YMMV / Paddington 2

• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Phoenix incriminates Paddington in court, he suggests that the law have mercy on him. While his usual hammy delivery suggests that he's merely milking the situation to make himself the center of attention, it could be seen as a genuine, if half-hearted, appeal to have Paddington's sentence lightened as a form of amends for framing him.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: When the neighborhood comes together to help the Browns start their car to go save the day. This is called a clutch start, a nearly lost skill in this age of nearly universal automatic transmission.
• Even Better Sequel: No mean feat: the first Paddington was, against all odds, universally beloved by fans and critics alike. But this one achieved a very rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes within the first week of its release, and from April 2020 to May 2021, it was the best reviewed film ever on Rotten Tomatoes, with 244 positive reviews and not a single negative one at the time. ^note The film's perfect 100% score was eventually spoiled by one negative review written over three years after the film's initial release by a reviewer who seemed to be gunning for it specifically because of its perfect score. Even one negative review prevents the film from having a 100% score, even if 246 positive reviews out of 247 mean it's 99.6% positive, Rotten Tomatoes doesn't round up.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • With Peter Rabbit. Both films are adaptations of beloved British children's books starring talking animals, and combine CGI characters with live-action actors and settings (and even star Gleesons to boot), but while the Paddington movies are praised for being faithful to the books and being delightful and sincere films, Peter Rabbit is reviled for doing the exact opposite with the source material and for being made by Sony Pictures Animation of then-recent The Emoji Movie infamy. Cooled off a bit when Peter Rabbit, while not as acclaimed as Paddington, ended up with largely positive reviews, even if the faithfulness to the book remained in question. And while Paddington 2 fans still scorned Peter over its bigger financial success, the sequel The Runaway ironically wound up taking a similar box office drop to Paddington 2.
  • One briefly occurred with Citizen Kane of all films, after Paddington 2 ended up replacing it as the best reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes after Citizen Kane was kicked off due to a negative review from 1941, which led to plenty of jokes (and serious comments) on the film being better than Citizen Kane, and some getting angered that one of the most beloved classic films of all time had been displaced by a kids film all because of one review. This has since died down however, as Paddington 2 would receive the same fate as Citizen Kane over a year later.
• Magnificent Bastard: Phoenix Buchanan is a hammy, flamboyant and egotistical former actor who now secretly works as a thief. Using his charm and intelligence, Phoenix manages to fool the people of Windsor Gardens and got Paddington falsely arrested for stealing a pop-up book from Mr. Gruber's antique store. Phoenix is then seen scoping around London looking for parts of a code to reveal deceased circus' performers treasure. At the end of the film, when he is arrested, Phoenix is gleefully seen spreading his love for theatre with his cellmates as they all perform a number.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Variations on "Paddington fixed the prison-industrial complex" is one of the most common selling points of the movie online.
  • Paddington 2 is better than Citizen Kane.^note In April 2020, Citizen Kane, a film many considered to be one of the greatest films ever made and originally the best reviewed movie on Rotten Tomatoes at 100%, was kicked off from the spot after a negative review from 1941 surfaced, with Paddington 2 replacing it as the site's best reviewed film, which led to many jokes that the film is better than Citizen Kane. This has since become a Discredited Meme, as Paddington 2 would also get kicked off the spot over a year later in a similar fashion.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Joanna Lumley is only on screen for about five minutes as Phoenix's Campy agent, yet of course you remember her.
  • Richard Ayoade gets a cameo as a forensic investigator, bringing his usual flavor of understated ham.
• Retroactive Recognition: The boy that Jonathan greets at the circus is played by Louis Partridge who would be later known for playing Viscount Tewksbury and dating Olivia Rodrigo.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: From its delightful humor to the entire cast gleefully hamming it up and having the time of their lives doing so to absolutely wonderful finale, this film is an absolute joy from start to finish and the ending is guaranteed to leave you with pleasant dreams and tears of happiness.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Browns accidentally missing Paddington's visit. This breaks him and makes him think they've forgotten him.
    • Following this, Paddington imagining he's back in South America with Aunt Lucy and telling her why he came back. The cherry on top is when his sentence trails off as the illusion is shattered, the forest around him changing back into his prison cell.
  • Generally, innocent young Paddington's time in jail is a bit jarring for him.
  • The ending scene, when you realize what's happening. It's on the heartwarming page, but it can easily draw tears of joy as well.
  • ‘For our friend Michael Bond’
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Art Shift into the sequence where Paddington imagines Aunt Lucy reading the pop-up book and experiencing London's landmarks is gorgeous. It's also very reminiscent of the original BBC animated series which was all paper cut-outs, apart from Paddington himself.

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