Paddington 2014
Somehow I missed this movie when it came through in 2014, then in 2017 a sequel was released that also got very good reviews and I wanted to see it, eventually catching it on Netflix. I never got into the Paddington books as a kid, so I had no idea what it was about except for a cute bear. The movie gives the origin story of how Paddington ends up with a family in London. A lot of it is kind of standard stuff you would expect from a book for kids, but there is a very sharp sense of humor that makes the movie stand out. The cast is almost unnecessarily good, with a number of British heavyweights. The animation of the CGI title character is kind of uneven, sometimes cartoonish, sometimes very good. They don’t lay the emotion on too thickly, but it is there, and the big conflict while kind of horrific (Nicole Kidman wants to kill and stuff Paddington for a museum exhibit), plays out about as expected, but really the movie is more about Paddington and his family and the conflict doesn’t get going until about the second half of the movie. I wish there was a little more substance to it, but it is very enjoyable to watch.
Written: 26 Aug 2018
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital