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Paddington (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - Studio Canal Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (29th June 2015). |
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The Film
 Starting off with vintage style newsreel footage of the jungles of Darkest Peru, an English explorer discovers a species of bear that have high intelligence to build elaborate treehousing and also intelligence to mimic the explorer’s English language skills. The explorer introduces many things to the 2 bears he befriends including orange marmalade, which the bears have an incredible appetite towards. Cut to 40 years later, the 2 bears are older and taking care of their young nephew. Their English speaking has become fluent and their love for marmalade has created an elaborate mechanical system for making orange marmalade. But suddenly an earthquake ravages the area, destroying the treehouses and also killing the older male bear, Uncle Pastuzo (voiced by Michael Gambon). The remaining two, Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) and the young bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) travel toward a port, in which Aunt Lucy places the young bear on a freight ship that is sailing off to London, England, in order for her nephew to find a new home in London, and possibly to reunite with the English explorer. After the ship arrives in London, the young bear hops in a mailbag which gets dropped off on a platform at Paddington Station, filled with busy commuters that don’t pay any attention to him and continue to walk on by. With the train station about to close for the night, a family of four, the Brown family notices the young bear. The mother, Mrs. Brown (played by Sally Hawkins) talks to the young bear and decides to try to help him find a home. The father, Mr. Brown (played by Hugh Bonneville) is reluctant, but eventually decides to house the young bear overnight. As Mr. Brown has trouble pronouncing the young bear’s name (which is a large growl made from the back of the throat), Mrs. Brown gives the bear the name “Paddington”, naming him after the train station. The newly named Paddington is taken to Windsor Gardens to stay with the family until he could be given a proper home. This doesn’t make things better with their next-door neighbor Mr. Curry (played by Peter Capaldi), who is grumpy and very suspicious of a bear moving in next door. The Brown family consists of: The father Henry Brown, who works in risk management and is very careful about safety. He often warns everyone to be careful and gives percentages on how much of an increase certain actions lead to certain accidents. The mother Mary Brown, who is an illustrator for children’s stories, and is a very open minded woman. She immediately takes to Paddington and is a voice of trust and an open heart in the family. Daughter Judy Brown (played by Madeleine Harris) is a young teenager who has a fear of “embarrassment”. She doesn’t want her boyfriend Tony to meet her family because she is afraid what he would think of them. She is reluctant to befriend Paddington as a talking bear is “weird” and being at a new school, she doesn’t want any trouble like bullying from her peers. Son Jonathan Brown (played by Samuel Joslin) is younger than Judy, and has a keen interest in science and invention, and is eager to become an astronaut one day. He has gotten himself injured in the past due to his science experiments, which led to Mr. Brown become extremely cautious of what Jonathan could play with. Mrs. Bird (played by Julie Walters) is the housekeeper and distant relative. She is strong minded, tough, yet very caring towards the entire family. She is not surprised at all by Paddington, saying a talking bear is nothing compared to the invention of the microwave oven, which is a machine she still doesn’t trust. Paddington must learn about human culture and the modern world step by step. From how to use the bathroom facilities, how to use the escalator, or how to use cellotape, they are all complicated tasks for Paddington, in which very little things cause butterfly-effect style accidents. But when a museum director and taxidermist (played by Nicole Kidman) learns about a talking bear who has a marmalade habit, she is determined to do anything to capture him for the museum. Will Paddington be stuffed for the museum? Will he be able to get used to life in London? Why did the explorer never return to Peru to check the progress of the bears? Will Mr. Curry ever become a nice person? The character of “Paddington” was created by English author Michael Bond and first published as an illustrated children’s book in 1958 and has been a beloved character throughout England and around the world. Featuring the anthropomorphized bear with the red explorer’s hat and blue duffle coat, the numerous volumes of books have been translated into various languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Paddington’s polite way of addressing people to the innocence of discovering the simple things people take for granted were the key elements for the moral tales that were both hilarious and heartwarming. Besides books, Paddington has had television series adaptations, starting in 1975 with “Paddington” using stop motion animation with a Paddington doll with humans and backgrounds as flat cut out frames. The series ran to 1979 with occasional TV specials made afterward. In 1989 the Hanna Barbera produced “Paddington Bear” which used muted watercolor cell animation making the style look like a Paddington children’s book. Running only for 13 episodes it was very underseen and underappreciated. In 1997 saw the Canadian-French production of “The Adventures of Paddington Bear” which ran for 5 years. Although there were many talks of bringing Paddington to the movie screen, it did not happen due to creator Michael Bond’s creative control. After many years of rumors and discussion, a feature film adaptation of “Paddington” was finally set for release in late 2014, with approval by Bond (and even making a cameo appearance in the film). Alas, there was huge criticism from fans who were set that a live-action “Paddington” would ruin the legacy of the books people grew up with. With adaptations of books-to-film, we hear the comment “The book is better!” from both critics and fans, and this was no different, possibly more critical since many people who read “Paddington” as children had the stories and characters set in their minds vividly. When the posters and trailers were released, there were disastrous criticisms: the humor looked cheesy and the bear looked “weird” with the human characters. The voice casting was also big news as the original voice of Paddington was Colin Firth, who dropped out a few months prior to the expected release date, and was recast with Ben Whishaw in the role. When the film was released in the UK in late 2014, the reaction was a complete 180 from the reaction prior. Critics were extremely positive with the movie, recommending it as fun for children and also for adults. Fans were also incredibly pleased with the portrayals of the characters and getting the tone of the books right, as well as adding some unexpectedly exciting elements to the story. Elements of disastrous and comedic hijinks rival the silent film masters Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and the action scenes are choreographed amazingly. Now, not everything was exactly like the books. Uncle Pastuzo is killed at the start of the film, while in the books he is a world traveler. Judy is clearly older than Jonathan in the film but in the books it is not made clear. The plot of the museum director wanting to kidnap Paddington is an element of terror that would have never happened in the original short stories. Directed by Paul King, director of the TV series “The Mighty Boosh” and the feature film “Bunny and the Bull”, “Paddington” marks his second feature film as director. One of the biggest inspirations visually seems to be Wes Anderson, as the symmetrically framed cinemascope images, with characters looking into the camera directly (which was also a visual technique of director Yasujiro Ozu), and right angle framing. Animated illustration scenes with Mrs. Brown’s drawings and the miniature house showing the different rooms in the Brown’s house are also very reminiscent of Anderson’s films, such as the train montage of "The Darjeeling Limited" and the opening montage of "Moonrise Kingdom". An unsuspecting viewer might even mistake "Paddington" for a Wes Anderson film. Besides the visual framing and style, the CGi of the bears is outstanding. You might even forget that you are watching a computer generated character. The film also uses many instances of foreshadowing, so many key visual elements are crucial in the frame. There are some very smart and very fun visual foreshadowing elements that make things very fun on second and third viewings. The actors are also to be commended. Hugh Bonneville does an excellent Mr. Brown, and the crossdressing scene is one to die for, filled with silly suspense. Sally Hawkins is always a delight to see, but her performance as Mrs. Brown seemed to be lacking. Not because of her performance, but her character seemed to be underused. The children are very integral to the story and the young actors Madeline Harris and Samuel Joslin play the kids very effectively. Julie Walters as Mrs. Bird is a scene stealer, with the drinking scene being quite a highlight. As for the other supporting minor roles, I wish we could have seen more of the delightful Mr. Gruber, played by Jim Broadbent. The German immigrant antique shop owner was one of my favorite characters in the Paddington stories: a person who knew the difficulties of immigrating to a new country and being an extremely happy and positive friend to Paddington. He only appears in two scenes, so hopefully more will come in the inevitable sequels. Peter Capaldi playing Mr. Curry is a huge leap of difference from his portrayal of the twelfth Doctor in “Doctor Who”, playing things a bit creepy for comedy effect. Nicole Kidman plays a great villain as the museum director, showing grace and beauty but also with viciousness to her character. Ben Whishaw’s vocal talents should be commended, as he took upon the task very late in the game, but absolutely makes the young Paddington come to life with his polite and innocent words. “Paddington” surpassed all expectations and became Studio Canal’s most successful film worldwide, grossing more than US $250 million on a US $50 million budget. Let’s hope the next installment(s) will be just as good. Note: This is a Region B-locked Blu-ray disc and will only play on a Region-B or Region Free Blu-ray player.
Video
The UK Studio Canal Blu-ray of “Paddington” is framed at the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1 in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. The picture quality is pretty much perfect. The film is extremely colorful and the Blu-ray reproduces everything beautifully. The green jungles or Peru and the ripe oranges, the worn out red explorer’s hat, the brown fur, and London itself looks great. Nothing to fault here. The opening of the film with the newsreel-looking footage is in a windowboxed 1.33:1 ratio with scratches and dust, but that is the intentional look.
Audio
There are 3 options for the soundtrack: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English LPCM 2.0 stereo English Audio Descriptive LPCM 2.0 stereo The 5.1 track is extremely lively, from the opening earthquake scenes to the calypso music by D Lime and Tobago Crusoe featured throughout sound great with the 5.1 setup. Occasional popular songs like Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” and James Brown’s “I Got You” sound wonderful, as well as the unintentionally funny “Hello” by Lionel Richie, which seems to always make movie scenes funnier like it did in “Shrek Forever After” and “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. But then again the original music video of “Hello” was also unintentionally funny and also creepy, so it’s a very fitting addition to the scene featuring Mr. Curry. There are optional English HoH subtitles for the main feature.
Extras
For the extras there 3 featurettes and a stills gallery: "Meet the Characters" featurette (2:22) A very quick rundown of the main cast with interviews and film clips. It doesn’t give anything in depth so nothing very revelatory here. In 1.78:1, 1080p "From Page to Screen" featurette (3:04) This featurette has input from the director, Michael Bond’s daughter and others about adapting the character and the creation of the digital character. Again way too short. In 1.78:1, 1080p "When a Bear Comes to Stay" featurette (1:53) A featurette on the hijinks and the disaster elements. Another way too short featurette In 1.78:1, 1080p Stills Gallery (25 stills) British posters and film stills. The film stills are not behind the scenes photos, but screencap stills from the film itself. In 1080p Start-up trailers for “Shaun the Sheep Movie” (2:24), “The House of Magic” (1:57), and “Mirror Mirror” (2:20) These can be skipped, but they are not available for selection at the main menu. In 1080p, except "The House of Magic" which is in 1080i 50hz So that’s all? Where is a documentary on the creation of the CGi characters? Or a documentary on Michael Bond and the creation and history of the character? Commentary tracks? Nope. Absolutely missed opportunity with the bonus features.
Overall
“Paddington” is one of the best children’s films in recent memory and a fine adaptation of a much beloved work. The Blu-ray has great picture and great sound, but the bonus features are extremely lacking. Maybe when the sequel is released a special edition with better bonus features could be reissued.
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