A grown-up Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) reunites with his old friends from the Hundred Acre Wood in the full-length trailer for Disney's re-imagining in the vein of Maleficent. Rather, Christopher Robin is an original story about the Bear of Very Little Brain's human companion and what happens to him after he grows up and starts a family of his own.
Christopher Robin picks up in the year 1949, where the film's namesake now works as an efficiency manager at a luggage company; meaning, it's his job to keep as many people employed at his company as possible, while also pleasing his penny-pinching boss (Mark Gatiss). The middle-aged Christopher is also a WWII veteran traumatized by his time in combat, who struggles to carve out time for his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter Madeline (Bronte Carmichael), in between working to ensure the job security of his fellow employees. In other words, he could really use some words of wisdom from his good buddy Pooh.
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Fortunately, who else should show up in Christopher's hour of need than Winnie the Pooh (voiced yet again by Jim Cummings), along with "vintage" stuffed animal toys (save for Madeline). For more on that, watch the new Christopher Robin trailer in the space above, then check out the latest poster below.
Interestingly enough, Disney's Christopher Robin appears to be taking some inspiration from the life of the real Christopher Robin's father and Winnie the Pooh creator, A.A. Milne. As detailed in last year's biopic Goodbye Christopher Robin, Milne also suffered from PTSD due to his wartime experiences (WWI, in his case) and brought joy to others through his stories about his son and his make-believe friends from the Hundred Acre Wood, though at a cost to Christopher as he grew up. On top of that, Disney's movie was directed by Marc Forster, a filmmaker who explored themes similar to those in Christopher Robin in his own memoir about the author behind a beloved fairy tale classic, Finding Neverland.
Both the Christopher Robin teaser trailer and full-length trailer naturally avoid diving into the more poignant and dramatic aspects of the film, and instead focus on Christopher's unexpected yet joyful reunion with his childhood friends. At the same time, the whimsical mood of these trailers is tinged with melancholy thanks to the muted colors and hints of serious subject matter in the footage on display. The Christopher Robin trailers bring to mind Disney's terrific Pete's Dragon remake in that respect and suggest that Forster and his crew (including, Hidden Figures writer Allison Schroeder) may have succeeded in crafting a similarly soulful fairy tale for the Mouse House here.
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Source: Walt Disney Pictures
