Ewan McGregor Plays ‘Christopher Robin’ In Live Action ‘Winnie-The-Pooh’ Movie

Move over Paddington, there’s a new bear coming to town. Actually, Winnie-the-Pooh has been around since 1924, but this August, movie audiences will get to see the “silly ‘ol bear” in a whole new way in Disney’s live action film, Christopher Robin, starring Ewan McGregor. While not truly a live action adaptation of Disney’s earlier animated works like the recent versions of Cinderella and The Jungle Book, Christopher Robin is inspired by the former Winnie-the-Pooh animated tales and is based on the characters created by author A.A. Milne.

In short, the movie attempts to answer the question, “Whatever happened to Christopher Robin?” Now all grown up and living far from the Hundred Acre Wood, Christopher Robin is married, has a daughter, and is stuck being overworked and underpaid in a joyless job. After planning an outing with his family, Christopher is called back into work and instructed to give bad news to his fellow employees. In the teaser trailer for the movie, Ewan McGregor is shown sitting on a park bench wondering what to do when he hears a familiar voice only to look up to discover that the voice is coming from his stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh from his childhood.

“I’ve cracked,” says Christopher Robin to which Pooh replies, “Oh, I don’t see any cracks. A few wrinkles maybe.”

While Christopher Robin will present the red-shirted bear in CGI format, he still sounds like the same ol’ Pooh fans know and love. That is because he is voiced by Jim Cummings, who has voiced the bear “stuffed with fluff” since 1988. Other voice talent includes Chris O’Dowd (Tigger), Toby Jones (Owl), Nick Mohammed (Piglet), Peter Capaldi (Rabbit), Sophie Okonedo (Kanga), and probably the most inspired choice to take over the voice of Eeyore, Brad Garrett. As for the humans of the story, McGregor is joined by Marvel’s Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell playing Christopher’s wife, Evelyn, Bronte Carmichael as his daughter, Madeline, and Mark Gatiss as his boss.

Unlike the previous movie, Goodbye, Christopher Robin, which told the story about author A.A. Milne and his son, the real Christopher Robin, Disney’s Christopher Robin was written by Alex Ross Perry and Allison Schroeder, and is based on a story written by Perry, reports Variety. Directed by Marc Forster, this movie marks Ewan’s return to Disney after voicing the candlestick Lumiere in last year’s live action version of Beauty and the Beast.

Christopher Robin opens in theaters on August 3, 2018. Expect sales of the golden bear to be great shortly thereafter.