Christopher Robin is a 2018 American live-action animated fantasy comedy drama film inspired by the children's book series Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne illustrated by E. H. Shepard, and part of the Disney franchise. The film was directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy and Allison Schroeder. Ewan McGregor stars as the title character, alongside Hayley Atwell as his wife Evelyn, with the voices of Jim Cummings (reprising his roles as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger), Nick Mohammed as Piglet, and Brad Garrett as Eeyore. The story follows an adult Christopher Robin, who has lost his sense of imagination only to be reunited with his childhood friend Winnie the Pooh, whom he must escort back to the Hundred Acre Wood to find his friends.
Plans of a live-action Winnie the Pooh adaptation were announced back in April 2015, and Forster was confirmed as the director in November 2016. McGregor signed on as Christopher Robin in April 2017 and principal photography began in August of that year in the United Kingdom, lasting until November.
Christopher Robin premiered in Burbank, California on July 30, 2018, and was released in the United States on August 3, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its performances, musical score, and visual effects. It grossed $197.7 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in Disney's Winnie the Pooh franchise, surpassing The Tigger Movie (2000). The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards.
Plot After his living toy friends from the Hundred Acre Wood throw him a farewell party before he departs for boarding school, Christopher Robin reassures Winnie the Pooh that he will never forget him. Nevertheless, his rough experiences at school and his father's death force his maturation, and he soon forgets his Hundred Acre Wood friends. He later marries architect Evelyn, has a daughter named Madeline, serves in the British Army during World War II, and gets a job as Director of Efficiency at Winslow Luggages in London, unintentionally neglecting his family. Christopher's superior, Giles Winslow Jr., tells him to decrease expenditures by 20%, largely by choosing which employees to lay off, and to present his plan on Monday. Christopher misses joining his family at their countryside cottage in Sussex for a summer-ending weekend.
The next morning, Pooh wakes up to find his friends are missing. Looking for them, he enters a door that Christopher normally came out of, and finds himself in London. He reunites with Christopher, who is shocked to see Pooh but takes him home, before bringing him back to Sussex on the train the following day. Passing by the cottage, they enter the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh, attempting to return Christopher's compass, trips into Christopher's briefcase, spilling his papers. Christopher angrily reminds Pooh that he is now an adult, before they are separated in the fog. Christopher falls into a Heffalump trap, which is flooded by rainfall.
Christopher discovers Eeyore and Piglet, who lead him to the others, hiding in a log from what they believe to be a Heffalump but is the squeaking of a rusty, fallen weather vane from Owl's house. He pretends to defeat the Heffalump, proving his identity. When they reunite with Pooh, Christopher apologizes for his earlier outburst and explains his dilemma. Pooh forgives and embraces him. The next day, Christopher hurries out of the Hundred Acre Wood to make his presentation after Tigger gives him his briefcase.
After Pooh discovers that Tigger removed Christopher's paperwork when drying his briefcase, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore decide to travel to London to return it. Madeline, wanting to dissuade her father about sending her to boarding school, recognizes them from Christopher's drawings and joins them. Evelyn discovers a note Madeline wrote, and invites Christopher to search for their daughter just as he discovers gifts that Tigger left him. Madeline's group stows away in crates, but Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet are accidentally ejected, and encounter her parents. Pooh and Madeline arrive near the Winslow building, and reunite with Christopher and the others, but Madeline trips on some steps and loses all but one of the papers. Christopher assures Madeline that she is too important to him to be sent away.
Using the paper Madeline saved, Christopher improvises a new plan involving selling luggage at reduced prices to ordinary people to increase demand, and giving employees paid leave. Winslow Jr. dismisses the idea, but his father Giles Winslow Sr. warmly agrees to it. Christopher further humiliates Winslow Jr., who contributed nothing to the plan, instead playing golf all weekend. Christopher finally takes his family into the Hundred Acre Wood to meet his friends for a picnic.
Cast
Live-action actors
Ewan McGregor as Christopher Robin, a businessman working as an efficiency expert at Winslow Luggages who was once an imaginative boy. McGregor said that "[he] was very charmed by the script and the fact that they take Christopher Robin as a man [of his] age and that Winnie the Pooh comes back to him in a difficult time in his life. [McGregor found] it really moving", and said that "[Christopher] recognizes that he would like to be closer to [his daughter]", and said that "there was something of coming together as a father and a daughter" that appealed to him as a father of 4 daughters. McGregor said that "[the actors' performances] wouldn't be nearly as effective, wouldn't feel as real and good, if it wasn't for [the voice cast]", as he has someone he can play opposite to. McGregor stated that "[he] really [likes] playing [Christopher Robin], and [he] really [felt] like [he] wanted to play" the character. Atwell said that McGregor's performance can let people see "the Man, but underneath [the audience] see the boy that he was". Director Marc Foster said that McGregor was "the perfect Christopher Robin", as he felt he "was able to capture [the] spirit that was needed to portray Christopher Robin as an adult person". Orton O'Brien as Young Christopher Robin. Hayley Atwell as Evelyn Robin, Christopher's wife who works as an architect. Foster said that "it was important for [him] to find" in Atwell "a very strong woman" that also is relatable and "can stand up for herself and doesn't play a victim or play into that because ultimately when [Christopher Robin denies his love to Evelyn], she's still a woman who believes in him, but also strong enough to stand up for herself". McGregor was happy when he was told that Hayley Atwell was also cast for the film, having previously worked together on Cassandra's Dream. Atwell said that the film's story is "a charming one, and a funny one, and ultimately a story about a man coming back to his family" which she felt will appeal audiences. Bronte Carmichael as Madeline Robin, Christopher and Evelyn's daughter Elsa Minell Solak as a 3-year-old Madeline Robin. Mark Gatiss as Giles Winslow Jr., Christopher's boss at Winslow Luggages Oliver Ford Davies as Giles Winslow Sr., the father of Giles Winslow Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo as Katherine Dane Adrian Scarborough as Hal Gallsworthy Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Ralph Butterworth Ken Nwosu as Paul Hastings John Dagleish as Matthew Leadbetter Amanda Lawrence as Joan MacMillan Katy Carmichael as Daphne de Sélincourt, Christopher Robin's mother Paul Chahidi as Cecil Hungerford Tristan Sturrock as A. A. Milne, Christopher Robin's father Matt Berry as Policeman Bobby Simon Farnaby as a Taxi driver Mackenzie Crook as a Newspaper Seller Clara McGregor as a Girl in Aircraft Office
Voice actors
Jim Cummings as the voices of: Winnie the Pooh, a friendly, absent-minded, honey-loving teddy bear who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood, and Christopher's closest childhood friend. Cummings has been the voice of Pooh since 1988. Atwell said that many of Pooh's lines were taken from A. A. Milne's original books, which she felt managed to capture "the wisdom of Pooh" who she said is "a bear of very little brain, but also a bear of very big heart". Kristen Burr felt that "They were so lucky to get Jim, as soon as the audience hear[s] him read his lines, a feeling of nostalgia washes over the audience and makes them smile". Tigger, a free-spirited and energetic toy tiger, and one of Pooh's friends, who loves to bounce around on his tail like a spring. Cummings has been the regular voice of Tigger since 1999, and voiced the character many times as an understudy for Paul Winchell. Brad Garrett as Eeyore, an old pessimistic toy donkey and one of Pooh's friends with a habit of losing his tail. Garrett previously voiced the character in video games Disney's Animated Storybook: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Ready to Read with Pooh.He later returned to voice the character in Ralph Breaks the Internet. Nick Mohammed as Piglet, a nervous, stuttering toy piglet and Pooh's best friend. Peter Capaldi as Rabbit, a short-tempered rabbit who likes to be in charge of things. Sophie Okonedo as Kanga, a mother toy kangaroo. Sara Sheen as Roo, Kanga's adventurous son. Toby Jones as Owl, a wise owl.
Production Development Initially in 2003, Brigham Taylor, inspired by the last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner, pitched to Disney an idea about a Winnie the Pooh film focusing on an adult Christopher Robin. However, due to other Pooh projects being in development at the time, the project was not pitched for a film. In 2015, Kristin Burr later convinced Taylor to resurrect the project, which the two then started working on that year.
On April 2, 2015, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a live-action adaptation based on the characters from the Winnie the Pooh franchise was in development, which would take a similar pattern to Alice in Wonderland (2010), Maleficent (2014), and Cinderella (2015). Alex Ross Perry was hired to write the script and Brigham Taylor hired to produce the film, about an adult Christopher Robin returning to the Hundred Acre Wood to spend time with Pooh and the gang. On November 18, 2016, it was reported that the studio had hired Marc Forster to direct the film, titled Christopher Robin, and the project would have "strong elements of magical realism as it seeks to tell an emotional journey with heartwarming adventure." On March 1, 2017, Tom McCarthy was hired to rewrite the existing screenplay.
Casting On April 26, 2017, Ewan McGregor was cast as the lead while Allison Schroeder was recruited to do additional work on the script. On June 22, 2017, it was revealed that Gemma Arterton had been in negotiations to portray the wife of the title character, but ultimately, she passed on the role. In August 2017, Hayley Atwell and Mark Gatiss were respectively cast as Christopher's wife Evelyn and boss Giles Winslow. Nick Mohammed was cast as Piglet, while Jim Cummings was confirmed to be reprising his role as Winnie the Pooh, and Brad Garrett was revealed to be voicing Eeyore (he previously voiced the character in the Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree CD-ROM game). In January 2018, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, and Toby Jones were cast as Rabbit, Kanga, and Owl, respectively. Chris O'Dowd was originally set to voice Tigger, with Roger L. Jackson voice-doubling for him, but he was replaced by Cummings, who has played the character partially from 1989 until fully since 2000, after audiences in test screenings reacted negatively towards how O'Dowd voiced the character.
Filming