In 1958, Michael Bond based on a teddy bear at Paddington Station, creating the Paddington Bear, which later fell a piece of people. Compared to Disney’s exploration of edifying meaning and Pixar’s pie-in-the-sky setting shenanigans, the Paddington Bear series has never been ambitious: it has a plot but never complicated (but 2’s plot is also a big improvement over 1), it is suitable for a wide range of ages, its cute image is complemented by dense laughs, and it is unsparingly splashed with colorful warm Christmas-like colors, bold and warm, elegant and loving. In such an atmosphere, the cold appearance of a goo goo turn round eyes of the furry cute bear, with a naive expression to take off the hat to bow to you to say hello, or to master the human thing nervous but the more smashed, bear face confused. And always friendly, not defensive – no doubt, even if there is no hot-blooded inspiration, no deep exploration of existence or emotion, away from the grand proposition, Paddington Bear to us, is a cup of hot cocoa in the winter, is more than a hundred minutes to block the wind in your heart, is to wake up the warmth in the stomach, dispel the dense fingertips of fog, is a good way to throw all the goodness in the world again. It is to cast trust in all the goodness of the world again, remembering the flowers that have been planted and its fragrant overflow.
I’m used to seeing complicated and delicate stories, and I’m happy to drink up such a simple and pure recipe without losing laughter and tears, and wait for the fire that burns in every silent moment to roast my lips and teeth. But I do not have to over-recommend, the taste, cast and people will have an exclusive understanding, do not like the people right as it is low-intelligence and low age illogical. The family fun used for warmth, interpretation if there is too much is just too much love, is the film projected to my own personal, his irrelevant. So the next content is both personal and involves spoilers, please read at your own discretion.
Two favorite scenes: the trip to London in the three-dimensional book, and a tear in prison gave birth to the entire hometown.
The three-dimensional book paragraph is really fantastic, as a child, open the amazing three-dimensional book, will fantasize about a trip in it. I did not expect to be filmed by the director’s hand, a turn of the page a world, as if also into the attractions, like a dream come true heart fluttering. Surrounded by stationary paper people, but you and I are real, travel to foreign countries to eat and drink at ease, it is really beautiful and lovely.
When in prison, Paddington thought the Brown family had forgotten him, heartbreak inescapable, where to comfort? Fortunately, there is a hometown, and only a hometown. A tear fell into a gap in the wood, a seed broke through the darkness and grew into a grass, a wood, a whole forest. The evolution of this image is a moment of divine genius, and I was left in awe in the audience when I finally discovered the director’s intention. When in the sadness of thought abandoned and forgotten, Paddington returned to the Peruvian forest, back to his aunt, because this is the ultimate place of his sense of belonging. Greek philosophers have long said that life is just home, out and back. All our emotional, rational and volitional pursuits and attempts, but the soul of homesickness, looking for a person, a roof, a status, to allow our body and mind in this vast and indifferent world a settlement and home. Paddington left his native Peruvian forest with the aim of finding a home in London. When this home is not as good or broken, he wants to be in his hometown, where he is the mainstay of his spirit, the place where all the perfect hopes are put to rest. The importance of home to travelers is the figuration of the soul’s sense of belonging in the real world, and “heaven and earth, the reverse journey of all things”, we are always travelers.
In the first part, whether it is Paddington’s sense of being alone in a foreign land, or Judy’s apprehension of being treated as a freak in a new school, and the antique store owner said “we think the place under the ceiling is home, but the body is here, but the mind has not yet arrived”, etc., all show that the theme is biased toward home. Mr. Brown finally face the villain also pointed out: even if paddington and they are not a race, but they all love paddington, they are family. And in the second part, the theme should lean towards kindness, “Paddington can always find the goodness in others”. He expanded from a home to a street, infected with the warm atmosphere of the whole street, but also the prison are converted into Wes Anderson style, teenage girls and livable so that people want to sit through the bottom of the jail. The secret to Paddington’s popularity is his good upbringing, the British elegance of etiquette that he never forgets (“Kingsman” is also subservient), and the fact that he has good intentions for the world, and the world will return him with even greater good intentions. Even if there are one or two villainous characters who ignore the good and insist on selfishness along the way, but it can not resist the accumulation of many goodness. But the series is never about which theme alone, but slightly focused but intertwined, the second part also has the home of the first (just mentioned the scene from the prison to the Peruvian forest), the first part also shows the goodness of the bear and the resulting flash of change. I still remember Paddington saying to Judy in the first film, “I know it’s not easy to fit into a new environment. At that moment, even if I suffered indifference or injustice, I was never disappointed in humans, always optimistic and polite bear, only heartache and admiration. Kindness is a quality that is so simple to say but difficult to maintain, a magic that is so weak to think about but often produces power beyond expectations.
In addition, throughout the hidden in the first and second part of a theme, I think istrust, which is also the first time in Paddington Bear 2 where my eyes moistened. When Windsor Gardens caught fire in the first film, and Paddington described it with his sparse and poor understanding of the human world, no one believed he was telling the truth, even if they loved him. This misunderstanding sent Paddington away, bringing about the next episode. But in the second film, even though Paddington Bear is sentenced to prison, both the Brown family, the antique store owner and the neighbors on the street who have exchanged warmth with Paddington unanimously and unconditionally believe that Paddington is not the mugger! They are committed to helping Bear find the real killer, never doubting. When they see Mr. Brown, who was once most repelled by the arrival of “a strange bear” in the family, plaster a wall full of portraits looking for the real suspect, the shot brings more emotion than a large paragraph of how I love you monologue. When his disagreement with Mrs. Brown is no longer “Paddington just does not tell us the truth, he made it all up”, but “you do not work this way, I’d better go to the street to post portraits to help Paddington clear his name”, it is enough to see that in the long exchange of time In the long time, Paddington with a long day in a wonderful, kind and lovely little thing, unconsciously won the love of the people, but also accompanied by the fullest trust. Love is much easier than trust and much more difficult to understand, but the strongest trust is inevitably produced by the deepest love, so the film’s unconditional belief in Paddington’s innocence can’t help but move people. (plus there is a prison break bridge, reminiscent of the classic American drama “Prison Break”, is also because Scofield believes that his brother was framed, only at the cost of crime to rescue)
The same tearful place, there is a prison inmate saw Paddington escape the “hot air balloon” said a sentence, “good luck, bear”; and the Brown family’s car can not start, neighbors have opened the door out of the scene of the cart; and the chef for the first time with marmalade; And the chef for the first time with marmalade sandwiches to win the applause of the prisoners when the complex expression, and so on. Paddington ah, is really everywhere people like, with warmth and sincerity to sweep away the cold wind and indifference. This alone is enough to heal too many broken hearts in reality.
Not to mention the quality and quantity of laughs all-round upgrade, can not help but laugh out loud more times to my surprise, maybe that’s why it is like “Animal City” as young and old, but an additional innocence and more close to the heart of the soft place than Disney: Paddington Bear metaphor is not much pattern is not big, superficial and direct simple and brutal, is to give you a warm good mood. Personally, I think the best laugh when Mr. Brown in the two trains between the word horse, a moment also echoes the middle-aged crisis yoga classes laid out in front (coy and delicate Mr. Brown love feathers, it is difficult to link him with the serious and gentle lord of “Downton Abbey”). Also echoed are the dream of Mom’s adventure to swim to France, the memory of Dad’s former “magic pitcher”, the boy’s research on steam engines, the use of clothing passages to escape from prison and the coins in his ears, with the help of a folding ladder to clean the glass to reach another train, and so on. These layouts and echoes make people marvel at the subtlety of the film’s structure, before the seemingly unintentional montage, which turns out to show both the daily warmth and ulterior motives. This is the director’s usual tricks, but to put them into a reasonable and interesting story, but still test the skills. The use of this technique seemed a bit stiff in the first film, but in this one, it is already visible and much more natural.
Still the original recipe, or the original big move “bear stare” and a second to break, or the original with “always think the man dressed as a woman that person sexy and beautiful” strange vision of the security chief, or the original clumsy Paddington, whether working in the barber store or cleaning glass are so difficult. The good thing is that there are easily capture the hearts of all the marmalade, but he would rather get wet and twist his ass to earn money rather than sell sandwiches, probably as a bear’s dignity it.
Pink prison uniforms, neatly placed desserts, girlish decor and symmetrical OCD composition, all reminiscent of Wes Anderson “Grand Budapest Hotel”. Perhaps the London prison version, but unfortunately, the playwright Hugh was finally changed to the Broadway stage, but also its happy. Uncle Hugh in this play presents the performance is too wonderful, yes this is the apt playwright Ben Jing ah, our lovely villain finally in prison to achieve the pursuit of life a satisfaction, but I can never forget his tawdry purple stockings and conscience dog food advertising (〃ノωノ)
The film’s beautiful tones and tourist guide like attractions show again want to cheat me to London. If Paris is its own sense of art, London is a very fairy tale place, it is the kind of “Santa Claus, if it exists, should be here” law song, no wonder Harry Potter was also born in this. Just imagine, Christmas holiday, warm fireplace, wrapped in a blanket on a soft sofa or a lover, watching “True Love” and then watch the light fantasy Paddington Bear series, can be said to be from the earth to enjoy a piece of the pie.
We live in society, but also often encounter a new environment of discomfort, encounter a work wall things do not go well, encounter hate their own people or indifference as the normal state of the world. Maybe we can’t be like paddington, no matter what happens always have the strength of mind to maintain brave optimism, kindness and innocence, and even forget to take off their hats and owe a hello. We have a real and deep human nature, we are prone to disappointment in others that is hell. But we can see in the movie what that fairy tale like beautiful and simple world is like, and how lovely life is when everyone is friendly. The movie plants a seed, and when you walk out of the theater and say thank you for the first time to the stranger who helped you press the elevator door button and wait for you, it is its first drop of nutrients.
And in the process of taking care of the seeds growing, you will definitely use the temperature of “Paddington Bear” more than once.