Oh bother

May 30, 2018 10:26 AM

Christopher Robin Official Trailer: Come for Ewan McGregor shrieking “POOH!?” in the most chipper accent possible. Stay for the absolute adorableness of Pooh and friends going on their greatest quest yet: to save Christopher Robin from... a mid-life crisis?
posted by not_the_water (93 comments total)

Given the actual, complicated history of Christopher Milne and his father's stories, this film seems a bit tone deaf.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:30 AM on May 30, 2018 [23 favorites]

Aside from the details, I suppose that's about as good a Sterling Holloway as we're likely to find.
posted by rhizome at 10:33 AM on May 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

Well, at least Eeyore's voice is spot on! Everyone else is a bit too fluffy and I'm really not sure about the sound of Pooh.
posted by Stark at 10:34 AM on May 30, 2018

Does his midlife crisis involve Mary Elizabeth Winstead?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:37 AM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm still waiting someone to make a horror parody under the pen name AAAAAAAAAAAAAA Milne.
posted by aubilenon at 10:40 AM on May 30, 2018 [20 favorites]

actual, complicated history
a bit tone deaf.

Way to pooh pooh things.

I have no knowledge of this complication you speak of, nor do I doubt it's existence. Thanks for the added nuance. Metafilter is better because of your pooh poohing.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:44 AM on May 30, 2018 [8 favorites]

So the real Christopher that the books were based on seems to have spent most of his adult life feeling antipathy toward the whole Pooh franchise, so here comes a movie with the premise that "What if Pooh was real and cajoled Christopher into liking it after all, wouldn't that be heartwarming?" Ick.
posted by straight at 10:58 AM on May 30, 2018 [18 favorites]

I have no knowledge of this complication you speak of, nor do I doubt it's existence.

The thing people tend to not know about the Pooh stories is that Christopher Robin wasn't just a literary character, but was an actual person - specifically, he was the son of A. A. Milne, the author of the stories (which were based in part on the characters his son created with his toys.) As an adult, Chris Milne had a very complicated relationship with the characters, and struggled with that mentally,which impacted his life.

So creating a film about these characters coming to help a middle aged Chris Milne through a midlife crisis strikes me as being tone deaf, and sort of erasing the real one from history (which was, IIRC, one of his biggest issues with the stories.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 11:00 AM on May 30, 2018 [29 favorites]

I just watched Goodbye, Christoper Robin, which was all about how the real kid felt about the books. Basically, he felt like his dad took their treasured memories of playing together and sold them for profit, which made him question his dad's motives. Then he spent years having to do publicity and interviews and whatnot. Then he went to boarding school and got relentlessly bullied for his popularity.

So yeah. In the movie he has a moment of reconciliation with his dad and the legacy, but apparently not even that happened in real life. This looks like another "Saving Mrs. Banks" style whitewash.
posted by skullhead at 11:10 AM on May 30, 2018 [22 favorites]

Yeah.

There was a film just last year about Christopher Robin that hew to reality: Goodbye Christopher Robin.

This is...not that. This is Pocahontas.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:15 AM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

Just wait until the sequel, where Christopher Robin and all the Hundred Acre Wood friends have to save his wife from terrorists who have taken over Nakatomi Plaza.
posted by xingcat at 11:15 AM on May 30, 2018 [18 favorites]

Good Night Billy Moon.
posted by automatic cabinet at 11:16 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Does his midlife crisis involve Mary Elizabeth Winstead?

Doesn't everyone's?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:18 AM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Didn't Christopher Milne find his balance after writing The Enchanted Places and The Path Through the Trees?

I wonder if the writer of this movie read those books.
posted by linux at 11:18 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, why on earth would Christopher Robin imagine Pooh and all his friends as having American accents?

Disney's corporate anglophilia has always been inconsistent at best.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:21 AM on May 30, 2018 [12 favorites]

Corporate anglophilia has bitten the dust!
posted by thelonius at 11:23 AM on May 30, 2018 [24 favorites]

I don't know how I feel about this movie but the "People say nothing is impossible but I do nothing every day" line genuinely seems to capture that Tao of Pooh thing.
posted by maxsparber at 11:24 AM on May 30, 2018 [13 favorites]

I read my daughter the books and loved them, but I've never been able to warm to animated Pooh, nor to understand why he should have the voice of a 90-year-old chain smoker. This basically looks like the Garfield movie, only with forced reverence for a Beloved Icon Of Childhood.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 11:24 AM on May 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

Hoping at least one future movie review uses the headline "This Pooh is Crap."
posted by mochapickle at 11:28 AM on May 30, 2018 [19 favorites]

Just wait until the sequel, where Christopher Robin and all the Hundred Acre Wood friends have to save his wife from terrorists who have taken over Nakatomi Plaza.

Now, that I would see.

Now I have the Honey.
HO HO HO
posted by RhysPenbras at 11:34 AM on May 30, 2018 [16 favorites]

This is about as good as any place to put one of my favorite viral videos from the early 2000's (audio is NSFW): Oh yes, Yak's Blood!
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 11:38 AM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

Tonstant Weader fwowed up.
posted by happyroach at 11:43 AM on May 30, 2018 [16 favorites]

So basically Ted without swearing or the scatological references, apparently Pooh doesn't.
posted by sammyo at 11:45 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

As a middle-aged man nothing seems less appealing than watching a middle-aged man have a mid-life crisis leading to a psychotic break.
posted by GuyZero at 11:47 AM on May 30, 2018 [15 favorites]

nor to understand why he should have the voice of a 90-year-old chain smoker

But he doesn't, it's just an unusual voice!

Also, I'll disavow my previous comment, as Jim Cummings has been doing Pooh for 30 years. But Holloway's still the greatest.
posted by rhizome at 11:53 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Jesus, tough crowd. I'm reserving judgment on the movie itself for the moment, but I was blown away by the beautiful design and animation of the toys in the trailer.
posted by merriment at 11:59 AM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Fuck this film. Then chop it up into little bits. Then fuck all the bits individually.

And fuck Disney with their American Winnie the Pooh.
posted by Grangousier at 12:00 PM on May 30, 2018 [16 favorites]

Yeah, Sterling Holloway basically always had that voice.
posted by maxsparber at 12:03 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

This looks more like a marketing opportunity than anything else, inspired maybe by the success of the Paddington movies (which seem generally well thought of and not insulting to the viewer's intelligence). Oh, and that layabout Pooh and his gang are still on the payroll and haven't been pulling their weight lately.
posted by Flexagon at 12:09 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Paddington 2 had one of those Toy Story 2 "are they really going to let this character die" moments and while I didn't think they would it was so lonely and sad I couldn't handle it.

If this film has 1/50th of Paddington 2's brash and brio and design sensibility and Hugh Grant it will be worth seeing.
posted by maxsparber at 12:11 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also, why on earth would Christopher Robin imagine Pooh and all his friends as having American accents?

There is an amazing audiobook of the classic Pooh stories, with Stephen Frye as Pooh and Judi Dench as Kanga, and now Frey is THE canonical voice of Pooh as far as I am concerned.
posted by anastasiav at 12:13 PM on May 30, 2018 [9 favorites]

you know 100 years from now they're gonna make a movie where a young George R. R. Martin's medieval miniatures come to life and inspire the A Song of Ice and Fire stories
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:18 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

young George R. R. Martin's medieval miniatures come to life eats a hundred-course buffet at Golden corral and inspire the A Song of Ice and Fire stories
posted by GuyZero at 12:34 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Will there be an XXX parody of this movie?

Because I'd rather watch that.
posted by delfin at 12:35 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Nice seeing Ashdown Forest as a location but yeah, the American accents make me cringe. Pooh is from Sussex!!
posted by KateViolet at 12:37 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

As a middle-aged man nothing seems less appealing than watching a middle-aged man have a mid-life crisis leading to a psychotic break.

There but for the grace of somethingorother go we?
That or getting some pointers on how to do it with style.
posted by kokaku at 12:37 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Animated Disney Pooh has always sat wrong with me, ever since I was a small Helga-woo. And then I heard a recording of A.A. Milne reading from the books, and I realised it's because the only true Pooh accent should be the one my dad used reading the books to me (Lancashire tempered by years of boarding school...).
posted by Helga-woo at 12:38 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Winnie the Pooh's voice: Also Kaa the snake from Jungle Book. A bit disconcerting when you think Pooh is about to hypnotize you.
posted by clawsoon at 12:38 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

>The muted color palette and Thousand Acre Uncanny Valley of CGI Pooh didn't help.

Yeah, his fur appears to be growing over his mouth in a way that's vaguely reminiscent of fungus. It's got kind of a Poohthulu feel to it if you ask me.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 12:38 PM on May 30, 2018 [11 favorites]

Will there be an XXX parody of this movie?
Well, it's Ewan McGregor, so he'll probably get his knob out at some point.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 12:43 PM on May 30, 2018 [20 favorites]

Lancashire tempered by years of boarding school..

Or without the tempering.

Thurs Edward Bear, and he's coming down the owd stairs now, bump bump bump, and he wur on the back of iz head, behind Christopher Robin, wurn't he?
posted by maxsparber at 12:46 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Pooh is from Sussex!!

He's from White River, Ontario.
posted by GuyZero at 12:46 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

She.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:52 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

No, no, no.

All the Disney Pooh stuff is tone deaf and this looks as bed.

Besides, ALL the characters should be voiced by Alan Bennett.
posted by stanf at 12:54 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

She

In fairness to wikipedia, "female" is the 13th word in that page.

In fairness to me, I have terrible reading skills.
posted by GuyZero at 1:06 PM on May 30, 2018

Oh yes, Yak's Blood!

I am reminded of this version, which introduced me to Igor Korneluk.
posted by CynicalKnight at 1:07 PM on May 30, 2018

Ok, Americans, we get it. We're really, really sorry about colonialism and sending you Piers Morgan, now can you just please leave our formerly happy childhood memories alone?

Oh, and if you really want a (slightly) darker take on Pooh, you might try this.
posted by Fuchsoid at 1:07 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

A Pooh voiced by Billy West would be great. "Good news, everyone! I've found the Hunny tree!"
posted by SPrintF at 1:07 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I had a curmudgeonly English prof who studied under Tolkien (and didn't think much of him), and also had contact with A.A. Milne (and didn't think much of him, either). He was going to put together a serious academic paper comparing the two and their writing for children. "Tolkien wrote for his children, as he loved them. Milne, however, hated his." That this academic work never came to fruition is truly a loss for the ages. It would have been a beaut.
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:08 PM on May 30, 2018 [26 favorites]

In the movie he has a moment of reconciliation with his dad and the legacy, but apparently not even that happened in real life.

In reality I think he ultimately found some sense of reconciliation with the legacy (by writing his own memoir about it, called The Enchanted Places) but it was some time after his father's death.
posted by atoxyl at 1:10 PM on May 30, 2018

save his wife from terrorists who have taken over Nakatomi Plaza.

Pooh Hard
posted by chavenet at 1:11 PM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Pooh Hard

That's a whole separate movie about the trials of being a middle-aged man

who loves cheese
posted by GuyZero at 1:14 PM on May 30, 2018 [16 favorites]

Will there be an XXX parody of this movie?

Pooh Sticks
Commotion in Pooh Corner
Bizy Backson

Etc.
posted by chavenet at 1:15 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

The CGI Pooh is a *thing* I want to BURN WITH FIRE, then scrap up the ashes and BURN THEM ALL AGAIN because good gawd that ia some serious Nightmare Fuel right there.
posted by Faintdreams at 1:23 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

A Pooh voiced by Billy West would be great.

John DiMaggio as Pooh and Jeremy Shada as Christopher Robin.
posted by polecat at 1:24 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm not into the Pooh stories, but I'd be interested in this if it were about Milne learning to be less of an asshole. He was considered cold and unpleasant even by mid-century British standards.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I felt the same way about the Live Action Paddington Bear, so perhaps cgi/animatronic anthropomorphized creature are just somehing my brian intuitively rejects as Uncanny Valley but I say again...


BURN IT WITH FIRE!
posted by Faintdreams at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2018

To save the agony, I'll just leave you the punchline:

So little Bobby hesitantly said: “Winnie the Shite.”
posted by scruss at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2018

I loved the books dearly as a child, my son did not take to them, we'll see about the grandchildren. I have read the books to several children, some of whom like the slow pace quite well. The part of me that is slightly anglophilic started with Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins(and ends with entrenched classism and anti-Semitism). The Disney versions are chipper and bright and not to my taste. I turned my son's stuffed animals into bedtime characters, sometimes with a moral to the story, because you use what you have. The voices for the characters are in my head, and no movie can capture the experience of reading the stories aloud or to myself; this is where the book is always better comes from. Ewan McGregor is not a bad choice, per se, it's just so hard to adjust to a person in one's imagination taking form as someone else.
posted by theora55 at 1:31 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Watching this with the sound off, I wasn't entirely convinced I wasn't watching a trailer for a bleak psychological-horror Pooh spinoff, even after the Disney logo. The muted color palette and Thousand Acre Uncanny Valley of CGI Pooh didn't help.

Do this, but play Trent Reznor's soundtrack for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo instead.
posted by Fizz at 1:38 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Does his midlife crisis involve Mary Elizabeth Winstead?

Ha! Yeah, this is just a little too on the nose. As a woman in 2018, I have no more disbelief to suspend hearing Ewan McGregor utter the words, "I've got to get back to my family!" (I used to love him so much. Velvet Goldmine is one of my favorite movies.)
posted by Ruki at 1:42 PM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

This article discusses the resentment that both A.A. Milne and Christopher felt toward Winnie the Pooh. It sounds like Christopher worked through it better than his father did.

It also has a picture of the original Pooh.

The movie is actually not far off; I wonder if they decided to base their CG models on Christopher's original toys.
posted by clawsoon at 1:46 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Here are all of the original dolls. Let your nightmares begin, if that's what you're into.
posted by clawsoon at 1:49 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

"why on earth would Christopher Robin imagine Pooh and all his friends as having American accents?"

I know right? Everybody knows Winnie the Pooh is Canadian...
posted by Secret Sparrow at 1:59 PM on May 30, 2018

I was quite taken by this bit in an obituary of Christopher Milne:

Writing The Enchanted Places enabled Christopher Milne to come to terms with what his father had done to him. Milne could never make similar mistakes with his own daughter, Clare, to whom he was as deeply devoted. His father had expected too much of him. Clare, a severely disabled spastic, "set us an example and taught us a philosophy that parents don't usually expect to learn from their children". He wrote "Lucky Clare to have such a mother" and we would say "Lucky Clare to have such a father". He had always been good with his hands and was able to design special cutlery and furniture for her. Once he brought home a little bank vole which amazingly entertained her for two years and eight months.

posted by clawsoon at 2:03 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Here are all of the original dolls. Let your nightmares begin, if that's what you're into.

oh ho ho, don't just look at the pictures, read the article, it gets worse. crouton-petters, prepare your anxiety glands! they have all of the original dolls...

(except poor baby Roo, who vanished in an apple orchard sometime in the 1930s)
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:06 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

So Hook? Except starring a character based on a real kid who actually kinda hated the legacy and was largely estranged from his parents as an adult? So Hook crossed with the revisionist history of Saving Mr. Banks?

I mean, it looks cute, but sheesh. There's probably a dozen ways to make a nice live-action Pooh movie without the 'why doesn't sad, old Christopher Robin (Milne) reconnect with his father's fictionalization of his childhood' subtext. Feels icky.
posted by es_de_bah at 2:21 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

Here are all of the original dolls. Let your nightmares begin, if that's what you're into.

Wait, I genuinely find these adorable. They looked well-loved and I've had a bear for years that has similar wear.
posted by mochapickle at 2:27 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Paddington 2 had one of those Toy Story 2 "are they really going to let this character die" moments and while I didn't think they would it was so lonely and sad I couldn't handle it.

It was. I was damn close tears. And then, minutes later, I was crying, but this time for completely different reasons...
Anyway, feeling like Pooh's not for you? Please see the Paddington movies, they are absolutely great.
posted by bigendian at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter: No CGI butt. Real butt.
posted by chavenet at 2:59 PM on May 30, 2018

This is all just buildup for Avengers: Infinity Pooh
posted by oulipian at 3:50 PM on May 30, 2018 [8 favorites]

I still have the very worn, very sweet Winnie the Pooh that I was given at age three. It may be the personal possession I've had the longest. Both my sons snuggled with it when they were very young. I'd walk through fire to save it.

That said, I probably won't see this movie. It's just odd in not-good way, at first sight.

Here is one of my favorite Roger Ebert reviews, for the 2011 movie Winnie the Pooh. It's a beautiful example of his ability to understand a movie on its own terms. And the movie itself is very charming.
posted by Caxton1476 at 4:02 PM on May 30, 2018

→ Also, why on earth would Christopher Robin imagine Pooh and all his friends as having American accents?

Eh, put it down to the movie magic of the characters you're supposed to feel empathy for can only have American accents. I mean, in How to Train Your Dragon, did the American-speaking kids pupate and come out as fully-formed Scottish-accented adults? It's the only reasonable answer.
posted by scruss at 4:09 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

I am currently sitting in a Lyft with Pooh mats on the floor to wipe your feet so am suddenly a lot less worried about the purity of the A.A. Milne brand when I originally started reading this thread.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:31 PM on May 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

So Hook? Except starring a character based on a real kid who actually kinda hated the legacy and was largely estranged from his parents as an adult? So Hook crossed with the revisionist history of Saving Mr. Banks?

I mean, it looks cute, but sheesh. There's probably a dozen ways to make a nice live-action Pooh movie without the 'why doesn't sad, old Christopher Robin (Milne) reconnect with his father's fictionalization of his childhood' subtext. Feels icky.

Peter Pan and Hook feel kind of icky if you know much about J.M. Barrie.
posted by rodlymight at 4:50 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pooh mats on the floor to wipe your feet

Still waiting for the branded bog roll.
posted by dazed_one at 4:51 PM on May 30, 2018

There's probably a dozen ways to make a nice live-action Pooh movie without the 'why doesn't sad, old Christopher Robin (Milne) reconnect with his father's fictionalization of his childhood' subtext

This way is the only way it works with MacGregor.
posted by rhizome at 4:56 PM on May 30, 2018

Pooh Hard

First Blood: Part Pooh
posted by lagomorphius at 5:08 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Winnie the Pooh's voice: Also Kaa the snake from Jungle Book. A bit disconcerting when you think Pooh is about to hypnotize you.

Trusssssssssssst in meeeeeeeeee. Juuuussssssst in meeeeeee.
posted by soundguy99 at 5:11 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Cmd+f Willie Rushton 0/0.

For shame.
posted by Leon at 5:16 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I thought this was quite a charming - sickly-charming, but still charming - but am out of the Pooh loop and so didn't know anything about it beyond enjoying the old Disney cartoons as a kid. And now I'm back in the Pooh loop, it kind of makes me sad.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:01 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Someone online shared this off-brand sci-fi tearjerker Pooh a hundred years ago and I've never thanked nor forgiven them.

On a lighter note, inspired by this new film's Pooh premise I have a number of highly original ideas which I'd like to share with any film producers reading this, such as "What If Arthur Conan Doyle Really Solved Crimes?", "What If Bram Stoker Was Really A Vampire?", "What If Agatha Christie Really Solved Crimes?", "What If Jane Austen Really Defended Novels?", "What If Dorothy L Sayers Really Solved Crimes?" "What If Daniel Defoe Was Really Shipwrecked?", "What If GK Chesterton Really Solved Crimes?", "What If CS Lewis Was Really Anthony Hopkins?", "What If Ian Fleming Was Really A Spy...oh, wait A Childcatcher?" and best of all "WHAT IF L FRANK BAUM GOT CAUGHT IN A TORNADO, RIGHT, AND IT TOOK HIM TO A MAGICAL LAND OF SCARECROWS, WITCHES AND GAUCHE FOOTWEAR, YEAH?"

Call me.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:51 PM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

Eeyore on the streets
Tigger in the sheets
posted by thelonius at 8:09 PM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

I hope everyone will please enjoy my VERY FAVOURITE Canadian Heritage Minute, featuring Winnie the Pooh.

It's surprising how often I can manage to work "Why Pooh, son?" "I don't know! Just Winnie. The. Pooh." into everyday conversation.
posted by just_ducky at 8:42 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I can imagine saying that in the middle of everyday conversations, but I'm having a hard time imagining how one would work it in to the conversation exactly.
posted by aubilenon at 8:55 PM on May 30, 2018

To be fair, I have a lot of conversations about Canadian Heritage Minutes.
posted by just_ducky at 9:04 PM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's just like... so many of this type of children's films are all about the Poor Dad Working Too Hard and Being No Fun, and needing some whimsy to bring him back to himself, cf also Mary Poppins and Paddington. Just for once I'd like the Mum to have an adventure and character development and revive relationships with her kids, rather than hovering patiently in the background. God knows I would love it if a magical being visited ME for some fun highjinks in the English countryside. Unfortunately I would have to say no because my husband is at work and I can't leave my two preteens together for five minutes without one of them strangling the other.
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 6:35 AM on May 31, 2018 [9 favorites]

Still can't think about it without swearing. And that fucking Peter Rabbit film.

Ho hum.

It appears that Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, about an elderly Alice Liddell coming to terms with her childhood, with Ian Holm as Charles Dodgson and Alice in Wonderland characters by the Jim Henson Creature Shop is on YouTube. I thought it had disappeared off the face of the earth.

Not without its flaws, but it shows that this sort of thing can be done in an interesting way.
posted by Grangousier at 10:03 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Dreamchild is great! Written by Dennis Potter! Includes Henson Muppets choreographed by Gates McFadden!

It's been a few years, but I don't recall any problematic plot points. Maybe its YouTube-availability should earn it a FanFare.
posted by rhizome at 10:47 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

I didn't mean problematic problems. Even the glaring issue in the relationship between Alice and Dodgson is subtly done, as I remember, though I last saw it when it came out.

Strikes me, reading his obituary, that Christopher Robin Milne led a remarkable life, which could have made for a film at least as interesting as Dreamchild, with possible inclusion of WtP characters. At the very least the relationship between Milne and his daughter could be an opportunity for Eddie Redmayne to do one of his uplifting biopics in between the J.K. Rowling movies. But Disney own Christopher Robin Milne as a character, and they can do what they like with him, hence some dreary mid-life crisis farce nonsense. That's what gets people so angry with things like this. It's literally cultural appropriation - that is what Disney do, it's almost all they do, but because all the people involved are white it seems to be quite difficult for people to see that.
posted by Grangousier at 11:08 AM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

Grangousier, I think that's what makes the American accents particularly jarring for me. The place where Pooh lives is about 15 miles down the road from me. I grew up going for walks in Hundred Acre Wood... It's not just some imaginary place... It's real. And those voices just destroy any magic for me.
posted by KateViolet at 12:55 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

Just for once I'd like the Mum to have an adventure and character development and revive relationships with her kids, rather than hovering patiently in the background.

That's one of the main subplots in Sing, if you're interested.
posted by polecat at 1:46 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'll check it out, polecat!
posted by low_horrible_immoral at 12:26 AM on June 1, 2018