With the release of Christopher Robin right around the corner; Brad Garrett, the voice of Eeyore, recently sat down with Collider to discuss the being offered the role as well as what he thinks of the CG-redesign.
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.
Garrett recalled his reaction to being offered the role of Eeyore, likening it to his character in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond - both being downtrodden and chock-full of melancholy. The actor also revealed that, oddly, he was offered the same role back in the 90s.
You know, I was so excited and so immediately grateful. I grew up a huge fan of animation. I still am. That was my safe place, as a kid. I loved getting lost in these stories and I always loved animation. Eeyore is something so iconic, and someone I’ve been compared to. There was a lot of Eeyore in my Everybody Loves Raymond character. I loved it.
Many, many years ago – almost 30 years ago – I had the opportunity to voice him in a TV special for Disney. It was happening at the same time that I started to get busy as a stand-up, and I remember how excited I was, but then I got this stand-up tour that I had to go on and it got in the way of me recording Eeyore. It was one of the things where I was like, “Oh, gosh, this is really a drag!”
When it came around again, all these years later, I was just really, really excited. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done a few voices, but there’s only one Eeyore. It was a blast!
Being a fan of animation, as Garrett explained above, he was also queried on his thoughts regarding the live-action/CGI process that Christopher Robin makes use of. The actor went into his fondness for the realistic and tattered redesign - explaining how it helped him get into character.
It’s funny, when I knew, early on, how they were going to do it, I was like, “Gosh, how are you going to take stuffed animals and give them a life, and still have it seamless with live actors?” Leave it to Disney. When I saw some of the early footage, I was like, “This is unbelievable!”
What helped me with it was when you see the characters in their vintage stuffed animal state. They have that vintage look. That helped me greatly with Eeyore because Eeyore has always sounded like he has an age to him. He’s really the only character in the group that sounds like he has a lot of life experience. Pooh does, too. Pooh is the Yoda of all of us.
Looking at the vintage feel of the way the characters were animated, really helped me even more. He’s a little tattered, and one ear is maybe longer than the other, and the tail is still tacked on. The vintage vibe for me was how I was able to be even more true to his voice. I was familiar with all of the other wonderful actors who played Pooh before me, but I stayed away from listening to what they did. I was familiar with Ralph Wright’s rendition, Peter [Cullen] is brilliant, and Ron Feinberg was even a friend of mine when I started in animation. I knew that he had to have that monotone. His rhythm is very succinct. For it to last longer, I had to find the different moments to tweak his level and his rhythm.
What do you think of Garrett's comments? Are you a fan of the iconically glum donkey? Check out a clip from the film below:
Christopher Robin is in theatres now.
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