Film Review -- Paddington

     Some films are great, some are not. This one is great. Paddington is a lovely family film that will be remembered for a long time. I put Paddington in my No. 2 spot for my most anticipated films of the year, and this film did not disappoint.

     The cast works together so beautifully, they all portray their characters so well, what ever stage of their evolution that they may be in. Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris work together well as a family. Some times child-actors can't act as well as their adult counterparts, but this film was an exception. The Browns felt real. I would not have been surprised if they really were family. Julie Walters' Mrs. Bird was one of the best parts of the entire film. She was funny, but yet not stupid. Nicole Kidman did well as the villain, and Peter Capaldi was really fun to watch as he fumbled his way around the film as Mr. Curry.

    I always find that really obvious CGI ruins a movie, but this CGI was great. The relationship between the physical world and the animated bears was so seamless, despite having a 55 million dollar budget. 55 million mat seem like a lot, but when you consider films like The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies had a 250 million dollar budget and the CGI look poor, that is quite impressive. 

     I liked the tone of this movie. It had a couple serious moments, and the action always felt tense, but it still didn't take itself very seriously (in a good way!). I liked how this film felt more like a British Comedy than an American one, the Brits always funnier. The american family movies sometimes have really funny parts, but most of the time they go for stupid fart jokes. The Brits seem more edgy, but the way they handle it makes it so much fun. Because this movie has British comedy, Mrs. Bird can have an alcohol drinking contest with someone, but if this was an American comedy, she wouldn't do that without people being upset.

     I think this film could have been a little longer. It told a really great story, but I feel like we could have seen a little more of Paddington and the rest of the world. But other than that small note, this film was fantastic I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good time with their family and will give this film a proud %95.   

Paddington Info:

Release Date: November 23rd, 2014 (UK), January 16th, 2015 (US and Canada)

Rating: PG (USA), Not Rated (Canada)

Director: Paul King

Starring: Hugh Bonneville as Mr. Brown, Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Brown, Julie Walters as Mrs. Bird, Samuel Joslin as Jonathan Brown, Madeleine Harris as Judy Brown, Nicole Kidman as Millicent, Peter Capaldi as Mr. Curry and Ben Whishaw as Paddington