eyesmalloy

Twenty-two years before the brilliant James Whale classic that made Boris Karloff a star and spawned a slew of outstanding to mediocre sequels, a silent short film became the first adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel. While it cannot compare to many later versions, this surviving Edison Studios production remains an important piece of cinematic history. At only sixteen minutes, director J. Searle Dawley successfully manages to tell a coherent story as well as capture both the plight of Dr. Frankenstein and the tragedy of the monster itself.

Despite the picture quality being nearly unwatchable in parts and intertitles (title cards) that tell what's coming before each scene, this long forgotten gem is still worth a watch by horror aficionados and silent film buffs alike. As of this writing, Frankenstein (1910) is available to stream on several networks such as Halloween Flix and can probably be found on numerous websites too. In my opinion, having access to technology that enables us to view a film that is over a century old makes for a very special experience indeed.

I grew up in the 1980s, when Saturday morning cartoons were still a staple of American television. As a boy I watched everything from the Looney Tunes to Duck Tales to Garfield and Friends to the dozens of shows featured on the USA Cartoon Express. One of my favorites was Disney's The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. My mother had introduced me to Pooh through A. A. Milne's books, beginning with the classic When We Were Very Young. I loved each character and followed their adventures every weekend. Like millions across the world, when I heard about the British biopic Goodbye Christopher Robin and its Disney counterpart Christopher Robin, the little boy in me began to stir. Though I haven't yet seen the former, I watched the latter last night. It was my first experience with Pooh and pals in almost thirty years.

With a promising trailer, the star power of Ewan McGregor, and the return of Jim Cummings as the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, I was hopeful but reserved in my expectations. Everyone knows that attempts to rekindle the magic of beloved characters from long ago generally fail, but there are the occasional exceptions. Is Christopher Robin one of those exceptions? Did it successfully recapture everything we hold dear about our friends from the Hundred Acre Wood? Sigh. I think my rating speaks for itself.

Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of good to be said about this movie. Despite the familiar characters, an instrumental version of the famous theme song, and some of the most outstanding CGI I've seen in years, Christopher Robin is a dreary, pointless, poorly written mess. The extremely cliché, formulaic storyline finds an adult Christopher Robin as an overworked, underappreciated office drone in post-WWII London. He's forgotten his youth, is too busy to be a good family man, and plans to send his young daughter away to boarding school. His wife resents him for the long hours he works and his slimy boss plans to take credit for his work.

In what appears to be another dimension, Winnie the Pooh wakes up one day to find his friends missing and realizes that Christopher Robin is the only one who can help him find them. Much like in Stranger Things, Pooh is able to cross into the human world via a portal at the base of a large tree. (This may have been in the cartoon, but I don't remember.) He quickly finds Christopher - who is not pleased to see him - and eventually convinces him to return to the Hundred Acre Wood to help him find the others. The whole thing reminded me of Steven Spielberg's Hook, in which Peter Pan has grown up, forgotten who he is, and must return to Never-never Land (which is essentially another dimension too).

This is one of those movies where you keep expecting it to get better but it never does. The film is slow, slow, slow. I'm all for a slow burn that grows more intense and complex over time, but that doesn't happen here. Somehow, no amount of running or bouncing can keep Christopher Robin from feeling static and lifeless. Adding insult to injury is the dark color palette used to reflect the bleak emptiness of Christopher's life. The purpose, of course, is to contrast his adult life with the happy, brightly lit world of his youth, something which might have worked fine if it didn't take two-thirds of the film's running time to get there.

It was clearly a rushed effort by Disney, made solely to cash in on Winnie the Pooh's re-emergence in the public consciousness after the announcement of the British biopic. There are scattered laughs to be had, but hardly enough. Winnie the Pooh himself is easily the best thing the project has going for it. As mentioned before, the combination of some spectacular CGI plus Jim Cumming's excellent voiceover work as both Pooh and Tigger is something special to behold. I suspect the other original voice actors would have participated as well, but sadly they have all passed on. Fortunately, Brad Garrett and Toby Jones as Eeyore and Owl respectively do a good job as do the actors providing voices for Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo.

If you need to see it, I understand. I obviously did. But if you're expecting a sweet, emotional tear-jerker or a fun, high-flying adventure, you will be sorely disappointed on both fronts. On the upside, I must confess I agree with the primary implication of this film and others like it: There's nothing wrong with growing up. We all have to do it. But even though you can never return to your childhood, you can always keep your heart young.