If you watched Paddington as an animation near the end of the 90’s, you would probably remember the charming little bear full of heart in a Britain fileld with yellows, blues and browns. The 2014 live action adaptation with a computer-generated Paddington is memorable in a similar delectable way.
Paddington, an English-speaking bear addicted to marmalade, looks for a home in Britain. These two distinguishing characteristics together with the how’s and why’s of the fish-out-of-water first act are splendidly displayed with the right amount of situational comedy and bare necessities in a quarter of an hour. In that small span of time a lot has happened and would have sufficed a lengthier exposition to establish his home and relationship with his foster parents, Uncle Pastuzo and Aunt Lucy, who possess the same eccentricities with our protagonist. As the focus of the film shifts to Paddington’s trip and stay in a relatively grim human-populated society, the minimized focus of the first act is best used as a set-up for the magical realism of anthropomorphic animals and narrative elements that would later excellently pay off in the final sequences.
Transported to a place with high population density and a greater complexity of day-to-day life, Paddington sees and experiences a different London he knew and dreamt of since birth. What may seem simple in the narrative sense, the film gives it a more enchanting feel visually. Utilizing perpendicular framing, angles and symmetry that shout Wes Anderson (Grand Budapest Hotel), the differences in this new setting become more exquisite, noting how the storytelling throughout the film is more of the meaningful visuals and less of the dialogue and line delivery. The shifts to flashbacks or mere narrative exposition by the bear are visually varied yet enthralling all the same. Despite the abundance of different visual techniques employed, the consistently rich color palette and tone own all these different visual sequences, telling us that it is all the same film. Tying these all is the musical score’s responsiveness to the visual action, rendering an adventurous feel that made sure all the kids and kids-at-heart in the audience giggle in innocence.
The narrative doesn’t lose its ground nor goes all over the placeeven with the family of five’s distinct personalities: a free-spirited artist of a mother (Sally Hawkins); over-protective calculating father (Hugh Bonneville); typical pubertal daughter developing her identity (Judy Brown); curious and inventive son (Samuel Joslin). Their uniqueness and personal tribulations are all presented with just the right pacing and exposition which the film successfully wraps up naturally, and unforced. Though the individual character developments that can all be sourced from the innocence and child-like nature of our loveable and huggable bear, it is still each members’ human qualities that drive themselves to transform or rekindle their own past form. The blossoming of these characters drive the typical action-packed third act, which other adventure films fail in just being a loud show of visual cuts.
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As for the elephants in the room, the CGI and Xian Lim dub for the voice of Paddington, simply put, are excellent. The lighting and furry details are well-placed that I predict would rise the bear adoptions from our local shelters. Xian Lim’s voice has some handsome texture and his fluency and enunciation doesn’t alienate him from a film of British cast. His voice acting is not perfect though as there are times, especially in a specific scene, where the exuberant display of glee and excitement, is relatively muted from the bear. If the output is the same as the Ben Whishaw dub, this misstep might fall under the dubbing direction, if such were the case.
Paddington is also ripe with subtle social commentary from the disruption of family and human connection in a world marked with advancements or even distantly to environmentalism and the disruptive nature of imperialism. These layers though aren’t as elaborate as your stylized Studio Ghibli or Miyazaki films that reveal more with each successive viewing. The level of discussion though is appropriate to the extent Paddington’s soul is placing dents against the boxed living their society has been accustomed to.
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