Title: Paddington
Director: Paul King
Writer: Paul King
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1109624/
Rating: 5/5
Source: Sun+ Sun Perks screening!

Plot:

“A young Peruvian bear with a passion for all things British travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family, who read the label around his neck (‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’) and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.”

My friend managed to get tickets to an early screening of Paddington through Sun+ which is super cool!

Funnily enough I had no interest in this film until Ben Whishaw was announced as the new voice of Paddington. Ben is one of my favourite actors so I’m always excited for anything he is in. I knew of Paddington bear with his red hat and blue duffle coat but I hadn’t read any of the stories! However, I’m definitely going to start reading them as soon as I can! 🙂

Ben has a very unique sounding voice. I’ve seen some critics describe his voice as “timeless” and I absolutely agree. His Paddington is so youthful and sweet and full of life and it just worked so well, I can’t imagine the sigh of relief the producers had when Ben took on the role. Just perfect casting.

The film is so beautiful. It’s dramatic and emotional but it’s also heartwarming and funny. Not just due to fantastic writing but the rest of the fantastic cast including Sally Hawkins, Peter Capaldi, Julie Walters, Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon.

The stand out performances, as well as Ben’s, are delivered by Hugh Bonneville and Nicole Kidman. Hugh Bonneville is a brilliant Mr Brown. Hugh Bonneville is fab overall, let’s be real. I want to watch more things with him in. The development of his character didn’t seem too rushed, which I liked as that’s often the case in family films.

I really liked Nicole Kidman’s character Millicent! She was a fab villain, she’s not someone I would’ve pictured to play a comedic villain but she was hilarious, even if her back story was very short. Then again, the film is called Paddington…

Overall this is a really fun and heartwarming family film that I would highly recommend! As soon as I was out of the screening I wanted to watch it again.
There’s some quite “adult” jokes as well (there’s been a whole big *thing* that it’s a kid’s film rated PG in the UK… like… come on it’s not that bad) so there’s some innuendo – that’s clearly for the older audience members they have to feel included too!

Oh and also so many bear puns, guys. Good ones though!

Paddington is released in the UK November 28th!