The increasing villainy of the ‘90s rom-com darling, all the way through the “ Bridget Jones” movies and culminating here, is truly a joy to behold. Just as Nicole Kidman clearly relished camping it up as the evil taxidermist hunting Paddington in the first film, Hugh Grant wallows flamboyantly in this character’s delusional theatricality. (You can see the wheels turning, but it’s still hilarious to watch them fall off every time.) But he isn’t the only one who has his eye on it.Ī washed-up actor turned dog-food pitchman with the dashing name of Phoenix Buchanan also wants the book to explore its hidden secrets for his own nefarious purposes. So Paddington takes a series of odd jobs to raise the money to buy the book-and King meticulously crafts the set-ups to the inevitable meltdowns that occur with each new gig. But when the pages of the pop-up book come to life through a variety of animated styles-and Paddington finds himself wandering through them as he tells the story of Aunt Lucy’s love for London-it’s transporting both visually and emotionally.) His antics may be wild but they’re always grounded from a visual perspective. Paddington’s fur is vividly tactile, and his immersion in this live-action world is absolutely seamless. (The pop-up book sequence is THE highlight in a film filled with dazzling special effects. Gruber ( Jim Broadbent), he knows he’s found the ideal item to express his love for the woman-er, mama bear- who raised him. When he discovers an intricate, vintage pop-up book of London in the antique store owned by old pal Mr. He is a vital member of the community: helping forgetful neighbors, running errands for friends and generally making everyone’s day a little brighter.īut back in Peru, his dear Aunt Lucy (voiced once more by Imelda Staunton, part of the formidable cast of veteran British actors) is about to turn 100, and Paddington wants to buy her the perfect gift. Paddington (voiced again in pleasingly soothing tones by Ben Whishaw) has now settled comfortably into his new life in Windsor Gardens with the Brown family: mother and father Mary and Henry ( Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville), daughter and son Judy and Jonathan ( Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin), and their longtime housekeeper, Mrs. Returning director Paul King, working from a script he co-wrote with Simon Farnaby (and based on Michael Bond’s beloved book series), once again depicts a London that’s colorfully picturesque but also fraught with adventure and danger. And the allegory about immigration it offers is, sadly, more necessary than ever in the post-Brexit, post-Trump world in which we live. Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.Three years later, “Paddington 2” proves the smart-but-sweet combination that marked the first live-action film was no fluke.
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