Author Michael Bond's series of children's books based on Paddington, the impossibly polite and mischief prone bear who hails from "darkest Peru" have been a literary staple for over half a century. He's been the star of numerous animated television series over the decades but it wasn't until this year that the beloved bear would make his debut on the big screen. And so I went in to Paddington with two questions on my mind: Does Paddington the film give this children's literary icon the proper launch into the world of movies it deserves and, more importantly, do movie audiences in 2014 even care about a relic of the past like Paddington?
To answer the first question, yes! Paddington is a fantastic family film that manages to deliver its overall message of "families stick together" without being too cloying or sickeningly precocious in doing so. It also boasts a terrific cast featuring Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) and Sally Hawkins (Jane Eyre, Never Let Me Go) as Mr. and Mrs. Brown, the loving parents whose home Paddington finds himself being welcomed into. Bonneville's Mr. Brown is a surly, straight man, spewing some of the film's funniest lines in his deadpan English droll while Hawkins acts as the proverbial "heart" of the Brown family, always eliciting smiles rather than eye rolls. Nicole Kidman chews the scenery as the scheming villainess Millicent intent on capturing our ursine hero to put on display in her museum.
Kidman's turn as the film's villain is menacing but justified, something that is almost unheard of in a children's movie. Her character has motivations that are fully realized and thought out, a trick the film pulls off time and time again. That is to say, this film is a tight and concise work of fiction with all the pieces falling into exactly the right places with nary a single hanging thread to be tugged. It's solid storytelling done in a way that truly serves the quality of the source material and pays homage to past rather than sprint headfirst into a brick wall in the name of bringing Paddington into the future.
That brings us to my second question presented at the beginning of this review. Do audiences care about Paddington in 2014? I argue, before the box office tallies have been announced, that yes, there will always be a place for high quality children's entertainment. Of course, the makers of Paddington have hedged their bets by putting the CGI used to bring Paddington to life at the top of their budget. This bear looks wonderful and not once did I find myself questioning the plausibility of an animal and humans interacting as though it were perfectly normal. Of course, no one else in the film raises that question either which only bolsters the fun, cartoonish tone of Paddington.
What could have turned out being a disastrous bastardization of a classic piece of kid's literature in the vein of The Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are instead manages to be something completely unexpected: a film that effortlessly brings ideas from the past into the present day while never sacrificing what made them work in the first place. Paddington has all the charm, humor and good intentions that its hero has embodied for over five decades and is one of the best children's book adaptations since The Iron Giant. Paddington arrives in England with only a suitcase and a note that reads, "Please look after this bear." Director Paul King and everyone else involved with Paddington have done just that.
To answer the first question, yes! Paddington is a fantastic family film that manages to deliver its overall message of "families stick together" without being too cloying or sickeningly precocious in doing so. It also boasts a terrific cast featuring Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) and Sally Hawkins (Jane Eyre, Never Let Me Go) as Mr. and Mrs. Brown, the loving parents whose home Paddington finds himself being welcomed into. Bonneville's Mr. Brown is a surly, straight man, spewing some of the film's funniest lines in his deadpan English droll while Hawkins acts as the proverbial "heart" of the Brown family, always eliciting smiles rather than eye rolls. Nicole Kidman chews the scenery as the scheming villainess Millicent intent on capturing our ursine hero to put on display in her museum.
Kidman's turn as the film's villain is menacing but justified, something that is almost unheard of in a children's movie. Her character has motivations that are fully realized and thought out, a trick the film pulls off time and time again. That is to say, this film is a tight and concise work of fiction with all the pieces falling into exactly the right places with nary a single hanging thread to be tugged. It's solid storytelling done in a way that truly serves the quality of the source material and pays homage to past rather than sprint headfirst into a brick wall in the name of bringing Paddington into the future.
That brings us to my second question presented at the beginning of this review. Do audiences care about Paddington in 2014? I argue, before the box office tallies have been announced, that yes, there will always be a place for high quality children's entertainment. Of course, the makers of Paddington have hedged their bets by putting the CGI used to bring Paddington to life at the top of their budget. This bear looks wonderful and not once did I find myself questioning the plausibility of an animal and humans interacting as though it were perfectly normal. Of course, no one else in the film raises that question either which only bolsters the fun, cartoonish tone of Paddington.
What could have turned out being a disastrous bastardization of a classic piece of kid's literature in the vein of The Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are instead manages to be something completely unexpected: a film that effortlessly brings ideas from the past into the present day while never sacrificing what made them work in the first place. Paddington has all the charm, humor and good intentions that its hero has embodied for over five decades and is one of the best children's book adaptations since The Iron Giant. Paddington arrives in England with only a suitcase and a note that reads, "Please look after this bear." Director Paul King and everyone else involved with Paddington have done just that.