For those of us who grew up in the eighties or nineties,
we’ve had to endure seeing some of our favourite children’s TV shows pulped and
dismembered until the fun, the excitement, everything we loved about them, is
absent up on the big screen (Thunderbirds,
Garfield, The Smurfs, etc.). The difference with Paul King’s film adaptation
of Michael Bond’s much loved Paddington
Bear books and TV series is that King has immeasurable amounts of respect
for his source material.
In Darkest Peru, an English explorer discovered ultra-smart
bears that could talk and were borderline obsessive over marmalade. Decades
later, an earthquake wipes out young Paddington bear’s family home. Believing that
all English people are as polite and kind as the explorer from years back,
Paddington sets off for London in the hope that a family there will look after
him.
King also wrote the screenplay for Paddington, which is a near-as-damn-it-perfect combination of eccentric
British humour, but also moments of pull-at-the-heartstrings sadness that both
children and adults will appreciate. There is so much to laugh at in Paddington, some of the jokes being both
inventive and off-the-scale bonkers (the prim-and-proper black-and-white show
reel that opens the film, showing the explorer’s encounters with the bears; Paddington
being followed round by a calypso band), but there are occasional dramatic and
sad scenes that are far from heavy handed or feel like they belong in a
different film (the earthquake is bound to scare the very young, hence the PG certificate,
while scenes where Paddington is alone at the train station he is named after,
commuters shoving past and ignoring him – far from the friendly, open armed
capital he was expecting – is lump to the throat stuff). King has done a fine
job here of keeping the gentle humour and the boundless optimism of Bond’s
books (written only years after the Second World War), but modernises Paddington just enough to make London
recognisable to today’s audience. Much of the laughs come from Paddington’s old
fashioned politeness and etiquette whenever he meets a stranger or comes across
a new situation in London’s busy streets, and while it’s the same pun much of
the time, King throws in enough ideas to make sure you never really notice.
The whole cast clearly had fun making Paddington. Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville nearly steals the show as Mr. Brown,
far from happy when his wife decides to let a bear stay at their home. Mr Brown
used to be adventurous and spur of the moment, until he became a father and
took on a job as a risk analyst to make ends meet. Bonneville gets more than
his fair share of the laughs, his po-faced asides and remarks guaranteed to
have audiences sniggering. Sally Hawkins is ideally cast as the quirky Mrs.
Brown, always beaming with optimism, epitomising many of the themes from Bond’s
books. Nicole Kidman enjoys herself, hamming it up as the film’s taxidermist
villain, having a bitchy answer for everything and following up her dialogue
with a textbook wicked smile and an evil twinkle in her eye. Doctor Who’s Peter Capaldi briefly turns
up as a nosey neighbour, relishing the one-liners he’s given. Julie Walters
turns peculiar all the way up to eleven with her performance as the Brown’s
housekeeper, Mrs. Bird, giving a brilliantly over-the-top Scottish accent along
with her barmy stare.
Star of the show is the bear himself. While not quite the
photo realism of Dawn of the Planet of
the Apes, Paddington looks as friendly and adorable as fans of Bond’s books
would expect, and will have plenty of children going “Aaawww!” There are some
impressive touches with the animation, such as when Paddington is stood out in
the rain all alone, his fur soaked, rain dripping off him, or when the Brown
children use hair dryers on him, Paddington looking like a giant hair ball. Ben
Whishaw (cast as Q in the upcoming Bond film, SPECTRE) does superb work here, lending his vocals to the marmalade-loving
bear, Paddington’s voice sounding gentle, whispery, and heart-on-his-sleeve
innocent.
It’s not just the bear who looks impressive; Erik Wilson
makes London a palette of colour for the eyes. Just as the illustrations in
Bond’s books made London this vibrant, magical-looking place, Wilson does the
same here, managing to make the capital’s streets just as awe-inspiring as Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. This is an
idealist’s view of London, where if you took away the cynicism, people would
realise that this is a capital with a dynamic mix of art, music, and different
people from all over the world.
Paddington is
a rare thing, a film adaptation of a childhood franchise that gets things absolutely
right. This isn’t a cold, cynical money maker, Paddington has warmth, humour and, while it can easily be placed in
the family film genre, every family member who watches it, however young or
old, is guaranteed to have a great big smile on their face.
4 out of 5
Matt
