Disney's Christopher Robin movie is a most morose venture, following Christopher Robin out of the Hundred-Acre Wood, through World War II, to a mid-level job at a suitcase manufacturer. The film chooses to treat "Robin" as Christopher Robin's last name, dispensing with the Milne family, the famous books, and the actual life of A. A. Milne's son. Instead, he's an ordinary schmuck deep into a midlife crisis mostly revolving around work-life balance as he drifts further away from his wife and daughter. Fortunately, Pooh senses there is trouble and sets out to find him, bringing him back to the Wood so he can get back in touch with his inner child.

Using a mix of live action and CGI, it brings movement to the actual stuffed animals used during the filming, allowing very realistic Pooh friends to have adventures in the Hundred-Acre Wood and the streets of London. It would look terrific if it weren't directed by Eeyore, bringing a glum grayness to most of the scenes and a darkness to much of the script. I imagine children will eke out a little joy following the animals around the screen but find themselves quite bored during their long absences.

This picture book adaptation tries to get around this problem by focusing in on a segment from the middle of the film where Christopher Robin explores the Hundred-Acre Wood with Pooh after a long absence, searching for the other animals and trying to convince them he is not a giant, evil heffalump when they are found. It's a nice segment to adapt and is well illustrated, but it doesn't really tell a complete story and in the end is really a story about a sad man rather than fun little stuffed toys.

FOR REFERENCE:

This is an adaptation by Brittany Rubiano with illustrator Mike Wall of a middle segment from the Disney feature film, Christopher Robin, directed by Marc Forster; written by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, and Allison Schroeder, from a story by Greg Brooker and Mark Steven Johnson; and based on the characters created by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard. ( )