think a lot of children and adults found the movie very boring.
Mind you; it did have some lively moments, and I loved hearing the laughter of the children of the audience in those rare instances; but I wondered how many of them probably went to sleep before the movie had ended.
I can almost assure you that probably 99% of the children attending this movie did not completely understand the plot; which would have been too adult for most kids to completely follow; and I thought it even a bit confusing for an adult.
You were left at the end wondering exactly what the proper words for a descriptive theme could be. The theme itself is very hard to categorize and difficult for me to summarize.
Some reviewers referred to the fact that Christopher Robin had to learn how to slow down and not be so consumed by his profession and to pay more attention to his family.
Some were even so bold enough to say that the movie made the obvious point that we all need to go backwards and learn how to get back in touch with our own lost inner-child again.
Nah….
Possibly those could pass with the less than discerning; but not really.
Maybe those things could be applied; but I had a totally different feeling as to what the whole underlying theme of the movie was all about.
It was all very, very subtle and hidden and you had to be paying extra attention to catch the political motivations that they vaguely snuck in on you. This technique hit me directly between the eyes though when Pooh said one of his old lines; “doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something.”
That very instant they perverted the well-loved, innocent old Winnie-The-Pooh that we knew before into a totally changed liberal socialistic thinker.
I ask you; who does that? Who has the nerve to change the character of Winnie The Pooh and smile all the while?
Possibly the people sitting around me noticed my anger and wondered what could possibly be wrong with me. I couldn’t help my facial expressions and I was glad we were all in the dark and the children could not all make out the huge frown forming between my eyebrows.
Even pondering my deep-deep love and appreciation for every single character in the movie “Frozen” could not cure my sinking feelings about Disney in that moment. They had now perverted and converted my old friend and I wasn’t happy; not one bit.
“They are actively promoting implications of socialism;” I thought quietly to myself as Pooh was obviously trying to help Christopher Robin solve the huge financial crisis at the luggage company where he worked.
The huge, formerly successful luggage company was going broke and these financial woes were at the root of the problem that was causing Christopher Robin to overwork and not pay enough attention to his family situations. I actually caught myself wondering if the formerly simple-minded Pooh had suddenly crossed over and developed a more complicated philosophy and world-view.
Oh no! Not Winnie The Pooh!
I couldn’t bare to watch more of it.
This was SO out of character for Pooh that I was completely troubled and totally bothered from the very first moment that the words came tumbling out of his mouth.
Pooh had ventured over to the side of socialistic living since I had known him in those golden days of my own childhood; and quite frankly; it was a political message I did not care to hear from this sweet old bear; much less introduce to my grandchildren.
How dare Disney change the world-view of Winnie The Pooh in order to indoctrinate innocent little children into their misguided and very liberal political points of view. I was appalled; and I was even MORE appalled that practically no one else even noticed this had happened on the magical screen right before our very eyes! It was a sure sign of the times.
So the solution that Christopher Robin had tried to come up with by crunching numbers over and over in order to keep the employees of the luggage company employed was for everyone to do nothing! At first it sounded genius.
This DID keep Christopher Robin from having to lay-off any of the factory workers. Yes; the simple answer was to let them all do more of nothing! The emphasis here is on the word “simple.”
It even came out in the lyrics of the music. Here are a few lines of lyrics that were in one of the songs of the movie:
“Dum dum de dum dum dum
Dum, dum de dum dum
I’m busy, busy , busy doing nothing
Doing nothing, that’s the life for me
Oh, when I’m doing nothing
I’m busy doing something
Something that suits me to a T
Because I’m busy doing nothing
I find I never find the time to rest
Being busy doing nothing
I’m busy doing something
Doing nothing is the something I do best.”
(Song credits: From the movie “Christopher Robin.” Written and performed by Richard M. Sherman.)
Okay folks; please don’t misunderstand me. I’m all for free-time, down-time and childhood play time. I’m all about taking a break; it’s just that little hint of those words DOING NOTHING that really bother me. We could have a whole generation of kids hoping to “do nothing” when they grow up. Just go ahead and confess right now…..you have probably even considered it yourself from time-to-time.
Pooh and Christopher Robin’s daughter Madeline finally convinced the huge luggage factory that if they increased their employee’s ability to do nothing; they would all have more time for vacations.
If everyone had more time for vacations; they would all need to buy more luggage in order to carry their things on those vacations.
SOUNDS very novel doesn’t it?
The problem is that this is a movie where things can SOUND perfect all the time; but in real life they don’t always turn out that way.
Well, at least we aren’t making kids become responsible and all grown-up before their time. I suppose that was the good in all of this.
However; is that good or bad?
I’m still wondering about the answer to that question.
Personally; I let my children have their childhood play-times on a regular basis and now they have all grown up to become totally responsible adults; so in my book kids must be kids but adults must act responsibly.
The movie’s final solution (presented by an animated cast of animals) was for them to solve the financial woes of the company by borrowing even more money so they could give their employees raises instead of laying them off.
They could all keep their jobs even when there was a lack of real profit.
By going into debt and paying more money to the employees than any amount they could actually earn from profits, the employees would then have the money to buy more luggage for the more-free-time that the company would now be giving to them to take more extra vacations.
The company’s financial crisis would (hopefully) eventually turn around and the employees would get to keep their jobs and have their time off and become richer and everyone would be happier.
It is that old saying about having your cake and eating it too.
Can this ever REALLY happen?
In theory this sounds wonderful; but they forgot to solve the problem that the already broke company was going to have when those bills came around for the loans it would take in order to be productive in the midst of more down-time and less production.
They really needed a long-term working plan that would put them back on a firm foundation for the future but somehow they were totally convinced that this new band-aid would fix everything.
I feel sure if the story had continued on into the future; that luggage company would AGAIN have found itself back in the very same sad predicament; and this sad ending would have only been temporarily delayed; perhaps long enough for Christopher Robin and his fellow employees to get their lives back together again in order to turn around and lose everything in the end.
I’m sorry to be such a bubble popper here – but eventually the bubble has to pop and the philosophy of doing less to have more never really works in the long-term.
For example; take our ever-increasing national deficient into consideration. We can continue to ignore it as if it were a part of a Disney movie; but it isn’t going to disappear simply because we have decided to do nothing.
I happen to hope my grandchildren will not have the same wool pulled over their eyes and that they will not be presented with the grand and false illusions of my own generation who had to learn to deal with too much debt the hard way.
Thankfully; I think this may be the only issue I’ve EVER had in which I had to be forced to disagree with someone as noble as Winnie The Pooh; and I hope the occasion never rares it’s ugly head again. I’m devastated!
I have loved The Pooh dearly for so long; and that is another reason why this movie-gone-wrong just didn’t fit the mold that I had hoped it would deliver.
Their version of Pooh looked the same; but deep down inside; he was an impostor!
Even the elect can be deceived if they are not careful.
I’m so sad to say that none of my fellow-Winnie The Pooh friends saw this coming, or noticed that Pooh had changed over the years without Christopher Robin.
I’m sad to say that Christopher Robin (for me anyway) went by the way of so many other perfectly excellent things of life that have been ruined and destroyed by too many liberals interjecting their hidden political agendas into everything of value and worth.
It was just another indication of the end of an era.
Had this little political statement not been the final focus of this movie; maybe it could have been salvaged due to the excellence of all the other qualities.
I’m just not sure.
Oh bother!
I never thought I would live to say that I was severely disappointed by the wisdom of my old friend; Winnie The Pooh.
Thanks a lot Disney for ruining yet another wonderful, innocent, well-loved classic childhood character of virtue with your distorted world view.
Is NOTHING sacred anymore?
Like an addict chasing after perfect nostalgic childhood memories I now intend to go and find a copy and view the other movie called “Goodbye Christopher Robin.”
I’m trembling and shaking in fear though.
I’m hoping and praying to salvage my dashed expectations of Pooh and bring his simple philosophies back to life in my soul again.
I just can’t give up that easily.
Not on Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin.