Paddington

Believe it or not, this thing has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes so far. 34 fresh, 1 rotten. I guess this goes to show that, once again, Trailers Always Lie.

edited 12th Dec '14 4:10:01 PM by DS9guy

-checks to see for myself- Dayum.

It's at number one in the UK box office.

Hold me.

Guaranteed to be the best English-immigrant-bear-versus-Oscar-winning-taxidermist movie you'll ever see.

Must...resist...doing an...UKIP joke...

It's okay, the Economist made it for you.

edited 12th Dec '14 6:38:48 PM by Tuckerscreator

Yeah, I just saw a glowing review in my newspaper. Interesting.

I'm worried about what the reviews this film will get once it arrives in the US next January. I hope it won't get the same reviews like the time The Adventures Of Tintin got negative reviews while it was popular in Europe.

To be fair, Tintin was always an European character. Very European. Of course many American critics and audience wouldn't like him, since Tintin's life has nothing in common with American culture (he's not a superhero, he prefers to use his brains instead of his muscles, and so on and so forth).

Paddington might have better luck in America, considering the fact that he's an immigrant, so, it might resonate with immigrants and descendants of immigrants there.

edited 14th Dec '14 4:52:44 PM by Quag15

Gee, that's an awful lot of assumptions you've got there. What in the world makes you think American culture has no guile heroes?

edited 14th Dec '14 7:15:21 PM by CorrTerek

Oh, it has some, no doubt about it (John Constantine, for example). But you have to recognize most American movies about comic book adaptations feature heros and anti-heros who will use their muscles for the most part, or combine guile hero traits with said action hero and/or science hero traits.

Anyway, I might be stereotyping a bit, so, apologies, just in case.

edited 14th Dec '14 7:21:05 PM by Quag15

In terms of adaptations you might be right (though superheros by nature tend to blur the lines, and those are the majority of what's getting adapted these days — I gather the US does not have the same relationship with non-superhero comic books Europe does), but a quick look at the page for Guile Hero shows a long list of US-created characters who are straight up cunning with no brawn or gadgets to back them up. I'd be hesitant to say that the US or Europe has any major preference in that regard.

Tintin was an enjoyable movie, but it has little to do with Paddington beyond a nebulous European vibe. Hopefully Paddington turns out to be pretty good one way or the other — certainly seems to be the case — because I bet my kids would love it.

Well that and childhood nostalgia, I remember watching a Padington cartoon as a kid (I think it was on an American channel PBS but I can't say for sure, and reading both Tin Tin and Asterix comics and they were generally available in the children's (besides one library which had the boys and girls section and reserved the children's section for books for little kids, boys and girls were more Grade 2 plus, but not old enough for Young Adult)usually it and Asterix are the only ones, and this is as an English Canadian in B.C. so I can't buy that Americans aren't exposed at all.

edited 14th Dec '14 9:45:12 PM by phantom1

@Corr:

I was indeed talking about adaptations. I don't read any superhero comics, so my exposure has been mostly through the adaptations to movies, TV shows and other stuff.

Agreed.

@Phantom: I'm sure that some Americans have been exposed to European comics. My point is that, when it comes to movies featuring said European characters, they usually end up becoming a bit of a niche thing, not having the crossover appeal of something like, say, the Avengers or Batman, and, as a result, they might not achieve the desired success.

Also, Canadians are a bit more exposed to European stuff than Americans are, last time I checked.

Anyway, we've went a bit off-topic. My apologies for having started it.

edited 15th Dec '14 6:30:54 AM by Quag15

@Quag I suppose you're right. Anyways I kind of doubt I'll actually be seeing Padington it seems the sort of movie that's a bit strange to go to, if you don't have any kids. Well I mean unless my nephew insists on going when I'm visiting him or something to that effect (or more likely I'll get to see it when it comes on TV and I'm over there), or I'll see it on TV and want to check it out.

edited 15th Dec '14 10:09:00 AM by phantom1

If I recall correctly from Roger Ebert's Twitter, Tintin actually got better reviews in America than it did in Europe, because it was a more actionized adaptation.

I still wonder what Roger Ebert whwhoul have thought if he lived to see Frozen,The Lego Movie, and this film?

Hang on, my memories of Paddington aren't exactly matching up with what I'm reading.

Wasn't Paddington Bear a bear who traveled the world or something like that?

Not exactly. He's a Peruvian bear who is an Anglophile and, as a result, emigrates to the UK. I think there were a couple of stories where he was in other places/countries, but he lives in the UK most of the time.

There was another animated series made in 1997 where Paddington traveled around the world in some episodes with Mr Gruber.

So this film is getting like Mad Praise, like 98% on Rotten Tomatoes good.

Holy shit. Who knew a film about a talking bear and an evil taxidermist would turn out to be acclaimed?

Has anyone here seen it yet?

Here's a music video featuring a glimpse of Aunt Lucy.

I am one of the people who has actually seen Paddington.

Really good. Really, really good. If Strange Magic or some BS outperforms it in the box office I will be pissed.