What if Paddington were not a bear, but an actual human orphan? I ask this because Paddington bear (voice of Ben Whishaw) is treated throughout the movie as, more-or-less, an irresponsible furry person. If there’s a novelty with his speaking English, riding the train or chasing after somebody on two legs, it has gone unnoticed by producers, director, and cast. This turns out to be a wise choice; it gives the target audience [read: children] the ability to relate easily to the bear as a person even though he’s clearly a bear.
This choice also allows for patriarchal Brown family head Henry (Hugh Bonneville) to ignore the ursine waif at the station, knowing full well that to help the homeless is to invite trouble. He concedes when his family pushes. And then the first thing Henry does once he gets home is call his insurance carrier for a one-night upgrade. Your average child isn’t going to find the humor in a man calling his insurer because his family brought home a bear, but your average child might find funny when the bear turns a tooth brush encounter into a river rafting adventure entirely contained within their four-story flat. BTW, four stories doesn’t seem “flat” to me; I’ll have to look into that.
Now, why does the bear speak English? Well, because of the English exploration to Darkest Peru years ago, of course. That’s where the bears of said country learned about floppy hats, tea time and marmalade. Years later, of course, they discuss freely the inevitable trip to England over a vat of their own sugary concoction. Gotta love a do-it-yourself population – “this marmalade stuff is great! How do we make it?” Paddington isn’t Paddington at this point, of course; he acquires the name after stowing away on a liner, crossing the ocean and finding his way to Paddington Station o
n the Underground. How does a bear survive an ocean trip? With a suitcase full of marmalade, of course, and a sandwich in his hat for emergencies.
OK, now I’m a little troubled – bears that can speak English, take tea time, brew marmalade, stow away on ships, all that I can handle – but where are the bears getting sandwich bread, huh? Now that just doesn’t make sense.
Paddington was roughly 80 times better than I expected it to be. Replete with old and young humor throughout and never making us forget that bears are adorable and it sucks to be alone in foreign place. Paddington also had the best sight gag I’ve seen in several hundred movies involving the threat of an orphanage and then euphemistic version of said threat. Parents, if you have to see a movie, you can do so, so much worse.
♪Do you bring him home, oh no
Don’t you bring him home
He’s just a bear
And he’s gonna cause
Some trouble ev’rywhere
Do you bring him home, oh no
Don’t you bring him home
Ship him to Peru
But don’t you bring him home♫
Rated PG, 95 Minutes
D: Paul King
W: Hamish McColl and Paul King
Genre: Advanced pet
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Talking bears
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Patriarchs
♪ Parody inspired by “Don’t Bring It Home”
