Disney's Christopher Robin

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Ben » March 6th, 2019, 4:41 am

We loved this at our screening last Friday evening, it was sweet as Pooh's Hunny! Such a shame they didn’t get behind this more as it was so much better than A Wrinkle In Time, or other "lesser A pictures". Indeed, I just saw Wrinkle, too, and couldn’t believe how amateur it felt as a movie, and it got a lot more promotion and attention, which Pooh deserved absolutely.

I actually giggled excitedly when the credits nudged over and the images of a very British seaside flickered up as Richard Sherman began to sing! "That’s the guy who co-wrote all the original Pooh songs!", I was pleased to tell everyone, since I knew they wouldn’t have immediately made that connection, to which they all responded appreciatively. Obviously, when you knew who the guy was, it made things even more poignant, especially that second song, which not only caps the movie off nicely, but is a wonderful sign-off for Mr Sherman, too...not that we want him to stop anytime soon!

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Randall » March 6th, 2019, 11:07 am

Hey, so you did like it! I'm glad. I knew you'd all appreciate the Sherman appearance at the end, which quite tickled me as well. I made the same exclamation when watching it at home with my family. It was a sweet film, even if the "final solution" of giving everyone vacations doesn't hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever. :?

Wrinkle was pretty wrinkled. Bleh. I liked the kids in it okay, but the film never really took off. An early trailer had seemed promising, but it's not hard to make an exciting 2-minute film out of 2 hours of footage.

Can't let it go dept.: They put a big push behind Wrinkle, but couldn't be bothered to promote John Carter? (Not to mention the idiocy of not going with the original title in the first place.) What a shame. Yeah, I'm still bitter about how A Princess of Mars was marketed, made only worse when you see what mediocre "TV movie"-level films do get an undeserved push. We'll see how Nutcracker goes down when it hits Netflix in a few months.

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Dacey » March 6th, 2019, 11:36 am

John Carter got a fairly big push stateside, with Disney even giving it a Super Bowl TV spot. It just didn't necessarily get a good marketing campaign, as many people had no idea the film was even set on Mars.

As for Nutcracker, if you enjoyed Burton's Alice, you'll probably like it. Keira Knightley is easily the highlight (for me anyway), giving a performance unlike anything she's ever done before as the Sugar Plum Fairy.
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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by EricJ » March 6th, 2019, 6:00 pm

Dacey wrote:As for Nutcracker, if you enjoyed Burton's Alice, you'll probably like it.
....IF. :evil:

(But then, if you did, you probably went to see "Alice Through the Looking Glass", too. 'Nuff said.)

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Ben » March 6th, 2019, 6:47 pm

...which was actually awesome in its own right.

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Daniel » March 20th, 2019, 2:28 pm

Randall wrote:It was a sweet film, even if the "final solution" of giving everyone vacations doesn't hold up to any scrutiny whatsoever. :?
Yeah, that was a little hokey especially after the realism of the first half.

It was sweet though, had a lot of heartfelt moments. Loved the song nods in the movie. The moments with Pooh and Christopher. Would've liked a little more time showing him bond with his daughter at the end.

Aside from Tigger and Pooh's voices, all the rest were 'meh'. They weren't terrible, but different and didn't much sound like the characters. No need to say who I was most disappointed in. :(

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Dacey » March 20th, 2019, 10:37 pm

They're all more in line with how they are in A.A. Milne's original stories, though, so I was actually pretty fine with it. I even liked Garrett's "deeper" Eeyore more here than I did in 2011's Winnie the Pooh (dare I say it, Christopher Robin was actually a much better Pooh movie than that film).
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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Randall » March 20th, 2019, 11:46 pm

Dacey wrote:John Carter got a fairly big push stateside, with Disney even giving it a Super Bowl TV spot. It just didn't necessarily get a good marketing campaign, as many people had no idea the film was even set on Mars.
Okay, so it got some push. But yeah, the marketing was just utterly inept. Just tragic, after waiting 100 years for a film version to come to be.

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Ben » March 21st, 2019, 10:39 am

...and you look so young for 137! ;)


I agree on Pooh, Dacey. I don’t think I’ve gone back and watched the 2011 movie since it came out. I’ve even seen Tigger and Piglet's movies more often!

I liked the new Pooh voices, which were occasionally different but more in keeping with the live/period setting. These weren’t the cartoons of Walt's featurettes, and I loved how they looked more like the actual Christopher Robin toys, so it follows that the voices would be more "British", although they didn’t take away what we loved about the Disney Poohs (like his red sweater and that iconic voice), so I think they went with a pretty decent blend.

Such a shame this and, to an extent, Poppins both didn’t do much better business, because both were such heartwarming, gorgeously made and sincere projects that they deserved to find more of an appreciative audience.

Disney's only real misstep recently has been that Wrinkle movie, which was ashamedly poor and amateurish. I’ve yet to see Nutcracker, though, but it’s a shame that both those films got 4K disc issues and Pooh didn’t (and could have looked amazing in that format).

Oh bother! ;)

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Randall » March 21st, 2019, 9:38 pm

Ben wrote:...and you look so young for 137! ;)

You know very well I meant that the property had waited 100 years for a film adaptation. :roll:

Me, I hadn't read the book until a couple of years before the film was released.

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Ben » March 22nd, 2019, 5:02 am

Hey, I winked, didn’t I!?

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Randall » March 23rd, 2019, 10:19 am

Yes, a malevolent wink.


;)

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Daniel » March 26th, 2019, 5:14 pm

Dacey wrote:I even liked Garrett's "deeper" Eeyore more here than I did in 2011's Winnie the Pooh (dare I say it, Christopher Robin was actually a much better Pooh movie than that film).
Very much so. Yes, it had its moments... like... actually there's not much I did like. :x Bad enough to wash away recent characters like Lumpy, animation and run time aside... it just didn't seem to have heart. Even the songs weren't all that special. All I can remember is the Backson.
Ben wrote:I liked the new Pooh voices, which were occasionally different but more in keeping with the live/period setting. These weren’t the cartoons of Walt's featurettes, and I loved how they looked more like the actual Christopher Robin toys, so it follows that the voices would be more "British", although they didn’t take away what we loved about the Disney Poohs (like his red sweater and that iconic voice), so I think they went with a pretty decent blend.
You could lump Tigger too. He was also going to be very "British" until negative test screenings resulted in a redub. Makes you wonder "what if".

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Ben » March 27th, 2019, 8:19 am

Yeah, that’s what I meant by a decent blend, mixing the new wth the familiar. I’m not surprised a British Tigger got the thumbs down...there are certain characters that are defined by their voices as much as their look, and Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore are the three most prominent ones as far as the Hundred Acre Wood goes on film. It would have been enough for audiences to accept the "new" stuffed toy look, so to ask them to accept new voices would have probably been too much for them to take. I think they did well to change who they did, but keep the particularly distinctive ones. After all, it was intended as a quasi-continuation of the Disney Pooh stories.

:)

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Re: Disney's Christopher Robin

Post by Daniel » May 3rd, 2019, 7:22 pm

Didn't feel this merited a separate thread. I even hesitate to bring it up. Jim Cummings is being accused of rape and animal abuse from his ex-wife. (Warning: article is a bit graphic) Take with a grain of salt.

I really, really hope it isn't true. Unlike other cases, this would just be heartbreaking. Whatever the outcome, I shudder to think what Disney might do. :(

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