“He is an outsider in the world.” The little bear’s emotional plight also touches on universal themes: “We want to find a home and acceptance. “I always thought the label-look after this bear-is emblematic of what really works about him,” King said. King and producer David Heyman of the “Harry Potter” franchise told me they wanted to do a film that stood out from that feature talking animals. SEE Hugh Grant on the ‘moving’ and ‘important’ ‘Paddington 2’ and the ‘voyeuristic joy’ of ‘A Very English Scandal’ (Ironically, Colin Firth was the first actor chosen to be the voice of Paddington he now plays Whishaw’s nemesis in “Mary Poppins Returns”). In the film, Paddington find himself “adopted” by the London Brown family after they find him at Paddington station wearing a tag that says, “please look after this bear.” “Paddington” was perfectly cast with Hugh Bonneville from “Downton Abby” as the patriarch, Oscar nominees Sally Hawkins as his wife and Julie Walters as their eccentric housekeeper, and Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman as Paddington’s nemesis.īeautifully adapted and directed by Paul King (unfortunately, no relation), Paddington was brought to believable life on screen thanks to the cutting-edge effects company Framestore’s gorgeous rendering of the bear and the voice of Ben Whishaw as the sweet, innocent Paddington. Created six decades ago by Michael Bond, there had been adaptations of the tale of the bear who keeps his marmalade sandwiches in his rather scruffy hat, but the 2015 film marked the first in CGI. I really didn’t know that much about “Paddington” when I was assigned a story when I was the Los Angeles Times on the 2015 hit film, which also earned BAFTA noms and scored 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.īut I was immediately smitten with young bear from Peru who finds himself at London’s Paddington station.
Paddington 2 director free#
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