I saw Christopher Robin (2018) and I have words about it

Mild spoiler warning for a movie that's been out a month everywhere in the first world (but just barely came out here) and is honestly really not the sort of movie that spoilers are going to be a major factor in, plus has a relatively obvious plot and structure. But, ya know, in case you wanted to see it raw, like I usually prefer for any film, here's your warning.

Yesterday my wife and I saw Disney's Christopher Robin, or as I decided to call it "How much can we try to make you cry in the first ten minutes? - The Movie!"
And honestly they don't really let up too much overall. I mean, there's a scene where Christopher Robin yells at Pooh and calls him an idiot and then Pooh disappears into the fog. Its harrowing.

I'm not gonna waste time with plot details. Hi-jinks ensue, lessons are learned, lightening up occurs, stakes are raised and then safely resolved, and in the end we're all a big happy family.

The thing about movies with this sort of "work isn't as important as family" message is that a lot of times it feels like they forget that most of us watching live in the real world. This movie does attempt to better reconcile the two worlds and finds a solution for our protagonist to solve the workplace issue (instead of ignore it) as well as reconnect with his family and childhood.

But the solution is very specific to his situation. The movie does try to give us this "matter of perspective" thing as a generalized way to deal with the issue, and then applies it to their specific situation. And yet, again, that doesn't always work in the real world. Just trying to see things from a different perspective doesn't really mean anything is actually going to change. Got bills pilling up and hungry mouths to feed? Well don't think of those as bills! Think of them as money-take-away papers! Yeah, I dunno. But the point is, it doesn't change the reality of the situation.

I mean, how convenient for Christopher Robin that his immediate superior in the movie is the weaselly take-credit-for-his-underling's-work sort, and the sort to put profit above all else, and how incredibly convenient that the owner of the company isn't a stodgy old man, but a man apparently in touch with his inner child and immediately sees things the Christopher Robin way when actually presented with it! How nice for everyone that the company just agrees to loads of paid vacation for all the workers who were moments ago being let go from the company! Yes, paid vacations will solve everything!

This problem is far from unique to this movie either. It has been a good while since I've seen Mary Poppins, but his work/life balance issue isn't solved by any actual application of a real-life solution. Far be it from me to suggest that "one of the greatest films of all time and Walt Disney's 'crowning achievement' " (Wikipedia article Mary Poppins) is bad for this, of course. I merely wonder, how can we draw the line here?

Christopher Robin, like Mary Poppins and many others before, presents a character at one far end of the work/life balance equation. Christopher Robin, like Mr Banks in Poppins, is absolutely disconnected from his family, his life, his childhood. By the end of the film he is on the opposite end of that spectrum. In fact, again much like in Mary Poppins, it is reconnecting with his family that solves the work issues he faces.

But real life doesn't always work like that.

Isn't it more likely that the hard-working father figure actually does love his family and wants the best for them, and knows that being away is hard on them, and probably wishes he was giving them more emotional support, and wishes he could be there more, and wishes he was a better father, but also knows that if he doesn't work his children won't have food to eat or clothes to wear or a place to live? Don't you think that they wish there was another way?
(Also note, yeah of course there are bad dads who don't care and use work as an escape from a family they wish they didn't have, or whatever. This isn't the case in Christopher Robin or Mary Poppins or Hook or whatever else you can imagine).

I'm definitely not suggesting that the characters, nor any person in real life, are correct to basically abandon their family in pursuit of work or business. I am absolutely suggesting that the equation should probably be more balanced than on any one extreme of the spectrum or another. Work has to exist in order to support the family. Too much work may lead to good financial support of the family, but poor emotional support of the family.

And maybe that's all they're really trying to say. Maybe the message really is "Hey, money and work isn't everything. Kids and wives and family in general needs emotional support too". Maybe they are trying to help. Maybe they aren't trying to send a message at all and are just trying to tell a story about a guy who's childhood imaginations about his stuffed animals are actually true and Winnie the Pooh and friends are actually alive and can walk and talk on their own.

On that note, Jim Cummings gives a brilliant vocal performance as Winnie the Pooh. The principle cast, live action and voice, are all good, but Jim Cummings is stand-out. I think Ewan McGregor was pretty good too.
And technically the film looks great. Lots of beautifully captured forest scenes. The CGI for the stuffed animal characters was also quite excellent. They looked and moved and interacted as if they had real physicality, weight, and presence. It was technically quite impressive.

In any case I think I enjoyed the movie... It just feels like it raises some real questions and yet the answer it gives is as fanciful as the Winnie the Pooh doll literally walking around and talking and eating honey and going on an adventure with his other somehow alive stuffed animal friends and little girl through London.