Life Imitates Art For Christopher Robin Director Marc Forster

Disney’s Christopher Robin now in theaters, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss out and take your family this weekend. It’s the perfect last movie to watch before the Back To School chaos begins, because it is sweet as hunny and because it has the potential to change the way you will show up as a mom the entire school year.

Besides attending the Christopher Robin global premiere, I had the privilege of interviewing Director Marc Forster and chat about this heartwarming family movie. We had screened the movie the night before the interview and we let him know how much we had enjoyed it. He was really humbled by our warm welcome and claps and shared his own feelings about the film.

 Usually once I see them at the premiere, I don’t have the desire to watch them again, but somehow, this film, every time I see it…I still like it. 

I have seen Disney’s Christopher Robin three times and I am looking forward to watching it again. My daughters want to see it again too!

And speaking of daughters, Marc Forster told us that it was his daughter who inspired him to make Christopher Robin.

I was in a plane with my daughter and we were flying flying to a vacation and she’s watching Pooh cartoon on her iPad and  she suddenly turned to me and said:

“Hey, can’t you make a movie for kids once?… All your movies are like, dark and for grownups and said I can’t watch any of them.”

She was six at the time and said, I said, yeah, why don’t we do Pooh, I said jokingly.

I said, yeah. Why don’t do Pooh? And then ultimately… all the stars aligned. And three years later, we made Pooh.

He laughed so hard telling us that story, and we joined in. Most of us, as parents, know that our kids inspire us and push us to be better and do better.

Between laughs, Director Marc Forster confesses that the decision for Christopher Robin to have a daughter (Madeline, played by Bronte Carmichael), rather than a son (which is truer to life)  was indirectly influenced by his conversation with his daughter.

It’s sort of life imitates art or art imitates life…

Especially last few months.

She’s said: “I never see you.”

 I said: “Yes, because I have to finish a movie for August third.”

This was interesting to me as a creative and creator. We are inspired to create by those we love and then we often struggle to manage our time to remain loving while we are creating.

It’s been an old debate whether art imitates life or life imitates art. Art touches and moves us and it brings thoughts to our awareness, whether consciously or unconsciously. Life, reality, experiences, inspire artistic creation. 

I believe Marc Forster captured both the truth of today’s sad reality of parent-child disconnection and the art of Winnie The Pooh created by A.A. Milne. and strove to make everything historically correct.

We did a lot of research and sort of the idea was going back to the mid Twenties when Pooh was created and Christopher Robin played with him and then pick up the movie basically when Christopher Robin gets sent to boarding school, and the film ends at post-war 1949. The interesting thing is… in the early Fifties was actually a time in England when people suddenly had paid vacation. That aligned with our storytelling.

I really love period movies and there are so many metaphors, so much symbolism, and details that take you to that era. They also filmed in the Ashtown Forest, next to the actual Milne Estate!

The film was also quite true to the books and the series.

Michael Kutsche, the character designer, and I went back basically I showed him all the Shephard early drawings and I showed him the first black and white animation drawings from Disney and then I said, look, I love this about the Shephard ones, this about the early Disney drawings. Let’s combine it and then he started drawing them and creating 3D models and then we started looking at, you know, in my office, where we started pre-production, at all these different materials that to feel like, to find the right material.

 And then Jenny Beavan knitted the red sweater and we created that stuffed animal based on his drawings and then we created it so it took us a couple months to  it right and then also I wanted them to all feel hugged and loved. That they were not new stuffed animals off the shelf. That they felt really, that the boy played with them and there was a history between them.

And speaking of details. There is a gramophone in the movie that Hayley Atwell got to keep as a souvenir and she keeps in her living room. She spoke very highly of Director Marc Forster and told us about another souvenir he sent her: 

Weeks after we wrapped I got a package in the mail and Marc Forster had commissioned the art department of the film to paint me a beautiful painting… of Pooh and my dog…because my dog was on set every day and he was very welcome on set and he would come into the rehearsals with us and he’d sit on some of the set and he would just be one of the animals and Marc adored him and would always go:  “Oh, bring Howard.” I found that dogs like — my dog’s very calm and very quiet so had a quite a therapeutic effect in the workplace so Marc took a real shine to Howard so he had this painting of Howard and Pooh in matching red sweaters. It’s really cute.

Hayley Atwell became involved while on holiday on a boat in Greece!

I was sunbathing and I got call and from my agent saying Mark Foster, the director is directing Christopher Robin. Will you skype with him and I said yeah of course.

She told us she had erratic reception so she put on a life jacket, went on a jet ski to take the call.

Jim Cummings referred to Director Marc Forster’s vision for the reimagining of Disney’s Christopher Robin as “sublime.”

Ewan McGregor expressed a great deal of respect for Director Marc Foster.

Marc is such a beautiful collaborative director. He really loves to hear everybody’s ideas. He’s very-very open. And he also absolutely understands what the film is he wants to make. But he allows us to feel like you’ve got a lot of room, you’ve got a lot of input. And he listens.

He was lovely to work with. 

All the actors were highly impressed with the way the film was put together, especially in that they acted opposite stuffed animals and Ewan McGregor explained in detail how that process worked and how he cast young actors to work with the “stuffies” (stuffed animals).

He did a brilliant thing, Marc.

The admiration is mutual. Director Marc Forster told us why Ewan McGregor was perfect to play the part of Christopher Robin.

Ewan and I worked together in 2014, and we stayed friends for a long time and been looking to do something together… Comedically and dramatically, he’s so good… there’s something about him, he’s so likeable and so lovely…

It was really crucial to have an actor who has that likeability because otherwise, you suddenly don’t connect with him or don’t want to root for him.

The movie for me ultimately…is about love and because also his red sweater is like this metaphor for love and I always felt like it’s about the heart.

In an 1889 essay, Oscar Wilde argued that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” saying that “the self-conscious aim of Life is to find expression, and that Art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize the energy.” I don’t know what your thoughts are about that but I’m hoping that my life can imitate this beautiful story that Marc Forster so beautifully brought to the big screen.

Life imitates art for Marc Forster. After being fully immersed in the making of Disney’s Christopher Robin, he shares he will be “doing NOTHING” for a while:

I’m taking a vacation. Taking the whole month of August off. Coming back early September.

Disney’s Christopher Robin brings my family hope and it can teach all of us valuable lessons on how to parent… and how to live.

For Marc Forster, there is an important message the movie communicates:

In the times we live in, I think it’s so important to have hope, joy and, and really, it’s about love and Pooh is about love and reconnecting with the people you love. We’re  all guilty of that. Everybody works so much today that to find that balance between work and the people you care for and ultimately…I think that mainly the generalization is we don’t spend enough time or attention to the people we love. I think that’s really why we’re here for is to connect with one another.

Such true, wise, and inspiring words. I am so excited for you to see the movie this weekend!

Don’t forget to check out my interview with Ewan McGregor (“Christopher Robin”), Hayley Atwell (“Evelyn Robin”) and Jim Cummings (voice of “Winnie the Pooh” & “Tigger”) and Bronte Carmichael (Madeline Robin).

Go ahead and also Disney Christopher Robin on Facebook, Disney Studios on Twitter, and Disney Studios on Instagram, and visit the Christopher Robin movie web page for more CHRISTOPHER ROBIN updates! The official hashtag for the film is #ChristopherRobin and our press event hashtag is #ChristopherRobinEvent.

Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? Would love to know what you believe in the comments below.

Elayna is a single mom of 4, award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 4x TEDx speaker. Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results, so you can have the wealth, opportunities, and freedom you deserve. Connect with Elayna Fernández at thepositivemom.com/keynote-speaker and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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