A British explorer found two anthropomorphic bears in the Peruvian jungle and told them they are always welcomed in London. Decades later, after an earthquake kills one of the bear, Pastuzo, the other, aunt Lucy, decides to take the explorer on his word and sends nephew Paddington via a ship to London. Once there, Paddington is lost, but is taken pity by the Brown family who take him in: Mary and her children Judy and Jonathan love the bear, but father Henry is annoyed because he is causing too much trouble. Having only the red hat as a clue to the identity of the explorer, Paddington finds out the latter died years ago, but his daughter, taxidermist Milicent, wants to stuff him in her collection of stuffed animals in a museum, resenting her father for refusing to harm the bears. The Browns save Paddington, and ultimately keep him at their home.
One of the freshest comedies of the decade, "Paddington" is a surprisingly superior feature length film adaptation of the otherwise too bland eponymous children books, surpassing them with some outstanding jokes thanks to the delicious sense for humor of the director and writer Paul King. It is remarkable how many creative and charming little wacky gags were inserted into this simplistic storyline, and many "serious" film directors would have tried to talk King out of doing them, but King did them anyway, and crafted a tsunami of charm that simply floods the entire film with positive energy. There is no need to analyse this too much, since almost everyone has a childish side that needs some anarchic fun once in a while, especially when the jokes are so good. Unlike Gerwig's "Barbie", whose themes took over the entire film, to such an extent that they shoved every other feature out of their way, "Paddington" effortlessly and naturally blends in its more subversive themes and messages in the story (illegal immigrants; fleeing a war-ravaged country to seek asylum abroad; universal emotions and empathy shared by different races), but the viewers will never feel bothered nor think they were forced upon them.
In one of those jokes, Jonathan is apprehensive when hearing that Paddington might be sent to an orphanage, and then a bleak frame of a dark, derelict building in the rain shows up with the title on the gate saying "Orphanage". His father, Mr. Brown, assures him it's alright, since it's not an orphanage, but rather an "institution for young souls whose parents have sadly passed". Cue to the identical bleak frame of said derelict building, just with a different title on the gate. In one highly inventive sequence, the villain, Milicent (Nicole Kidman) enters the Brown home "Mission Impossible"-style, but accidentally causes a gas leak. As Mr. Curry looks down through the window, a petal from a flower on his suit falls and causes a chain reaction in the house: the petal falls on a mouse trap, activates it, which catapults a cheese crumb into a vase, which falls and catapults a ladle, which in turn pushes a jar that falls on the stove, activates the flame, and causes an explosion in the kitchen. The comical episode where Mr. Brown takes on the clothes of a cleaning lady to secretly sneak into a database headquarters, so a guard checks "her" ID photo, causing Mr. Brown to improvise that he lasered a wart from the cheeck and got a prosthetic arm. There is enough time invested into character development of the four Brown family (which was sadly neglected in "Paddington 2"), who all get enough space to develop, but the movie does get less funny the longer it lasts, since a certain coerced tone is imposed in the last third. Nontheless, "Paddington" shows that kids movies can be equally as fun as grown up films, if the authors take their job or writing inspired jokes seriously.
Grade:++
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