By Josh Horwood.
Directed by Paul King, 95 mins, still in cinemas
After a year of ludicrous animated films that seem to cash in on childhood memories (Postman Pat: The Movie to name but one), how refreshing it is to watch a movie based on Michael Bond’s short stories that is not only a lot of fun, it’s bloody good too.
When explorer Montgomery Clyde comes across Lucy and Pastuzo, a couple of sentient bears in darkest Peru, he quickly forms a bond and teaches them about London, English life and Marmalade. Flash-forward a couple of years, after an earthquake has devastated their woodland hideout, it is up to their nephew to immigrate to London to find a new family. Stranded in Paddington Station, he is offered a temporary place to stay by the Brown Family until he can track down a more suitable home.
There is so much to love about Paddington, so let’s start with the performances. Sally Hawking is wonderful as Mrs Brown, a kooky free spirit who illustrates children’s books, maintaining integrity and heart throughout. Samuel Joslin and Madeline Harris give spirited performances as the Brown children. Hugh Bonneville was the biggest surprise for me. His pernickety health and safety officer, Mr Brown, has some of the films funniest moments, with a call to the home insurance being a highlight. He also looks stunning in drag in a sequence that earned the film a PG rating. Nicole Kidman is hilarious too, her taxidermist provides the perfect villain; she never strays too far into over the top camp. Peter Capaldi has laugh out loud moments as the neighbourhood busybody and Matt Lucas has an all too brief cameo as a black cabbie. At the movie’s heart is the bear himself. Ben Wishaw’s voice has the perfect mixture of plucky confidence and befuddlement. It really is hard to imagine how Colin Firth would have played Paddington, so strong is Wishaw’s performance. Paul King really works wonders to blend the performances together whilst also crafting a love letter to London.
The film bounces joyously from set piece to set piece. There is an anarchic sense of fun to the bathroom sequence that features heavily in the trailers and a gasp inducing sequence in which the Brown Family break Paddington out of the Natural History Museum. There are plenty of visual gags to keep children and adults enthralled. The CG is stunningly realised and, very quickly, Paddington falls into the scenes as though he is really there. This has been marketed heavily as the new David Heyman production. After the Harry Potter series and Gravity, he hits another home run. Paul King’s direction is well paced and scenes are stunningly realised. Tim Webber, Gravity’s Oscar winning Visual Effects Supervisor, wades into Second Unit Directing duties and his presence must be to thank for the little brown bear fitting in so seamlessly.
Paddington is last year’s warmest hug of a movie. It is on a level of Toy Story for me. The story takes you to dark places but ultimately triumphs as a celebration of British tolerance and acceptance of the outsider. What a glorious film it is!
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