Review of Paddington (2014) by Jeff N — 21 Nov 2016

As a fan of the Paddington books and the uniquely animated television series in the 1970s and 80s (Paddington was a stop-motion puppet while he interacted with drawings of the other characters), I should have been the target audience for this film, along with my children, assuming I had any young enough to be interested in the film.

The days I spent watching Paddington on "Calliope," which, in turn, made me want to send the show a letter and my picture, which they aired, are sweet childhood memories I have. So to say I was excited about this film is an understatement.

While the trailers made the movie look awful, it does redeem itself a bit by retaining some of the serious tone of its original content, which I always loved. However, for the most part, this is a remake of "Stuart Little" in the vein of "Home Alone," and thus, ridiculous for Paddington fans.

Yes, Paddington always had misadventures, but the idea of a villainous character, played by Nicole Kidman, being a part of the misadventures just loses the magic for me. Paddington still comes across as a child-like bear who makes honest child-like mistakes, I simply cannot shake the dumb villain element.

Maybe this element was needed to create a movie-length story, but that's why it was so hard to tell a story of Paddington in film and why it's taken so long to do so.