The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

This past week marked an important anniversary in many of our childhoods.  It was 100 years ago, on 14 October, 1926, that author A.A. Milne published his first collection of stories in the UK, featuring Edward Bear, or, as he became known to children the world over, Winnie the Pooh.

Milne began writing the stories after his son, Christopher Robin Milne, received a stuffed bear for his birthday.  The elder Milne began writing stories about Pooh and his menagerie of friends including Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo and all of their wonderful misadventures with Christopher Robin in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Milne wrote only one other collection of Pooh stories in 1928, The House at Pooh Corner.  However, Pooh's legacy has lived on through the works of many other authors.  In 1961, in what's become the fate of so many classic childhood stories, the rights were purchased by the Walt Disney Company.  Like so many people today, this is the image of Pooh that I grew up with.  Those images were everywhere when I was a kid--storybooks, colouring books, stuffed toys, even stickers that later decorated Susan Tedeschi's guitar.  I remember vividly watching educational film strips in elementary school in a series called "Winnie the Pooh and the Right Thing to Do."  (I even developed what I thought was a pretty decent impression of Piglet.)

Eventually, though, children grow up.  I did... well, maybe not up, but certainly older.  And even though it was never documented in the stories, I assume Christopher Robin did as well.

I'm one of those odd people who wonders where certain fictional characters I grew up with are today.  Depending on when certain stories took place, there's a good chance they would not even be alive today.  Let's be honest, if Winnie the Pooh was first published a century ago, Christopher Robin would be older than that.  Even the real Christopher Robin died in 1996.  But one can't help but wonder what some of these characters grew into.  This week's film attempts to shed some light on that.

Set sometime after World War II, Christopher Robin (played by Ewan McGregor) is all grown up with a wife (Hayley Atwell) and a daughter (Bronte Carmichael) and even a grown-up job.  Christopher works for a luggage manufacturer and has been assigned by his boss (Mark Gattis) to spend the weekend cutting costs--and probably some employees--instead of spending it with his wife and daughter.

Clearly distraught and unsure of how to proceed, he is confronted and comforted by his old friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.  Together they help Christopher solve his problems--both professionally and personally--and help him get back to his wife and daughter.

Released in 2018, the film was written by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, and Allison Schroeder (from a story by Greg Brooker and Mark Steven Johnson), and was directed by Marc Forster.  Featuring the voices of Jim Cummings (Pooh and Tigger), Brad Garrett (Eeyore), Nick Mohammed (Piglet), Peter Capaldi (Owl), Sophie Okonedo (Kanga), Sara Sheen (Roo), and Toby Jones (Owl), please enjoy Christopher Robin.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill