NPR

In The Sticky-Sweet 'Christopher Robin,' Pooh Happens

A grown-up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) returns to his childhood chums in the Hundred Acre Wood in Marc Forster's rote but charmingly animated children's film.
In <em>Christopher Robin</em>, Ewan McGregor goes into the woods today; he's in for a big surprise.

Well, they've finally gone and done it. They've grown up Christopher Robin.

You of course remember the boy wonder from the Winnie the Pooh series, the eternal six-year-old who loved to romp around the Hundred Acre Wood getting into mischief with his stuffed bear and various other critter friends. He was writer A.A. Milne's own son, immortalized on the page with the original Pooh books in the 1920s, then on the screen in 50 years' worth of Disney cartoons. Does it feel momentous that he's now grown into a humorless, workaholic adult? It does if you're Pooh.

It's more common than not for beloved children's characters to live out their days in eternal youth, all the better to continue captivating new generations with their innocence. The thing about Christopher Robin, though, is that been warning Pooh (and us) that he was about to grow up and leave the Wood. In the final chapter of 1928's , the child is preparing to leave for boarding school, and so all the animals throw him a farewell party, and he takes one last walk through the forest with Pooh, contemplating his fading childhood and the crushing sadness that comes with leaving your best friend behind for more adult pursuits.

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