Paddington

The first kiddie movie of 2015 is here and it draws itself from a 1997 series of children’s books called “The Adventures of Paddington Bear”.  It was probably only a matter of time before the little bear from Darkest Peru found its way to the silver screen.

Somewhere in the previous century an explorer of the name Montgomery Clyde (Tim Downie) stumbled onto a family of bears in the deepest darkest jungles of Peru.  Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) and Lucy (Imelda Staunton) stay in their tree house along with their nephew.  They are an extremely intelligent species and in fact with the help of Clyde, they also manage to pick up English.

The primary purpose of Clyde’s expedition was to collect specimens of as many species as possible.  However, he doesn’t have the heart to uproot the bear family and he returns home empty handed only to lose his honorary membership of the Geographers Guild.  Meanwhile the Bear family is all but eliminated in an earthquake.  Aunt Lucy puts her nephew in a ship bound for London and checks herself into the home for retired Bears.

Our kid bear eventually finds his way to a London station where he eventually bumps into the Brown Family who take him in much to the chagrin of Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville).  But Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) is her usual kind and considerate self and not only takes him in but also christens him “Paddington”.  And the adventure begins.

Paddington is an absolute treat for kids because they will enjoy the non-stop adventure that would be described by most of us adults as nonsense.  But the dozen kids who found their way into the preview screen a few days back were ballistic with joy.  It would take a person to pull themselves to the level of a 5 year old to thoroughly enjoy this movie.

Once you do that, you are in for a treat.  There is adventure in the form of overflowing bathrooms and chases through the streets of London with props that include skateboards and an umbrella. There is homage to Mission Impossible with none other than Nicole Kidman who seems to be getting stereotypical negative roles since she did Golden Compass.

You must take your kids along with you this weekend to watch this one.  Be prepared to screaming and shrieking and the unrealistic demand of Paddington merchandise and marmalade sandwiches at the end of it all.  Hopefully the makers of the movie would have identified India as a solid market for the same.  If not, you may get away with just showing your kids the movie.  6 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi706391833/?ref_=tt_ov_vi