Bear With Me, ‘Paddington’ Is a Sweet Treat

Ben Whishaw voices this cute little bugger in this feel-good family flick.

Bear With Me, ‘Paddington’ Is a Sweet Treat

A solid & sweet film if not a bit cautious.

With his red-floppy hat and his appetite for chowing down on jars of marmalade Paddington bear troops through the live-action film of the same name. Recently released on DVD and Bluray, the film opens up with  Paddington climbing around Darkest Peru and spending time with his bear family. A deft use of CGI, Paddington is downright huggable with his tawny furred body, big doe eyes and surprisingly human expressions.

After tragedy strikes, and a bad storm takes out Paddington’s Uncle-Bear, Paddington and his Aunt-Bear decide to go to London. In the first sequence of the movie a quirky black and white documentary clip of an explorer from the Geographer's Guild spends time with Paddington’s family, long before he is born. In the spirit of the late 1800s British exploration and much like a newsreel, the clip sets the stage for the storyline when the explorer invites his ‘discoveries’ to visit him in London, because they’re ‘welcome anytime’.

This level of D'AWWW brings to mind Agnes and the Unicorn from Despicable Me. 

Paddington instantly knows cheery old England Town is the place to be. His Aunt agrees and smuggles him onto a boat (with about five times his weight in marmalade jars) and cheerfully says she’s off to the home for ‘retired bears’ which sounds like a euphemism for the great beyond, RIP Aunty.

After consoling Paddington that a family will take him in, after sharing a tidbit that during the World War II evacuations kiddos with tags around their necks waiting inside the countryside train stations would be taken in by families. So after slipping the luggage tag with the signature phrase, “Please look after this bear” around his neck, Paddington row-row-rows his boat (aka curls up and noshes on marmalade as the ship the boat’s attached to crawls across the ocean) to England.

Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) can't resist taking the wee bear home.

It’s a solid enough plot that embraces the picture book tradition of the book of the same name.  Paddington is taken in by a reluctant uptight father, Mr. Brown, (played with stuffy British grace by Downton Abbey lead and patriarch, Hugh Bonneville), at his chipper wife’s insistence that Paddington come home with them. Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s two children have somewhat mixed reactions, and at first Mr. Brown is adamant that Paddington can stay one day, and one day only and then will be brought to the “authorities”.

The storyline is simple and well-traveled and will keep the kiddos attention while also entertaining adult viewers as well. Paddington wants to find a new home for himself. As a tiny bear in a big dreary city, he feels desperate to become part of a new family even though he’s well….a different species.  

Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) bonding with Pad. Not such a boring bloke after all!

“Paddington”’s London, however, doesn’t have a chilly or gray ambiance whatsoever. Instead, it’s a lot of fun and has a whole lot of color to it. There are some really off-beat scenes that add a lot of charm to the movie, and feel lifted from a Wes Anderson movie. The Brown’s house opening up like a doll house and panning through each  room, and bringing the viewer up close and personal with the Brown family is a visual delight. The scenes of Mrs. Brown at her haphazard art desk, and Judy Brown in her bedroom plastered with Polaroid photos as she listens to Chinese business audio tapes, have that tantalizing quirk that make Anderson’s films such cult hits.

Even the color pallet  and locations are whimsical and really speak to the spirit of the story, which is both adventure and magic even though there are no dragons or wands. The Explorer’s Guild with its steam punk inspired message tube system instead of a modern google search engine on a laptop is attention grabbing. And, Mrs. Brown’s friend, Mr. Gruber  (played by Jim Broadbent, of Harry Potter fame) is an eccentric kook with a German accent and an antiques shop that is equally charming and strange that looks lifted from a fantastical storybook.

The closet to Narnia is probably tucked in Mr. Gruber's shop too.

Many of the characters in “Paddington” are played with a heavy dose of camp, especially the villain, Millicent, played Nicole Kidman. An obsessive taxidermist and with an enviable espionage kit (we’re talking poision dart guns, and grappling hooks to name just two tools)   she’s hell bent on snagging Paddington and stuffing him to add a nice rare Darkest Peru teddy bear to the menagerie of dead--I mean, preserved, animals in the Natural History Museum where she works.

Mr. Brown is hesitant and cautious. Not as endearingly as say, Martin Freedman’s Bilbo Baggins in the “Hobbit” Trilogy (because that man patented ‘reluctant hero’ and ‘sensitive soul’ with his performance) but it’s convincing enough. Especially as his character grows to not only be tolerant of Paddington, but to actually become fond of him and want him to be a part of the family. 

Millicent (Nicole Kidman) is prezzie of the chic-villainess-with-a-bob-haircut club.

Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) is a ray of sunshine personified. Enthusiastic and another walking storybook character, she glides through the film. Her interactions with her angsty teen daughter, Judy (played by Madeleine Harris) who is in a constant state of “embarrassment” are sweet and funny.

Julie Walters (the matriarch of the Weasley clan in the Harry Potter series)  excels as Mrs. Bird, the Brown’s whip smart Irish housekeeper with her brazen commentary, strong worth ethic, and ability to drink men three times her size under the table (is there any other aging Irish housekeeper?).

“Paddington” isn’t saturated in special effects, and there are no silly 3D ‘pop out’ shots that come across hokey on standard viewing. Sure, some of the humor is strictly in the 10 and younger bracket --namely the skeevy bathroom scene that aired in the original trailer that can be summed up in four words: earwax, toothbrush, mouth, toilet. P-U-K-E. ( although thankfully, there isn’t any of that). 

Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) & Judy (Madeleine Harris) bond with Paddington.

But for the most part,“Paddington” is sweetly silly. From Paddington’s little mishaps and faux paus with the Brown family, to a particularly silly moment with Paddington having a kismet moment with a Buckingham Palace guard who also uses his hat as a handy dandy portable lunch bag, to the final confrontation with Paddington and the Browns facing off against Millicent only to be interrupted by Mrs. Bird in the funniest and most unexpected scene of the movie, it’s an endearing sort of funny that sets the tone for the film.

“Paddington” is a richly imagined world that feels both timeless and modern. Sure Judy wears headphones, but there’s also black and white film footage right at the start, the quintessential London telephone booth, and the curly corded landline perched in the center of the Brown’s foyer. More brownie points for “Paddington”is that it isn’t overly long. No bones (or bears?!) about it, aside from the title word, there’s not an ounce of “padding” in the film!

Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) and Paddington's new fam deck him out in his signature duds.

On the other hand, there are some discrepancies in that “Paddington” wobbles a little bit between tone. It starts off a little offbeat and cheerfully strange, and then shifts to a the slick uber contemporary kind of film, in other words-- the industry blockbuster standard. If only the director took a risk and went all the way with the off-kilter hints, and embraced the Wes Anderson vibes it started with, “Paddington”would have climbed a rung above other movies at the kid’s table in the films being released today. 

When it comes down to it, “Paddington” is a solidly enjoyable sweet movie that has a simple message, some laughs, lovable caricature characters and is a recommended watch for anyone who can use a nice smile, and the warm and fuzzies of the hugging-a-teddy-bear grade!

Images from the IMDB and Paddington official movie website