Britflix: Paddington

Paddington Bear is one of the most popular bears in children’s fiction, a status propelled by the live-action film series that started in 2014.

In deepest, darkest Peru, a British explorer (Tim Downie) meets and befriends two bears, Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) and Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton). He teaches them English and the wonders of London. Many years later their nephew (Ben Whishaw) journeys to the British capital and meets the Brown family who name him Paddington. The Browns help Paddington to find the explorer, but the bear is being hunted by Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman) who wants to stuff him and put him on display in the Natural History Museum.

When I first heard that a film was being made about Paddington into a film my first thought was ‘really’? How can the short stories be translated into a feature film? Nor was I impressed by the first trailer that focused on the scene when Paddington destroys the Brown’s bathroom. However, my cynicism was unfounded since the first two Paddington movies have been recognised as classic family films.

Paddington was produced by David Heyman, who made his name by producing the Harry Potter movies and this should have been the reason I should have been hopeful. He has produced some excellent films like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Gravity, and Testament of Youth, and post-Paddington filmography included Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Marriage Story, Barbie, and Wonka. He’s a risk taker and many gambles have paid off. The writing and directing duties went to Paul King who was known at the time for directing the surreal comedy series The Mighty Boosh and the quirky and unusual comedy Bunny and the Bull. Paddington made King into an in-demand director. He was offered the chance to direct Wonder but chose to make Paddington 2 instead.

King gave the Paddington movies a lot of their personality. He was from a surrealist background which led to Paddington having some wonderful visuals and gags like the Brown’s home turning into a model, a cutaway gag when Mr. Brown suggested taking Paddington to an alternative to an orphanage, and Mr. Gruber’s (Jim Broadbent) arrival in England. There was a quirky, Britishness to the film, starting with the film showing the explorer and it continued from there. The film wanted to be a celebration of London as Paddington navigated a load of fish-out-of-water scenarios.  The humour was brilliant throughout and carried to all ages. There was physical and visual humour that would appeal to the kids like the bathroom scene and Paddington’s raid of The Geographers Guild, to more adult-orientated jokes like Judy (Madeleine Harris) learning Chinese.

I saw Paul King speak at the London Screenwriting Festival in 2015 and he talked about how he wrote Paddington. King said he was influenced by the Pixar film Up and the setup for Paddington was similar since the main character suffers from a tragedy and goes off on an adventure to a place he longs to go to. The plot of Paddington was an inversion of Up since it took a jungle creature to the city instead of the city dweller going to the jungle and the villains in both films wanted to find and kill a creature so they could prove its existence.

The other point King raised in his talk was the impact of Paddington on others. Paddington didn’t change since he always kept his virtues of kindness and politeness, but he impacted the lives of others. The Browns were a divided family before Paddington arrived. Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) was an overly cautious man who was so protective of his family that he was a bit of a killjoy. He had to learn to let go and lower his barriers. There was a riff between Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) and Judy since Judy suffered from embarrassment and wanted to avoid her parents. The climax of the film was about the Browns coming together to save Paddington and using their special skills to save the bear. Mr. Brown made an impassioned speech that was highly emotive as he told the villain that Paddington was a part of the Brown family.

Paddington has ended up being an influential film since other family films have tried to copy the principal idea that a creature improves the lives of the people around them. This happened to the adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog and Lyle Lyle Crocodile, although those American movies didn’t match the quality of the Paddington movies.

Paddington was a charming film that had plenty of personality. Paddington deserves its reputation as a modern classic, both as a family film and a British film.