Paddington is directed by Paul King, the movie is based on the best-selling children books with the titular character. The movie adaption tells the story of a marmalade loving bear named Paddington who ends up in London looking for a family to look after him. It stars Ben Whishaw as Paddington, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville and Nicole Kidman. 

When this movie first came out, 4 years ago in 2014, I got the impression that it was a cheesy children’s movie so I skipped it. Then one day I was looking up family movies for me and my family to watch and most of the lists considered Paddington to be one the best. So I re-watched the trailer and I don’t know why but I thought it looked like a charming movie. Maybe because I had grown up a bit to not judge movies by their trailers or maybe I was in a really good mood. I first watched this movie earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. I watched it for the second this week and I noticed a couple of things which made me love it even more.

Paddington is a rare gem that deserves all the praise it got. This is a charming movie which is sure to fill even the moodiest of people with joy and warmth. I love how even though this is a family movie, it doesn’t feature funny scenes because a character in this case Paddington, is dumb. He is a fish out of water and he tries to do what he thinks is best. Another thing this movie does best is providing humor for the family not just for children. It has silly and innocent humor and it never failed to make me chuckle. It’s a movie for everyone, you can’t be too young or too old to watch this.

Whishaw breathes life into Paddington as his voice actor. He is charismatic and charming as the titular bear. Hawkins and Bonneville are great as the parents of the Brown Family. Nicole Kidman as the villain is one of the best thing I have ever seen.  She is fabulous as the taxidermist, she acts the role with class and elegance. She and Peter Capaldi (who is also in this movie) provide a lot of humorous scenes. There is something so charming and perfect about a typical British family, particularly this one, it just helps the movie all the more so with it’s personality. As a story, it’s a simple one but with the movie’s short run time of an hour and a half, there is never a dull moment.

Paddington is one of the most visually inventive movies I’ve ever seen. It amazed me watching it for the second time. There were many scenes which would typically go about one way, that being a quick cut but this movie decides to mix it up a bit. There is a scene with a projector which I was genuinely shocked to see for the first time. I did not expect this level of visual flair from a family movie. The same can be said for cinematography. One thing I noticed is the use of colour. The Brown’s house is brightly coloured, adding more to the sweet personality of the movie. Again the scene with the projector uses colour very effectively.

Finally, Paddington is certainly a movie worth watching, definitely with your family, no matter the age. It’s visual inventiveness and charming protagonist make for a fresh and adorable family movie that will be watched for generations to come.

RATING: A-