'Christopher Robin' is about life and friendship the old fashioned way

Christopher Robin is an old friends' reunion story that leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart & makes you want to give old pals a bear hug.

Inspired from A.A. Milne's storybook series about Winnie-the-Pooh, the film Christopher Robin, from Disney expertly combines live action and CGI to give us an innocent tale about friendships that last a lifetime. In this edition, Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) reunites with his childhood friend, Winnie the Pooh (dubbed by Jim Cummings) and the rest of the gang from Hundred Acre Wood. Talkietive Review brings you the 5 Good Things that stand out in the film.

1) The Write Blend: Taking a cue from the previous movies on Winnie-the-Pooh, writers Greg. Booker (story) Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder (screenplay) have beautifully depicted the coming together of the title character, Christopher Robin, with his Hundred Acre Wood friends— Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Owl and Rabbit. The simplicity of the screenplay and dialogues bordering on the philosophical, like 'Doing nothing leads to something' makes the film accessible to both children and adults.

2) Production Design: Jennifer Williams, the head of the production design deserves a shoutout for successfully bridging the gap between the make-believe fantastical world born out of a child's imagination and the real, adult world. Visually, the two starkly different worlds namely the bustling city of London and the charming Hundred Acre Wood with a touch of the magic are not at odds with each other. In fact, they both serve as extensions of each other the two poles that mark Christopher Robin's life—childhood and adulthood. The cinematography too is very effective in bringing together two diverse worlds.

3) A Superlative Act: Ewan McGregor is superlative as the adult Christopher Robin, who wants to keep his job as an efficiency expert at Winslow Luggage and finds striking the work-life balance rather difficult. His transformation from an adult, straddled with grown-up responsibilities into the curious affectionate person that he once was as a child, is convincing. A lesser actor would have difficulty in convincingly pulling off scenes of an animated chat with his stuffed teddy bear but McGregor aces it. Jim Cummings, does a commendable job as a voice actor when it comes to switching between two contrasting characters— the laidback Winnie the Pooh and the excitable Tigger. Brad Garrett as Eeyore, Nick Mohammed as the Piglet, Peter Capaldi (Rabbit), Toby Jones (Owl) are all pitch perfect too.

4) Director's Cut: Director Marc Forster does an excellent job of giving us an intimate fantasy films which delights with its simplicity and sophistication. Walking the tightrope, he balances the film evenly between a children's film and one that adults can watch too. He is successful in drawing commendable performances from the actors as well as the technical crew so critical to a film such as this one.

5) Musical Score: Even though Christopher Robin is no musical, but there are songs aplenty in the soundtrack. The music of the film composed by Geoff Zanelli and Jon Brion lends great support to the narrative especially the theme song Winnie-the-Pooh and Busy Doing Nothing by Robert M. Sherman. The retro feel of the music sits well with the sense of nostalgia the film is imbued with.

This review originally appeared on www.talkietive.in