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'€˜Paddington'€™ sends a warm message for the holidays

(Courtesy of Heyday Films, StudioCanal)Arriving in time for the start of the holiday season, the most huggable bear in children’s stories has appeared in the newly released movie Paddington, as well as a strong merchandise line

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, December 28, 2014

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'€˜Paddington'€™ sends a warm message for the holidays (Courtesy of Heyday Films, StudioCanal) (Courtesy of Heyday Films, StudioCanal)

(Courtesy of Heyday Films, StudioCanal)

Arriving in time for the start of the holiday season, the most huggable bear in children'€™s stories has appeared in the newly released movie Paddington, as well as a strong merchandise line.

The anthropomorphized bear '€” meaning he appears to have a human personality '€” speaks British English and was the creation of BBC TV cameraman Michael Bond, who was inspired by the teddy bear he bought as a Christmas gift for his wife in 1956.

The teddy, so he said, sat alone on a shelf in a store near Paddington station, London.

The first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was first published on Oct. 13, 1958, by William Collins & Sons and has been followed by countless books and TV series ever since.

Who wouldn'€™t fall for a well-mannered brown bear in a red hat and blue duffel coat that lives on marmalade? The Browns wouldn'€™t, at least not at first sight.

The movie, directed by Paul King (Come Fly With Me, The Mighty Boosh), tells the story of the young bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) in Darkest Peru where he lives with his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) and Uncle Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) in a tree house.

An earthquake forces them to shelter underground and Pastuzo disappears. Aunt Lucy decides to spend the rest of her days in the retirement home for bears in Lima and to send young Pastuso (not to be confused with his uncle) to London.

Pastuso smuggles his way onto a safe boat and eventually arrives at Paddington station with three items: a battered suitcase with a secret compartment (wanted on the voyage, indeed), a label reading '€œPlease look after this bear. Thank you'€ and an emergency marmalade sandwich kept under the old red hat that belonged to his uncle.

Aunt Lucy sent the young bear to England to meet the original owner of the hat, a British anthropologist who, in a chance encounter, introduced the Peruvian bears to human civilization and promised them a warm welcome in London.

Alas, all he knew about the explorer was the bear pronunciation of his name, which sounded like a high-pitched growl to humans.

Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and his wife Mary (Sally Hawkins) are at the station with their son Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) to pick up daughter Judy (Madeleine Harris) when they spot the bear at the Lost and Found area.

Intrigued by a speaking bear looking for a home, they named him after the station and brought him to their home at 32 Windsor Garden for the night before looking for the owner of the hat.

Henry was apparently prepared for a bear in the house as he immediately rearranged his insurance scheme right before the curious Paddington caused a series of incidents around the house.

The original plan of a one-night stay became longer as the whole family, including nanny and housekeeper Mrs. Bird, helped Paddington in his adventure to find Montgomery Clyde, the lost anthropologist.

All is fun until obsessed taxidermist Millicent (Nicole Kidman) finds out about the rare species.

Kidman'€™s character is the kind of on-screen villain who does everything with a smile. She schemes with bad-tempered neighbor Reginald Curry (Peter Capaldi) to capture Paddington.

The comedy-drama has brought the children'€™s story to life through the work of producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter series, Gravity) with help from a smooth combination of computer-generated imaging and animatronics created by the Oscar-winning special effects team behind Harry Potter and Gravity.   

The artistic works were stunning, especially the setting of the antique store owned by Samuel Gruber (Jim Broadbent).

The movie itself has lots of messages other than '€œIf life throws you an orange, make marmalade'€ (not sure about the health issues behind that, but a Marmalade Day sounds fun).

It also brings the audience on a sightseeing trip around London through the eyes of newcomer Paddington at the expense of Mr. Brown, who has to pay a higher taxi fare because Paddington is with him.

The creator, now 88, appears in a cameo, raising his glass to Paddington as the taxi passes by.

British ambassador to Indonesia, Moazzam Malik, who attended the media premier with his family, hoped the beautiful scenes of London in the movie would inspire Indonesians to travel to the UK. '€œIt also sends a message of how we welcome strangers, people who are different than us.'€

As Paddington himself says: '€œIn London nobody is the same, which means everyone fits in.'€

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Paddington
(95 minutes)
Director: Paul King
Producer: Heyday Films, StudioCanal
Screenplay: Paul King, Hamish McColl
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman, Ben Whishaw

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