Paddington

2014 bear movie

Rating: 15/20 (Jen: 13/20; Dylan: 20/20 [only halfway paying attention and gave it a 20 because of one line that he liked]; Buster: no rating)

Plot: A young bear from Darkest Peru takes his uncle's hat and heads to London in search of an explorer who once befriended his family.

I was curious to know what else the director of this had done. Paul King's only made one other movie--Bunny and the Bull, one that I really liked. He also directed 20 episodes of the entertaining and wacky television show The Mighty Boosh. Paddington is quite a bit different from those. It's still really English, and there's still some quirky humor, but this one's safe enough for children.

Still, I was worried about watching it because I couldn't make it through the televised trailers without laughing uncontrollably. Part of me wanted to see this on the big screen, but I wasn't sure I was mature enough. Not that I would have committed some sort of Pee Wee Herman atrocities or anything, but I might have. That would have been bad for my career. "Indianapolis teacher arrested after masturbating during CGI bear movie."

The movie wasn't quite the orgasmic experience that I expected, but there were moments when both Buster and I laughed at the same time, a beautiful thing. Paddington's a stranger in a strange land which creates some of the humor, and some of the dialogue, especially when the family first encounters the poor fellow at the train station, is pretty funny. There's some subtlety to the visual gags that I liked.

I wish the story was a little better and a little less predictable. The merging of a pair of stories feels familiar, and even the two types of stories that are being merged seems like something I've seen before. You've got a story about a talking bear, one that nobody seems to think is as strange as it really should be, trying to find a new home, finding the exact family you know he'll probably end up with, and then meeting resistance from one of the family members. And you've got Nicole Kidman's character--saucy villain--who comes along and is up to no good. It's nice seeing her having a little fun, and I'm kind of surprised at how natural she plays the villain. And man, she's still so statuesque and stunning. It was nice to see the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, playing a sort of bumbling neighbor who gets caught in the middle of things, too. The story here doesn't go anywhere you don't think it will. It's safe and comfortable.

But in a way, I'm glad they kept things safe and comfortable. I'm not all that familiar with Paddington children's books, but I remember them being very simple. When Jen saw previews of this, she shrieked, "What did they do to Paddington?" Surprisingly, a modern studio didn't really do anything to him. He's still the mild-mannered and slightly naive bear I remember from the books. There's not a fart joke in sight. In fact, if the bear wasn't so cute, I'm not sure this would really attract the attention of 21st Century children. And I think that makes me like the movie better. Sure, there are some slapsticky moments where Paddington's flooding a bathroom or accidentally stopping a pickpocket, but it doesn't clash with the quieter moments in the story. Of course, there are a few moments when more modern songs are used ("I Feel Good" and the much-overused "Born to Be Wild" and Mission: Impossible theme song) which I hate because it does clash with the nostalgic, more fairy-tale tone of this little adventure, one that feels like it takes place in a more timeless, fictionalized London. But I guess that's a minor quibble.