(This is an old piece, but maybe we all need some Paddington right now).

The little bear from ‘Darkest Peru’ has become a staple of British culture, the love for him recently demonstrated by the small role he played in the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. He first appeared in 1958, in a book named A Bear Called Paddington, written by Michael Bond.

By the time Bond died in 2017, Paddington’s adventures totalled 29 books, numerous television incarnations and two feature films. The first of these films, Paddington (2014), directed and written by Paul King (and co-writer Hamish McColl), tells of Paddington’s arrival in London.

The Film

We begin with footage of and narration from an explorer who is visiting Peru and befriends a pair of bears. He tells them all about his home city of London and introduces them to marmalade.

‘Many years later’, the same bears (named Lucy and Pastuzo by the explorer), and their cub nephew (Ben Whishaw) are living happily in the Peruvian jungle, eagerly awaiting the ripening of the oranges so they can make marmalade. They hope to one day travel to London. That night, there is an earthquake, and Pastuzo is killed.

Lucy decides it is time for her to go to ‘the Home for Retired Bears’, and she stows the cub aboard a ship for London. Armed only with a suitcase, a single marmalade sandwich, a label round his neck reading ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you’, and some manners, the cub arrives at Paddington station and attempts to introduce himself to the bustling London commuters. He is unsuccessful.

Later, when the station is near deserted, we meet the Brown family. The father Henry (Hugh Bonneville), mother, Mary (Sally Hawkins) and children Judy and Johnathan. It is immediately evident that Judy finds her mother ‘embarrassing’ (Mrs. Brown is endearingly unconventional), and that Johnathan has to be restrained from doing things by his overprotective father (we later find out Mr. Brown is ‘a risk analyst’).

Mrs. Brown is friendly to the cub and when she finds out he doesn’t have ‘a home’ yet, offers to help him ‘find one’. This again is unsuccessful, and despite Mr. Brown’s and Judy’s protests, they take him home with them ‘for the night’ to 32 Windsor Gardens, but not before giving him the name Paddington.

At home, we meet Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters), who feels her instincts in her knees and doesn’t trust the microwave. In an incident based on the first Paddington book, Paddington accidentally floods the bathroom.

Mrs. Brown is on the hunt for the explorer who visited Lucy and Pastuzo, as Paddington thinks he might look after him. She decides that the following morning they will take Paddington’s hat (belonging to the explorer) to her friend who runs an antique shop.

We meet the villainess of the piece (Nicole Kidman, and I shall refer to her character as Kidman throughout, as the character’s name is not revealed until the end of the film), a taxidermist (and ‘Madam Director’) who works at the Natural History Museum and likes collecting rare specimens. She is determined to add Paddington to her collection.

Mrs. Brown and Paddington visit the antique shop, and Paddington inadvertently catches a pickpocket, earning him a spot in the newspaper. Judy warms up to Paddington because the pickpocket catching happened outside her school, and her classmates think Paddington is ‘awesome’.

The man at the antique shop (Mr. Gruber) examines Paddington’s hat and determines it is related to the Geographers Guild, so Mr. Brown and Paddington head there to ask about Peru. They are forced to infiltrate the place (this involves Mr. Brown disguising himself as a cleaning woman) to discover the truth. They find the piece of footage from the opening of the film, and learn that the explorer’s name is Montgomery Clyde.

Paddington is left home alone and Kidman (who has tracked him to the Brown’s house) attempts to kidnap him, but her plan is foiled when Paddington accidentally causes a fire in the kitchen.

The Browns don’t believe Paddington when he tells them of the kidnapping attempt (‘why don’t you tell us what really happened’) and Paddington, deciding that he is causing too much trouble, leaves. Mr. Brown thinks that it is for the best which upsets everyone else, prompting Mrs. Bird to tell him: ‘This family needed that wee bear every bit as much as he needed you.’

Paddington, now alone and in the rain, tracks down every address lived at by an M. Clyde and finally comes to Kidman’s house, (she is the daughter of the explorer and has vowed to collect a specimen of Paddington’s type of bear, because her father refused to do so, humiliating his family). Kidman pretends to offer him a home but takes him to the museum in a van.

The Browns find out that Paddington has been kidnapped thanks to tip off from their neighbour Mr. Curry, who has been in league with Kidman to remove Paddington from Windsor Gardens.

A daring rescue mission involving using the sewers to get inside the museum, a brainwave of Judy’s – a reference to earlier in the film when Mrs. Brown (who is illustrating a book taking place in London’s old sewers), earlier invited Judy to go exploring them with her but she was too embarrassed; potassium nitrate, (Johnathan’s idea and allowed by Mr. Brown suggesting he is no longer overprotective), and alcohol, is conducted to rescue Paddington.

In the final showdown, they are cornered by Kidman on the roof but the Brown’s refuse to give Paddington up because ‘he’s family.’ However, Paddington willingly surrenders when Kidman threatens to ‘stuff’ the entire family. Thankfully, a drunken Mrs. Bird’s timely appearance saves the day.

Paddington happily settles back into Windsor Gardens, the Brown’s organise ‘marmalade day’, and Paddington realises that he has at last found ‘a home’.

What the Audience Thought

Paddington was nominated for nine awards and won two: Best Comedy Film from the 20^th Empire Awards, and the Feature Film award from the British Academy Children’s Awards.

Empire, on their list of ‘The 100 Best British Films’ where it was placed at no. 81, called it ‘A great big hug of a movie, Paddington charmed the public and critics alike in one of the nicest surprises of 2014 […] a funny, affecting case for a kinder, more tolerant Britain.’

Rotten Tomatoes thought: ‘Paddington brings a beloved children’s character into the 21st century without sacrificing his essential charm, delivering a family-friendly adventure as irresistibly cuddly as its star.’