I’m pretty sure everybody that wants to watch this movie in theaters may have already—I don’t always rush out to review films about animated bears—so I’ll keep this brief and get to more current reviews later in the day…
What Works: “Paddington” the movie is a lot like the title character: warm, affectionate, and appealing old-fashioned but just a little bit slyer than you might expect. Although you can pretty much tell where the film is going, it keeps finding ways to add just a little bit more juice to a scene than you were expecting like cutaways, funny flashbacks, and my personal favorite of imagining the family in a a life-size dollhouse. Nicole Kidman may be taking a career downgrade as the villain in a family movie, but she’s weirdly fascinating, doing a strange cross between her stepford wife character and Cruella DeVille. And, of course, it’s nearly impossible not to like Paddington-the-character. If you don’t root for him to escape being killed, then report yourself to the police immediately for any future crimes you are sure to commit.
What Doesn’t: The movie isn’t very long, but it still begins to drag towards the final third. There maybe should have been just a little bit more going on to fill out the film’s 96 minutes, but why pick apart something that kids will surely enjoy? And parents could do a lot worse, by the way, as I’m sure anyone who’s sat through the recent Sponge Bob movie can testify to.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Maybe reviewed this movie back in January when people were still interested in it, but the true audience for “Paddington” will be at home when kids can watch it over…and over, and over…