Christopher Robin is less about the characters and more about the adult Christopher Robin who is overcome with his work and not spending quality time with his wife and daughter. The idea is similar to one filmed about Peter Pan and Mary Poppins, where the grown up needs to reach back to his childhood to place his life on a track to happiness.
Because of the basic plot the script does’t spend enough time with the Pooh characters which attract an audience of families with kids. Pooh (voice of Jim Cummings) brings laughs from the kids when he walks into a honey bowl and tracks the sticky material all over the floor and carpeting in Christopher’s apartment. He also gets a rise out of the younger set when he climbs on the kitchen shelves thinking they are stairs as dishes, plates and bowls fall to the floor.
As Christopher Robin plans a difficult weekend working on a plan to reduce the staff at his luggage company Pooh finds a tree with a passage into town and shows up at Christopher’s home. Pooh spends most of his time in the way of Christopher’s ability to develop a plan which he must present to an executive board on the next Monday. Eventually the adult Christopher Robin heads through the porthole and back to the 100 acres of his childhood, to secure his plan which Pooh as carried off.
Time is wasted as Christopher continually ducks away from his neighbor who wants to play cards with him and his wife. We also are exposed to a drawn out segment in which the characters are in luggage cases that fall from a speeding truck driving through the city.
The characters are the stars of the Pooh chronicles but here the script is more for adults who may see their dedication to success take precedence over the needs of their family. That is clearly the theme of Christopher Robin.
Jim Cummings voices the famous little bear almost as effectively as Sterling Halloway who was the voice in the 1996 Winnie The Pooh.
Even with some interesting fun, this production lacks the spark that previous Pooh films have presented.