‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ tells us what we didn’t know about Winnie the Pooh

Novels, films and television series based on Winnie the Pooh have been gracing children from generations ago with characters and stories they can grow to love.      

Goodbye Christopher Robin presents a (surprising!) peek into the lives of the man who penned the novels, A. A. Milne and his family – the inspiration behind the very novels.  Amidst a time of war and turmoil we find the boy who made the novels famous, Christopher Robin being born to a writer suffering from the terrors of war he was a part of and a socialite mother incapable of loving a son who would too be eventually drafted into war.

Christopher Robin – nicknamed Billy Moon by his family – is then brought up and tended to by his nanny, Olive, with whom he grows to form an attachment to unlike that even of his parents. This leads to the film involving a variety of other themes aside from the origin of the Winnie the Pooh novels, such as family, mental illness and the consequences of war, wrapped up in a period piece.

Set in 1916 London and Sussex, A. A. Milne, called Blue by those close to him, faces an occasion where he and his son Billy are left alone in their home, forced to build a relationship amongst themselves for what might be the first time in either of their lives. Thus begins the origin of Winnie the Pooh and the bear’s friends, with Blue’s companion illustrating Billy and his adventures with his toys.

Soon enough, the family is caught up in a whirlwind of fame and fortune, as Blue’s novels become internationally renown and Billy, the real-life version of Christopher Robin becomes the talk of town. The consequences of fame at as young an age as Billy’s emerge over the next decade as he matures into a young man, with the audience wondering whether the Milnes might just lose their son over the success of the novels – or the impending war.

For those looking to Goodbye Christopher Robin as a pill for their nostalgia, Winnie the Pooh having been a prominent part of their childhood, we say, expect he unexpected. After all, not all successes are backed with happy endings. An intriguing yet realistic glimpse into the life of author A. A. Milne, Goodbye Christopher Robin introduces the audience to familiar names and characters – not just Winnie the Pooh, but Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo and the entire gang make an entrance! Psst…did you know that the original toys of Christopher Robin are on display at the New York Public Library?

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Experience the origin of Winnie the Pooh, when Goodbye Christopher Robin releases across cinemas this 19th April 2018, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie and Kelly Macdonald. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/foxmovies.my/