Marc Forster, the director of Christopher Robin, recently discussed what influenced the redesign of Pooh and the rest of the Hundred-Acre-Wood gang.
The film follows Christopher Robin -- now a family man living in London -- as he receives a surprise visit from his old childhood pal, Winnie-the-Pooh. With Christopher's help, Pooh embarks on a journey to find his friends -- Tigger, Eeyore, Owl, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo. Once reunited, the lovable bear and the gang travel to the big city to help Christopher rediscover the joy of life.
If you've seen the film, or even its trailers, you'll know that Pooh and the crew look a bit worse-for-wear - at least in comparison to their previous, more spry, incarnations. This is not only due to the film's premise - taking place many years passed the stuffed toys' prime - but many other factors, as Forster explained to Comicbook.com:
The key was, for me, to really have these animals that feel used and been played with and hugged. When I was a child, those characters were like a warm blanket. I felt really cozy, and they gave me sort of a safety net as a kid.
I must say Disney has been a great partner – when I presented them the look they had really no notes. I told them at the beginning, ‘I want to go back to Shepard's drawings from the 1920s and I also want to look at the first black-and-white drawings from the Disney cartoon character.’ I looked at both drawings, and had Michael Kushner, who did the character design, come and look at them. He designed them, we went back and forth, and then suddenly there was Pooh and I loved him. And it was very close to the original that ended up in them movie.
This is very much in-line with one of Forster's goals, for the recently released film, being to reinvigerate and modernise the age-old tales - as he explained "creating an original story while also introducing Pooh to a whole new generation who isn't familiar with Pooh."
What do you think of Forster's comments? Are you a fan of the characters' new looks? Check out the featurette below on the topic of the franchise's legacy:
Christopher Robin is in theatres now.
Toonado.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.