Christopher Robin
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: August 3, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
19
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaAug 2, 2018
Christopher Robin takes a classic story with characters people know and love and breathes new life into them, delivering an important reminder to balance life and all its qualities through strong symbolism. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerAug 2, 2018
True, Christopher Robin may take a little time to get to those emotions, mainly due to a scene-setting introduction that could stretch the attention of the most wriggly children. But once Pooh and Christopher are once more paw-in-hand, it's just enchanting. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 2, 2018
It’s surprising to see how straight McGregor plays it for director Marc Forster (the J.M. Barrie portrait “Finding Neverland”), allowing the CG-animated Pooh and friends to endearingly steal the show. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 3, 2018
The core human/bear connection is treated with respect. Pooh’s wisdom and kindness cannot be denied. The same impulses worked for the two “Paddington” movies, God knows. Christopher Robin isn’t quite in their league, but it’s affecting nonetheless. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 3, 2018
It takes awhile to get going but, still, it’s rather sweet. Read full review
60
CineVueBen NicholsonAug 15, 2018
Besides the overt journey for Christopher Robin of rediscovering some childhood joy, this film is a poignant exploration of the way in which we sideline important friendships at the behest of professional advancement. Read full review
50
ConsequenceBlake GobleAug 2, 2018
The pleasure of good company is Robin’s occasionally winning quality. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraAug 2, 2018
Everyone’s trying hard, but they can’t quite live up to the particularly gentle, warm tone of Pooh himself. Unlike the bear of very little brain, this is a film pulled in different directions with entirely too many thoughts in its head. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 2, 2018
Forster (Finding Neverland, World War Z) never quite finds the alchemy in Milne’s timeless tales, or the melancholy sweetness of his being-and-nothingness koans. Instead it’s just an earnest tribute, tastefully faithful to the source — and flatter, somehow, than the story ever was on the page. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgAug 3, 2018
Despite its overused plotline, the film works. It exudes charm. It makes you laugh at the silliest things, and it tries hard to make you cry. Read full review
40
IGNWilliam BibbianiAug 3, 2018
A formulaic and depressing motion picture that takes meaningful characters and strips them of their reason to exist. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 2, 2018
Even when Christopher Robin stumbles or steers itself into a corner, it never stops trying to understand what people lose when they let go of the things they love. The movie sells itself by keeping one foot on the ground at all times. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 2, 2018
Christopher Robin finds ways to distinguish itself within its generic confines. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 2, 2018
The whole affair feels like a desperate, big-budget response to last year’s far superior and non-Disney “Goodbye, Christopher Robin.” Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 3, 2018
It's still, however, a long way from the Hundred Acre Wood that most "Pooh" fans remember so fondly. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaAug 2, 2018
It is one of the more sadistic family films I have ever seen, a picture of the residents of a neglected childhood reckoning with the abandonment of their beloved, now grown-up human leader. Read full review
58
Original-CinJim SlotekAug 2, 2018
As a movie for adults, Christopher Robin has rewards, but needn’t have been so antic. The schmaltz would have sufficed. As a movie for children, well… Read full review
50
Paste MagazineTim GriersonAug 3, 2018
Very rarely do you get the sense that anyone involved in Christopher Robin had a really strong take on the material or an innate understanding of why these characters have resonated for nearly a century. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 3, 2018
Because Disney wants your money, of course. I don’t begrudge their need for greed; I just wish they hadn’t given us yet another movie built on the pseudo-psychological cliché that adults need to reconnect with their childhoods in order to be better adults. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 6, 2018
Every time things start to get goopy, we get silent-comedy slapstick like Pooh destroying the Robins’ household. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 2, 2018
It’s charming and filled with wonderful performances, and has a nuanced story that will have adults walking out of the theater thinking about their own inner Pooh, and questioning why the hell they’re working so hard. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeAug 2, 2018
The film’s main triumph is the way that the toy characters are evoked. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyAug 2, 2018
There may be plenty of charming, classic Pooh-isms sprinkled throughout Christopher Robin, but the film just can’t manage to bring the same level of poignance and wisdom to its own story. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNiles SchwartzAug 3, 2018
Unlike the red balloon that Winnie the Pooh follows through much of the running time, Marc Forster's film lacks lightness. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 2, 2018
Beneath its wistful tone, Christopher Robin supplies the purest wish-fulfillment fantasy that a children’s movie can offer adults: that our childhoods miss us as much as we miss them. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleAug 2, 2018
It all fits together a little too well, too predictably and, well, too Disney. Pooh and company have always been a wonderfully neurotic bunch, but in Forster’s polished film, they’re a little suffocated, a little lifeless. Any semblance of authentic childlike glee remains purely theoretical. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 3, 2018
Christopher Robin is the kind of uncanny experiment that only gets to happen in children’s films once every few years. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 2, 2018
No, Christopher Robin is not a naked cash grab, just a prettily clothed one. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillAug 20, 2018
For all the expensive honey drizzled over this script, Forster’s film is just unpersuasively weird for an hour, before it tails off in the softest of focuses. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 2, 2018
Christopher's lengthy two-hander scenes with Pooh quickly wear out their welcome; what at first is agreeably amusing shortly becomes grating, then just tedious. Read full review
70
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 2, 2018
The contemporary in-jokes are kept to a minimum (O.K., Tigger says “let’s bounce”), and the movie as a whole feels pleasingly old-fashioned. Read full review
70
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 23, 2018
This takeoff on the children's-book series refreshingly balances sweet and bitter tones; Pooh's innocence irritates Christopher before it redeems him, and Madeline undertakes a bold adventure to gain her father's attention. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 2, 2018
As sweet as honey but without the stickiness, Christopher Robin is a gentle delight — for children, and for former children. Read full review
79
The VergeBryan BishopOct 8, 2018
Christopher Robin doesn’t just use nostalgia as a salve; it uses it as a way to mourn things that we’ve lost in our lives and as a way to unpack how our actions can hurt those around us. It’s a feel-good movie that really doesn’t think there’s a whole lot to feel good about much of the time. Read full review
52
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 2, 2018
It’s a slow, sluggish and whimsy-deficient movie that seems designed to entertain neither children nor adults, and the film’s script opens a Pandora’s Box of a plot twist. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 6, 2018
The picture has a charming, low-key vibe that is, here and there, brushed with just a trace of adult melancholy. It’s good for kids, but maybe even better for adults who could use a little calming something. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumAug 14, 2018
A low-key charmer, this lovingly-crafted, melancholic movie is a big, comforting hug of a film. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 2, 2018
There’s no end to the schmaltz in Winnie the Pooh’s honey pot, yet Disney’s live-action Christopher Robin also tosses in enough charm and tomfoolery for a sufficiently delightful hang with the iconic bear. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonAug 2, 2018
Pooh and his animal pals are wonderfully subtle feats of animation, textured so carefully that you can almost smell the cozy, woodsy mustiness of their matted fur. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeAug 2, 2018
The movie basically ingratiates itself with kids by scolding adults for losing track of what’s important, and yet, both in the 1930s and today, a responsible father doesn’t really have the option of quitting his job. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriAug 9, 2018
Christopher Robin preaches a return to childhood exuberance and frivolity, but its quiet, focused restraint often feels like it’s coming from a very different impulse — an old-world professionalism and humility. It’s a grown-up sensibility applied to a child’s tale, which makes for an occasionally endearing mixture. In today’s world, I’ll take it. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 2, 2018
The film is pretty conventional Disney fare: silly, slapsticky, all-too-neatly wrapped up and punctuated by a surfeit of poignant moments. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerAug 2, 2018
The fuzzy residents of the 100-Acre Wood cutely convert to the real world in Christopher Robin, a mildly entertaining film that'll remind kids and grown-ups alike of the fun that can be had in doing absolutely nothing important. Read full review
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