Disney's Christopher Robin brings Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and the other beloved animal residents of the Hundred Acre Wood to life in live-action for the first time - and it even goes the extra mile by including an additional scene in the middle of the end credits.
While it took a while for the Mouse House's live-action Winnie the Pooh movie to get an official title, the plan was always for the film to focus on an adult version of Pooh's human companion, Christopher Robin (a role that Ewan McGregor eventually signed on to play). Indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip, Queen of Earth) was hired to write the movie in 2015, though the screenplay was later reworked by Oscar-winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) and Oscar-nominee Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures). Director Marc Forster of Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland fame boarded the project in 2016 and production got underway less than a year after that.
Related: Christopher Robin Interview with Ewan McGregor & Hayley Atwell
Forster's Winnie the Pooh movie differs from other recent live-action re-imaginings of Disney's animated classics and not just in the sense that it's truly a sequel more than a remake: Christopher Robin also includes a mid-credits scene, unlike 2017's Beauty and the Beast or The Jungle Book the year before that. However, rather than teasing a future adventure with Pooh and friends, the credits sequence serves as more of a playful bookend to the rest of the film.
[WARNING: The rest of the article contains SPOILERS for Christoper Robin.]
The Christopher Robin mid-credits scene provides a followup to the film's climax, where Christopher confronts his bosses at Winslow Luggage. While the company's heads want to fire several employees as a cost-cutting measure, Christopher recommends that they instead reduce the cost of their luggage, give their employees paid time off, and sell their products to working-class people (rather than only the wealthy), as a means of increasing demand. Winslow Sr., the head of the company, approves of the idea and, thus, the mid-credits scene shows Winslow's employees on vacation at the beach and dancing while a piano player performs the tune "Busy Doing Nothing".
Of course, the piano player is an Easter Egg himself; namely, he's Richard M. Sherman, the legendary Disney songwriter who, alongside his late brother Robert, wrote the music for many a Mouse House animated classic, including 1977's Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Sherman actually wrote "Busy Doing Nothing", as well as "Christopher Robin", which plays over the rest of the credits, making this cameo extra special.
This is also the sequence where the image of Pooh and his pals sunbathing - which has been a prominent aspect of the film's marketing - comes from. It might not set the stage for a sequel, but it's a funny payoff to the unexpected (but effective) critique of capitalism in Christopher Robin's third act.
