“When
I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed
if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them
openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the
fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”1
In
this film, Christopher Robin is very much a man afraid of
childishness. Of course, a lot of things have happened since he
played with Pooh and company in the Hundred Acre Wood. He was sent
off to boarding school, his father passed away, and he went off to
fight the Nazis and was wounded. He had a spark of return
to the old way of childishness when he fell in love with Evelyn, but
he has since suppressed any memory of this and is now committed to
plugging away at a job that
pays well but demands all of his time.
And you can hardly blame him; he has a wife, a child, and
Britain is only starting to come out of post-war economic malaise.
However, he has turned work into an idol and the effect is predictable. His wife is becoming increasingly estranged from him and his daughter, longing for his approval, has become a workaholic herself in an effort to please him. But, like any idol, work is turning against him. He is on the brink of being fired unless he can cut costs somewhere.
It’s in the middle of this that Winnie the Pooh reappears to him. He is as shocked as you would expect. Christopher Robin had long ceased to believe in Pooh and believes that he is losing his mind. The rest of the movie is fairy predictable; he has to give in to childishness to recover Pooh, the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, and ultimately his family. When he finally has a right perspective on the proper value of things, work itself falls into place and he is able to save his job and those of his coworkers.
The overriding theme of valuing childhood is pretty common in Disney films and is the same point that Lewis is making in the quote I started out with. But I also wanted to briefly point out something else that I don’t know if the filmmakers intended but instinctively included. This is the idea of Sabbath, the importance of rest. At the end of the film, Christopher and company finally go on a picnic and Christopher and Pooh just sit, looking at the sunset and reflecting on life. The whole scene is one of rest and cessation of work. In our modern world, we value productivity extremely highly. And productivity is important; we were created to work. But we were also created to rest. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” I love that there are little moments in the movie where the plot is comfortable just resting, not needing to press forward, but just relish the moment.
Rating: 4 stars
This is a solid movie that doesn’t try to do anything big or grand, but is just delightful for what it is. I love the look of Pooh and the rest of characters. It’s a blend between the visual look of the original illustrations in A.A. Milne’s books and the auditory sounds of the classic Disney characters. Also, my absolute favorite part is the first five minutes or so. There is very little dialogue, but the visual story-telling is able give all the exposition that the viewer needs to understand where and why Christopher Robin ended up. It’s a great example of showing instead of telling.
Caveat Spectator
Really nothing. There’s a short scene of combat that may be difficult for very, very small children, but I can’t remember there being any language to watch out for.
However, he has turned work into an idol and the effect is predictable. His wife is becoming increasingly estranged from him and his daughter, longing for his approval, has become a workaholic herself in an effort to please him. But, like any idol, work is turning against him. He is on the brink of being fired unless he can cut costs somewhere.
It’s in the middle of this that Winnie the Pooh reappears to him. He is as shocked as you would expect. Christopher Robin had long ceased to believe in Pooh and believes that he is losing his mind. The rest of the movie is fairy predictable; he has to give in to childishness to recover Pooh, the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood, and ultimately his family. When he finally has a right perspective on the proper value of things, work itself falls into place and he is able to save his job and those of his coworkers.
The overriding theme of valuing childhood is pretty common in Disney films and is the same point that Lewis is making in the quote I started out with. But I also wanted to briefly point out something else that I don’t know if the filmmakers intended but instinctively included. This is the idea of Sabbath, the importance of rest. At the end of the film, Christopher and company finally go on a picnic and Christopher and Pooh just sit, looking at the sunset and reflecting on life. The whole scene is one of rest and cessation of work. In our modern world, we value productivity extremely highly. And productivity is important; we were created to work. But we were also created to rest. “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” I love that there are little moments in the movie where the plot is comfortable just resting, not needing to press forward, but just relish the moment.
Rating: 4 stars
This is a solid movie that doesn’t try to do anything big or grand, but is just delightful for what it is. I love the look of Pooh and the rest of characters. It’s a blend between the visual look of the original illustrations in A.A. Milne’s books and the auditory sounds of the classic Disney characters. Also, my absolute favorite part is the first five minutes or so. There is very little dialogue, but the visual story-telling is able give all the exposition that the viewer needs to understand where and why Christopher Robin ended up. It’s a great example of showing instead of telling.
Caveat Spectator
Really nothing. There’s a short scene of combat that may be difficult for very, very small children, but I can’t remember there being any language to watch out for.
_______________________________________
1C.S.
Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing
for Children”
1C.S.
Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing
for Children”
