Paddington

Image credit: Amazon UK

I have a definite soft spot for children’s films; who doesn’t like revisiting the movies of their childhood and watching new ones as they come out? Having been holed up with a stomach bug this week, I indulged in this little pleasure of mine by checking out Paddington; a film that received a lot of praise when it came out in 2014 and which I never got around to seeing.

This cute family movie tells the story of a young Peruvian bear who travels to London after his home is destroyed in an earthquake, gets very kindly taken in by a slightly dysfunctional family, and then proceeds to get up to all sorts of mishaps and shenanigans in his attempts to fit in. Meanwhile, there is an evil museum curator out to kidnap and stuff him for an exhibit.

Honestly, I’m not familiar with the Paddington character, but I could still appreciate this movie for what it was: a simple and sweet family film that I’m never going to watch again. Perhaps people who were raised on the Paddington stories will get more out of it, but for me this movie relied way too heavily on its central character and, undoubtedly, the nostalgia that a modern remake would ensue.

While the animation of the Paddington character is impressive and modern, the film suffers from under-developed characters and relationships, a simple and uninspiring plot with (almost annoyingly) recognisable themes of acceptance, identity, and family, and only a handful of jokes that get a giggle. 

Image credit: BuzzFeed

To be fair, I was feeling pretty rotten when I watched it so my lack of one laugh throughout this movie could be argued as having been due to the lurgy, but I still feel that a good movie should be able to take you away from the discomforts of life for a time, and sadly this movie did not.

At the end of the day, I found Paddington aesthetically cute, but mostly boring and have no real desires to watch the sequel.

Director: Paul King, 2014

Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Matt Lucas, Julie Walters, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, and Nicole Kidman