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Nicole Kidman has a lot of fun as the villain in Paddington
B+The funniest and most charming family Christmas movie of 2014 wasn’t actually released in 2014. Instead, for some reason, while the studios paraded Annie and the latest Night at the Museum movie before parents, Paddington was delayed and dumped into theaters in the annual January burial ground. Fortunately, this gives parents something to enjoy along with their children through the rest of the winter.
Based on the popular children’s books, Paddington is the story of a young talking bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) whose aunt sends him to London to find a new home. He is taken in, temporarily at first, by kindly Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins) and her more cautious husband Henry (Hugh Bonneville), who is concerned about Padington’s tendency to get into trouble. Naturally, however, Henry eventually has a change of heart, especially after Paddington is bearnapped by the director of the Natural History Museum (Nicole Kidman), who thinks that a stuffed and mounted Paddington will make a prize exhibit.
Paddington is that rare family film that is genuinely warm and charming without pandering, and it doesn’t hit viewers over the head with its lessons about family. Some of the slapstick humor will be too childish for adults, but director Paul King lets the set pieces play out slowly, letting Paddington gradually get himself into an even bigger mess. He also includes a number of quite clever jokes aimed squarely at the adults in the audience. Plus, from a technical standpoint, the CGI work is nearly flawless; the computer-generated Paddington blends in smoothly with the live actors. Paddington is one movie whose trailers don’t do it justice; it more than bears watching by viewers of all ages.
Continue reading on Paddington: Mini-Review
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