Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
AFTER charming the nation since 1958, Britain’s favourite furry fuzz ball gets his first live-action cinematic outing. That’s right, Paddington Bear has made it to the big screen!
Donning his tattered hat, battered suitcase and trusty duffel coat, our marmalade-obsessed anthropomorphic friend nestles his way into our hearts with an adventure filled with mischief, humour and charm.
In a prologue eerily reminiscent of the prologue of Pixar’s Up, the film opens with a black-and-white newsreel montage of an explorer from Great Britain trawling through Peru (deepest, darkest Peru, of course!), where he stumbles across a peculiar family of bears with the ability to talk.
After the explorer leaves them with a pot of marmalade, vinyl records detailing life in London and an open invitation to visit whenever they like, events fast-forward to the present day and the family – Aunt Lucy, Uncle Pastuzo and their as-yet unnamed nephew – are celebrating Marmalade Day. However, disaster strikes as an earthquake hits and Uncle Pastuzo is lost.
Lucy cannot look after the young bear on her own, so she smuggles him aboard a freighter bound for London equipped with a tag around his neck saying ‘Please look after the bear, thank you’. What follows is very similar to the original source material, with the bear being found by the Brown family and named ‘Paddington’ after the train station where they discovered him.
Of course, the meaty part of the film details the bear’s tribulations as he tries to integrate himself into completely different surroundings with a population that seems far less welcoming than originally expected. In fact, it’s a remarkably close-to-the-bone topic in 2015 where immigration is frequently the hot issue, and it presents a fascinating analogy for adults and the world-conscious. For kids, however, they’ll just enjoy the slapstick fun and charming visual gags as they come.
The relationship between Paddington and the Brown family is a fascinating one that will melt even the coldest of hearts. Mrs Brown is the eccentric mother who instantly falls for his charm, while the two children are initially sceptical but are soon captivated by his clumsy demeanour.
However, it’s Mr Brown (by far the film’s best human character, played wonderfully by Hugh Bonneville) that proves a very tough nut to crack. As a risk assessor by trade, he views the bear’s presence as a disaster waiting to happen (a perspective not helped by Paddington flooding the whole house moments after stepping in the door!) and is determined to hand off the clumsy mammal to the authorities to deal with.
He’s not the only one who isn’t so enamoured with Paddington either, as Nicole Kidman’s Cruella de Vil-esque taxidermist baddie tries to hunt him down to add him to her collection of exotic animals on display at the Museum of Natural History. She’s largely by-the-numbers, designed as a focal point to strengthen the emotional bond between Paddington and the Browns, but it provides a sense of peril that keeps the film ticking along nicely.
As for Paddington himself, the special effects team have done a great job bringing the iconic mammal to life. Every strand of hair is rendered with the utmost care and attention, while his eyes and facial expressions often convey emotion just as well as Whishaw’s polite, endearing voice. The slightly cartoony look of Paddington doesn’t try too hard to be realistic, which gives the film an engrossing fantasy quality, but at the same time is lifelike enough to extract healthy dollops of empathy.
Paddington is quintessentially British, obviously with the setting but also dripping from the characters’ dialogue and attitudes. In that sense, the film’s jokes may strike more of a note with the kingdom’s expat adults rather than locals (unless twenty different ways of saying ‘it’s raining’ in a stoic, resigned manner appeals to you!), but kids of all nationalities will find much to love here.
If Paddington is an early indication of the quality of films we can expect in 2015, then it’s going to be an extremely fruitful year. Filled with hilarious comedy, engrossing visuals, loveable characters and an overarching theme of love and acceptance, it’s a must-see for all ages.
