My memory of the first time I watched this film is soured by personal reasons, but surprisingly that hasn't stopped me from having a soft spot for this film, so, let's review Paddington.
This film starts off brilliantly, with black and white footage of an English expedition to Peru, and it's pretty funny. In that this film's intro kind of reminds me of Pixar films like Finding Nemo and Up, with an intro that plays with your emotions, starting off very light hearted and funny, and then very rapidly taking a dark turn, and like those Pixar films, it works. So as ever we'll start with the characters, mainly the most likable bear ever, Paddington is so damn likable, and Ben Wishaw is brilliant as Paddington, he's just such a likable character. The same can actually be said for this film's other characters, the Browns are great, Mr Brown is a boring hyper safety conscious 'risk analyst', as far as the Browns go he is the one the film focuses on the most, as he and Paddington begin to grow on each other. The rest of the family are also great though, and all of them are funny, Mrs Bird is particularly funny towards the end in my opinion. Nicole Kidman plays this film's villain, and she looked like she was having a lot of fun in the role, she's great too, menacing, but also pretty funny, she's a bit of a cartoon, but there isn't really anyone in this film that isn't, and Peter Capaldi's presence alone was enough to make me laugh, I don't know why, but he was really funny. Like I have said, repeatedly, this film is very funny, but there are no dumb kid jokes to be found, no frat or burp jokes, Paddington does have a good amount of slapstick, I do like some slapstick, so that's good, but this film is also very well written, the comedy extends to the dialogue, and that, for me, is where this film nails it, the writing is great, and that makes this film less of a kids film and more of a family film, the slapstick and cute bear will entertain the children and the funny and smart writing will entertain the grown ups. Another reason this film may resonate with adults is the feels, this film does have some emotional moments, usually of a light hearted nature, but sometimes of a much darker nature, one of which in the very beginning which is pretty rough, but it works, and it's really good to watch, maybe not fun, but definitely good. In terms of plot you can make of this film what you will, it's a pretty straightforward movie in that Paddington must find a home in London, Mr Brown must open his heart to Paddington, and Nicole Kidman is out to get Paddington. But take me for instance, I wasted my time in college doing media studies, which means I got critical theory rammed down my throat, so maybe this film may have some more subtle undertones, or maybe the brainwashing at least sort of worked.
And now for the technical, this film has some absolutely stunning special effects, yes it's obviously a CG bear, but never once did I think that while watching the film, the CG on Paddington is incredible, and Paddington himself looks really cool, a computer powered version of the same classic character, with his hat and his blue coat, and he's cute, did I mention that, he's really cute. My god I've gone soft. But for a film where the main character is CG for the whole film, it's surprising how little special effects are actually used, obviously they are used, but it's impressive how much they made this film work with a very minimal amount of it, aside from Paddington. How smart this film is doesn't just apply to the writing, and I did learn some things in media and film studies that are useful, not a lot of things, but still some things, for example diegetic and non-diegetic sound, something that is a bit of a running joke in this film, and I adore that. This film also has some really fun moments, in fact a lot of them, and in addition to making you love Paddington even more, they really are fun to watch, one example would be a scene where Paddington is trying to return someone's wallet, that scene is, like a lot of the film's more energetic moments, very over the top, but it works, and in a very charming way. Like I said earlier though, this film isn't all fun and games, the opening takes a very dark turn, and it's a scene that I love, and one of the reasons I love it is the shot, specific shot, when Paddington looks down in shock and picks up the hat, that's some dark stuff, and you know me, I like funny, I like intense, and I like dark, the film maybe lacking in the second one, but it's got enough of the third one to make you happy and more than enough of the first one to keep you amused for the entirety of this film's pretty brief runtime.
Paddington is up there with Edge of Tomorrow and Guardians of the Galaxy in my favourite films of 2014, I absolutely adore this film. Before watching it hours ago I thought about what flaws this film has, and then, while watching it, and still now, I can't think of any, it's got an extremely lovable main character, brought to life with stunning effects, a fun and likable supporting line up, lots of laughs, lots of heart, and I have to call it a masterpiece, Paddington is an absolute must watch.
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