Review of Paddington 2 (2017) by Douglas C — 17 Jan 2018

"Paddington 2" finds our fluffy, plucky protagonist finally settling in to a cozy home life with the Brown family. Between engaging the town with oodles of pleasantness and getting a handle on a domesticated life by cleaning his ears with electric tooth brushes and eating pounds of his signature marmalade sandwiches, Paddington feels right at home.

However, his peaceful existence is upended by Hugh Grant's past-his-prime actor Phoenix who, after a pretty successful career has settled into a moribund professional career doing commercials. Paddington, meanwhile, is aching to see his Aunt Lucy again and wants to give her the perfect present: a London pop-up book.

But this book is particularly special and, as the film masterfully unfolds we get elements of Toy Story meets Escape from Alcatraz that forms a zainy, buck wild adventure that takes the viewer to splendid flights of fancy.

The other interesting aspects of this film include a multitude of animation styles. From hand drawn animation to CGI and the latest puppetry FX, the look of the film feels very lived in and the styles, although overlapping, never feel out of place.

Instead, you get completely absorbed into Paddington's candy-colored world. Paul King, the director from the first go-around from 2014, returns to helm this movie and he definitely goes bigger here.

The fact that he infuses this film with what made Michael Bond's books so timeless and then some is really a sight to behold. This is certainly an all-ages film with many ingenious sight gags and high flying set pieces to keep the kiddies and adults entertained alike.