I was invited by Disney on an all expenses paid trip to cover #DisneysNutcrackerEvent and #ChristopherRobinBluray. All opinions are my own.
As you know, Christopher Robin is NOW AVAILABLE on Blu-ray and Digital. (Stay tuned for my post all about Christopher Robin on Blu-ray that is posting tomorrow). And in honor of this sweet movie I got to visit The Hundred Acre Wood!
Well, sort of…I had such a lovely day at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden where I got to attend a Christopher Robin inspired flower arrangement class (more below), a very yummy Friendsgiving lunch (more below), as well as the highlight of the day, getting to sit down with the Legend himself Jim Cummings who voices Winnie the Pooh (since 1987) and Tigger (since 1989). It was an incredible experience. Hearing him do the voice of these iconic characters in person had my heart melting. Hearing him speak as Pooh bear, it is almost too sweet to handle, and I loved every second!
Straight off, we all wanted to know what Jim thought of the Christopher Robin movie. He told us: “Ah, it was magic for me. You know, the new movie, I was so taken with it. It’s so charming. I loved it. I thought it was a great idea. What if Christopher Robin grew up and turned into a person and got stuck working like the rest of us? Oh, my God. What was that? World War II? Oh, wow. Now what? You know, Christopher Robin? Really? It was just so magical. And, you know, Pooh and the gang went out there and kinda saved him. Kind of returned the favor after all those waterfalls that he saved us from. So, it’s great.”
I loved seeing that he is a jokester at heart when asked if the recording process was different for a feature film he replied: “Yeah, it was hard fitting into the costume. I had to lose a little weight”
We were wondering what his favorite character of all time to voice was, he couldn’t really choose just one and equated it to choosing your favorite child, you just can’t. But he did share some of his favorites, “Probably Tigger. Darkwing Duck maybe, because I am the terror that flaps in the night. I like Hondo Ohnaka from Star Wars Clone Wars. Honestly, Ray from Princess and the Frog is one of my favorites of all-time. I always joke I’m Winnie the Pooh and the anti-Pooh, ’cause I’m Tasmanian Devil, too. No relation to Pooh, not in the 100-acre wood. He would just eat it. ” Jim told us while laughing.
He shared with us a couple personal stories of times children with Autism started speaking or laughing again when he talks to them in his character voices. “For some reason, kids with autism really respond not only to me but to voice actors. I don’t know. It’s just a thing, you know. And it’s a very, very, very beautiful thing. And it’s a little gift that I get to give.” It was so sweet and inspirational to hear these stories from Jim.
Besides the wonderful heartwarming stories, my favorite parts of this interview were the voices he would do as he told each story. It was so much fun. He is amazingly talented and an absolute delight to listen to. I could have listened to him tell stories and do his impressions all day. I am so grateful for the chance I had to sit down with him. He was nice enough to take individual photos with us all. Such a nice guy and truly an honor for me.
As I said, we also got to learn how to create a beautiful flower arrangement, and to make even more special we got to make it in an adorable Hunny Pot!
It was quite fun making this, and I learned so many new things.
And I couldn’t forget our Friendsgiving lunch, it was absolutely delicious!
As a special surprise, we got to take a photo with the characters from the movie, and these are the actual props from the film.
It was such a great day and so many incredible memories made that I will never forget.
Christopher Robin is Now Available on Blu-ray and Digital.
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