“I’m not a hero, Pooh. I’m lost,” says an adult Christopher Robin (Ewan McGregor) to his beloved bear. Based on AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books, a sepia-tinted opening credits sequence reimagines Christopher as a grownup in postwar London, hand-inked illustrations detailing his journey from carefree child to unsmiling man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, before breaking into a live-action feature.

This Christopher is a husband, father, first world war veteran and, now, a straitlaced efficiency manager for Winslow Luggage, scolded by his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter Madeline (the winsome Bronte Carmichael) for blowing off their summer holiday to work. But a spilled jar of honey miraculously summons a CGI Pooh (Jim Cummings, who has previously voiced the Disney character), who reignites his old friend’s paternal instincts and persuades him to take a trip back to Hundred Acre Wood, where he is mistaken for a Heffalump.

“But I found you, didn’t I?” smiles Pooh. It’s hard not to swoon at the sight of Christopher tucking Pooh into bed, or a pair of sticky, hairy paws matted with syrup, and an “expertition” that reunites the gang is certainly cute, but it’s difficult to know who this downbeat film is for exactly. The script is credited to Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Allison Schroeder (Hidden Figures) and, perhaps most interestingly, indie film-maker Alex Ross Perry (Listen Up Philip and Queen of Earth). Those familiar with Ross Perry will recognise the acid note presents, in McGregor’s avoidant gaze and the nonsensical, repeated maxim: “When you do nothing, it leads to the very best of something.”

Director Marc Forster dabbled in magic realism with films such as Finding Neverland (2004) and Stranger Than Fiction (2006), but here, Christopher’s furry friends don’t appear to be figments of his imagination. If they’re not a metaphor for a misplaced sense of fun (or a midlife crisis), the film’s tone ends up being weirdly adult for a kids’ film.