The 'Christopher Robin' Soundtrack Will Transport You To The Hundred Acre Wood
No matter how old I am, Winnie the Pooh stories usually make me cry. The Search for Christopher Robin? I sobbed at the tender age of three. The Tigger Movie? I was bawling. Disney's latest emotional adventure about the Hundred Acre Wood, Christopher Robin, follows the woodland creatures' grown human friend as Pooh finds Christopher Robin in London and reminds him about the joys of his childhood. The Christopher Robin soundtrack is just as whimsical and heartfelt as any other Pooh Bear music you remember, and I have my tissues ready for this new journey into the Hundred Acre Wood.
With instrumental music by Geoff Zanelli and Jon Brion, the Christopher Robin soundtrack is now available on Spotify. The majority of the tracks are pleasant, sometimes heart-wrenching music titled after the scene they accompany. While the opening track, "Storybook," is equally mature and sunny, its successor, "Goodbye, Farewell" is an actual song performed by the cast behind Pooh and his gang. Led by Jim Cummings, who has voiced both Pooh and Tigger for nearly 30 years, the cheery song seems to be a farewell to a young Christopher Robin before he leaves the Wood for the last time as a child. Get ready for every little kid in your life to chant this whenever you leave the room.
When Pooh shows up at Christopher Robin's London home, the latter agrees to help return Pooh to the Wood through the door Christopher Robin used to visit him near his family's countryside cottage. After Christopher Robin and Pooh reach the cottage, accompanied by "Sussex," the mood turns slow and reflective in "Returning to the Hundred Acre Wood." If you're like me, this will probably be the point of the movie that gets you weepy-eyed. But honestly, who wouldn't tear up at the thought of Christopher Robin returning to his favorite childhood place as a weary adult?
While the instrumental tracks sound perfect for a calm bedtime playlist, the soundtrack also includes three new songs by the surviving half of the Sherman Brothers, who composed songs for Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Disney theme park attractions, and several Winnie the Pooh films. While Robert B. Sherman died in 2012, his brother Richard wrote "Goodbye, Farewell" and two songs he's heard singing on the movie's soundtrack, "Busy Doing Nothing" and "Christopher Robin." You can catch his performance of the songs during the film's end credits.
OK, try telling me that you don't feel incredibly sentimental reading these Christopher Robin lyrics:
Do you remember how we used to be / You were a special friend of mine / We were forever wasting time / Keeping busy all day through / Just doing nothing with nothing to do
That's the sound of my heart totally breaking, BTW.
Sherman also spoke about returning to a Winnie the Pooh story, as a Disney blog reported him saying:
Winnie the Pooh became a dear friend of mine when Walt [Disney] gave us the assignment to write songs for the first Winnie the Pooh short film, and here, so many years later, it is very special to be back in the Hundred Acre Wood again. There’s something sentimental and sweet and nostalgic about Pooh. He’s like your childhood buddy, who we sometimes forget about when we get older, but when he finds out that Christopher Robin is in a bit of trouble, he comes back to remind him what it’s like to have an imagination and to have wonderful times together doing nothing.
It may be a tad emotional, but I'm so ready for Christopher Robin and its heartwarming music. After all, sometimes you just need to go back to the Hundred Acre Wood.
