Teddy bears seem to have become a traditional and important image in Western culture: from the representation of strength, to the soft and cute appearance and the love for sugar, to some extent, they represent the expectations and expectations of adults for children’s growth. Vision. In the wave of commercialization, when the fairy tales of Ziqixiang gradually lost their magic, teddy bears, Paddington bears and Winnie the Pooh also had to find better shelters and forms of expression.
But "Christopher Robin" is not "Paddington 2", let alone "Paddington."
To be fair, the young and slow-heating "Winnie the Pooh" is not an excellent theme suitable for the big screen if it is not significantly modified. Due to the lack of lasting appeal to the audience, "Winnie the Pooh" has not caught up with the "Garfield" and "Blue". The CG craze of "Elves" has not caught up with the magic wave of "Peter Pan: A Dream Set Sail" and "Alice in Wonderland", trying to dig out fierce materials from classic fairy tales out of thin air. The last one with high quality but no commercial success is the 2D hand-drawn animation "Winnie the Pooh" launched by Disney in 2011, but this is obviously not enough for Disney, which has been full of self-confidence in recent years. So after recruiting Mark Foster, the director of "Looking for Neverland" in 2004, "Christopher Robin" appeared.
If you carefully observe Disney's market performance in recent years, you will find an interesting tradition: In addition to Marvel, Star Wars and live-action movies adapted from its own animation, it is almost difficult to find real success stories. From "Tomorrow's World" to "Time Wrinkle", Disney's high-cost "original" CG blockbuster is far from word of mouth and box office. And "Christopher Robin" now also inherits this "fine" tradition. Although the small-scale production cost of 75 million US dollars can greatly reduce the pressure to pay back, the boring and boring film itself can hardly be concealed by sophisticated CG special effects. You can feel the intentions of "Christopher Robin" in the production, but the creative ideas of the film are at least 20 years out of date. Considering that Disney is likely to be tempted by the likes of "Paddington Bear" and "Bidder Rabbit", "Christopher Robin" was at least a few blocks away by opponents-what you would expect is both childish and slightly sad "Winnie the Pooh" can be seen in "Paddington Bear"; but in "Christopher Robin", there are only a hundred acres of forest with bleak autumn wind and dirty plush dolls.
As early as 1991, Steven Spielberg wanted to use the grown-up Peter Pan in "Captain Hook" to discuss a bunch of boring and shriveled middle-aged issues on Neverland. The result is one of the worst movies in the careers of Steven Spielberg and Robin Williams. In contrast, "Christopher Robin" has at least some good laughs, but the film cannot strike a balance between self-pity and innocence.
According to the classic Hollywood practice, when too many screenwriters intervene in a movie, it may not be a good script. In addition to the original author A·A·Milne and the illustrator E·H·Sheppard, the script of "Christopher Robin" comes from two story writers and three professional screenwriters-among them Alison Schroder (" Hidden Figures) and Tom McCarthy (Flying House Tour) are obviously emergency rescue sites. However, such a cumbersome and complicated script did not let the raging midlife crisis fit into the concept of "Christopher Robin". The biggest problem with the script seems to be that the creators are unwilling to allow Pooh to be seen as a "toy" or "fantasy friend" in the eyes of the actors/audience, but to have real life. This setting is similar to the processing method of "Paddington Bear", but it makes the meaning behind Christopher Robin's behavior of leaving his buddies as an adult in the early stages of the film difficult to understand, and it also makes him in After adulthood, the "shame" after meeting a little partner again seems inexplicable.
In fact, last year’s "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" chose a similar theme to expand the relationship between A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin, thinking that the latter’s childhood was affected by his father’s childhood. The influence of huge literary achievements made him have more complicated emotions for "Winnie the Pooh". It is reasonable to say that this perspective is a more risky but also more interesting development direction. On the other hand, Mark Foster's conservative attitude in "Christopher Robin" has returned to the model of "Searching for Neverland" plus "Captain Hook", falling into a vicious circle of autonomous regulation. Although it has been quite successful in the nostalgic sense of age, the whole film is particularly stale: it is adults who do not know how to balance work and family; it is also adults who must find their childhood in which they don’t know where they are. Become a better adult.
What’s interesting is that for a long time in the past, Hollywood has been arranging single mothers to do a few jobs to support their families, and they can also meet Prince Charming ("Falling Water"), on the other hand, they have arranged middle-aged greasy men who only care about work. To support the family, I don't know how old the child is this year. This kind of gender-based prejudices and differences are rarely reversed.
Even so, good stalkers are not afraid of old age, but they are afraid of lack of bright spots. The plot and highlights of the entire film of "Christopher Robin" are almost completely exhausted by the trailer. The rest of the content seems to be neither for the entertainment of children nor for the entertainment of adults. The excellent dubbing of classic casts is wasted in vain—— By the way, Peter Capaldi, who has just stepped down as Doctor Who, made his voice for the rabbit in this film. In addition, he has also starred in "Christopher Robin" which is difficult to catch up with, two "Paddington Bears". .
Compared with the mediocre movie itself, Ivan McGregor has become an important pillar of the film’s live-action part. Similar to Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor is obviously a very good actor, but his taste for commercial films is really mediocre. He always appears in unsatisfactory or even bad movies (such as "The Noble Thief"). It is really strange.
In fact, it is not unacceptable for the audience to be immersed in small and medium cost art films; and if they commit themselves to Disney for the sake of "Obi-Wan Biography", it would be excusable. But the weird preferences in commercial films are somewhat incomprehensible.
The difference between "Christopher Robin" and "Paddington Bear" is probably the difference between the two seasons of "True Detective": latecomers cannot always distinguish between calm and dullness, healing and depression.
Disney's "Christopher Robin" is a formulaic and boring movie that has the ability to present meaningful and in-depth characters, but it deprives them of the space and even the reason for their existence. As a "family first aid" type movie, it is hard to even make people feel interesting, it is better to relive the 2011 "Winnie the Pooh" animation to be more realistic.
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