S03E08 — Paddington
SPOILER ALERT: This episode and transcript below contains major spoilers for Paddington.
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Featuring hosts Timothy Haynes, Donna Haynes, Rebekah Edwards, and T. Josiah Haynes.
Grab a marmalade sandwich and your coziest sweater, because we’re talking Paddington! This week, we compare the delightfully episodic book to the movie that said, “Yes, but what if we add a villain, a heist, and emotional growth?” From bath-time disasters and escalator confusion to found family, British charm, and one very polite bear, we break down why both versions work so well—and why this story somehow feels like a warm hug wrapped in a duffle coat.
Final Verdicts
If you haven’t listened to the episode yet, we recommend waiting to read our verdicts. (But you’re probably grown, so do what you want!)
The book is a cozy, episodic collection of gentle misadventures where Paddington simply exists, causes polite chaos, and somehow always fails upward. The movie builds a full cinematic arc with backstory, a villain, and higher stakes, turning a slice-of-life children’s tale into a heartfelt family adventure.
Donna: They were both amazing!
– Book Score: 9/10
– Film Score: 9/10
Rebekah: They were both amazing!
– Book Score: 9/10
– Film Score: 9/10
Josiah: The film was better.
– Book Score: 9.5/10
– Film Score 9,5/10
Tim: They were both amazing!
– Book Score: 9/10
– Film Score 9/10
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Full Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Rebekah: Hey, welcome to the book is Better Podcast. Today we’re gonna be talking about Paddington. Who?
[00:00:08] Josiah: Paddington the Bear. I, uh, I watched seven Winnie the Pooh movies for today.
[00:00:14] Rebekah: Oh, no, that’s a disaster. I’m so sorry. Actually though I do love Winnie the Pooh. Do you know my favorite Winnie The Pooh quote? My favorite one is Piglet and Pooh are sitting together and Pooh says, piglet, how do you spell love?
And Piglet says, Pooh. You don’t spell love. You feel it?
[00:00:34] Music: Okay. Just gimme a second to play Paddington.
Oh my goodness. He is going crazy.
The train station.
[00:00:55] Rebekah: Okay. For real. Welcome to the podcast today and yes, we are covering Paddington, the story of the most adorable bear. Well, at least one of the most adorable bears in fiction. Uh, we’re a family four. This is a clean podcast, and we’re gonna be talking about a delight. Full children’s stories. So this is probably a great episode, uh, to listen to with little ones around.
We will be spoiling, um, Paddington, the book, I believe. The first one is a Bear called Paddington, and we are gonna be spoiling the 2014 movie titled Just Paddington. Uh, I don’t
[00:01:30] Josiah: think it’s a book called A Bear Named. It’s Not a Bear.
[00:01:33] Rebekah: Yeah. The book is called A Bear, named a Bear called Paddington, and the movie is called Paddington.
And so we’re gonna spoil both of those. I don’t think we’re gonna spoil any of the sequel movies, so if you haven’t seen those yet, you are probably good to go. And, uh, okay, everybody, today’s fun fact. What was your most loved slash favored? Childhood toy. I feel like this was put in here to pick on me about the dog toy, um, ordeal.
However, I don’t have a lot of memories of early childhood. So can one of you as my parents tell me the answer to this question for me
[00:02:08] Tim: since this is an episode near Christmas time? Um, don’t you remember the large, uh, life-size doll that you received One Christmas. Love that, love brother with some little toddler love that
[00:02:22] Rebekah: Josiah doesn’t remember, but he is forever scarred from the incident.
I was opening a life-size Barbie doll. Actually, I will tell you when we watched that clip back, I think I was opening, but the thing before the life-size Barbie doll though, like the little, uh, big vanity thing that you got me, I think it was actually the vanity box and then the big box of the life-sized Barbie was next to it, but it, I might be wrong.
I could have been opening the Barbie. Anyway, my brother was born in February and so it was December 25th, obviously of that year, and he was crawling on the floor in front of this box and he was in my way. And so when I opened the box, I dropped it on his head and then my grandmother in the back of the videos starts as you starts,
[00:03:00] Tim: as you trying to fix the box, you dropped the doll on his head?
[00:03:01] Rebekah: Yes. She started screaming. So then I was trying to fix it and then I picked it up and as she was screaming, I dropped it on him a second time and um, yeah, he probably never recovered. So sorry about that. Josiah, I, uh, I’m really sorry.
[00:03:14] Josiah: It’s all your fault. So, but that’s okay because, uh, you know, there’s nothing like being a martyr.
[00:03:20] Rebekah: Yes, exactly. People respect you.
[00:03:23] Tim: So, as far as your favorite toys, I would say Barbie. We, there was a Barbie tent and there was a Barbie vanity and Barbie’s. You know, your mom jokes about the fact that you had a tendency to take the heads off of them or break them one way or the other. So
[00:03:38] Rebekah: not in a violent way.
No. I was just discovering how things were playing. Yeah. So we had a little Barbie hospital. I do remember my Barbie tent.
[00:03:47] Tim: Yeah. At least one of your Barbies had a, a screwed on leg. We did hip replacement. Hip.
[00:03:54] Rebekah: You know what, thanks dad and mom for being such, you know, so helping me explore engineering and biology and, mm-hmm.
Yeah, it’s exactly what we, just setting me up for success in life is what I’m trying to say. That’s right.
[00:04:10] Josiah: Hi, Josiah here. I feel like probably the right childhood toy to go with for me would be Lukey. The bearer. He’s probably still in the attic somewhere. Yeah. So Paddington, I’m actually more of an expert on Paddington than any of you.
’cause I had Lukey the Bear. Of course. Yes.
[00:04:27] Tim: Well, my favorite childhood toys were two bears, Tom and Jerry. And those
[00:04:38] Josiah: aren’t bear names.
[00:04:40] Tim: They are because that’s what I named them because that was one of my favorite cartoons was Tom Jerry. Know, know. And they wouldn’t do, wouldn’t your cat in a mouse? So you had
[00:04:49] Donna: bears.
[00:04:50] Tim: The bear that lasted the longest had um, a light purple fur.
[00:04:56] Donna: Uh, my name’s Donna and I’m the wife and mom and of this family and, um. I had dolls, like baby dolls, probably five, I wanna say I had five. Just the, they were, I just had them. I, I didn’t have like one in particular that was favorite or whatever, but I would put them at the head of my bed when I occasionally would make my bed.
I did spread my bed up when I was little and I would put them up at the top of the bed just across the pillows, and I can remember that I would switch their order so that the same doll didn’t get in the middle all the time because I have a fairness, weird thing about fairness, and I don’t even know why, but if I have a stack of paper that I draw from.
Like if, say I’ve got paper on my desk and I use that paper, if I put new paper on the pile, I have to take the bottom paper and put that on the top. ’cause it’s not fair that the new paper gets used over the older paper. It was one thing where I got that from. That’s where it started. You do that. Oh, somebody else.
Thank you, Jesus.
[00:06:16] Josiah: I do some wild, wild fairness related things.
[00:06:20] Donna: Yeah. I had those five dollies that. Got different prominent places at the top of the bed. So there,
[00:06:26] Rebekah: so you’re the person that made me freakishly concerned that I would ever be unfair to something or someone at some point in my life. And therefore, constantly think about it.
I’m really sorry.
[00:06:37] Josiah: Great. It’s mainly about inanimate objects.
[00:06:40] Donna: Got it. Okay. I think what we’re discovering is how much we damaged our children as they were young.
[00:06:46] Rebekah: Everyone does. There are, you know, there are ways that you could have made it way worse. And so I think you’re good. So, uh, yeah. Dad, what is this story about?
[00:06:55] Tim: Well, let’s see. I. Paddington is a special bear who lives in darkest Peru with his Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pezo. That’s always hard for me to pronounce. Um, and he’s sent to London to find a home in a family. Paddington encounters the brown family, a family of four who reluctantly at first, well, at least some of them take the sweet bear in.
And although his curiosity can get the best of him often and cause awkward situations, the browns quickly fall in love with him. And he, uh, his adventures begin. He’s part of their family. They even name him eventually. Um, Paddington Brown. So he’s part of their family. He take,
[00:07:43] Rebekah: he takes their last name.
Well, we’re gonna talk about characters first in this, and then we’ll get into the pretty major differences in the way that the book and film are structured. Uh, but yeah, we’ve got several character things that I thought were really interesting to start us off.
[00:08:01] Tim: Alrighty. So, in characterization, uh, Paddington’s Uncle Zo is featured.
He dies in an earthquake, uh, which prompts Aunt Lucy, uh, aunt Lucy to send Paddington to London. That’s in the film. I don’t think that’s, uh, in the book. They simply send him to London. I think
[00:08:20] Rebekah: there is actually no Uncle Pezo in the book at all. Oh, yeah. So he’s not mentioned. It’s just Aunt Lucy that brings him up.
Mm-hmm. So they add him, which I thought honestly was really cute. I thought he was a. Was a great addition.
[00:08:35] Donna: It’s a sad story. I mean, there is the storm and things like that, but I think I agree with you. I felt like it made sense that Aunt Lucy would then say, Paddington, you are young. I’m getting older. It, it made sense that she would send him to London.
So
[00:08:53] Josiah: now is it true that Uncle Zo, it was his hat that Paddington took with him? That was the hat origin
[00:09:03] Donna: in the
[00:09:04] Tim: film? In the movie, yeah. But I think, um, the hat comes initially from the Explorer.
[00:09:13] Music: Oh, he passed down again? In the
[00:09:15] Donna: film. In the film, yes. Still in the film. Yeah.
[00:09:17] Josiah: There’s no backstory in the book.
It’s just like, okay. He’s from Peru.
[00:09:21] Rebekah: Yes. And the, the hat in the book, he, I think Paddington mentions it saved his life and that’s why he doesn’t wanna get rid of it. But it was basically because of his first encounter with, uh. The washroom, which we’ll talk about in our plot section. But
[00:09:37] Donna: yeah. Then another film character is added Explorer, Montgomery Clyde.
He’s shown discovering like he’s, they’re special bears in darkest Peru, and there’s a, a whole scene at the beginning where they, you know, when they encounter him, um, the book describes Paddington’s speech and his love of marmalade, which the film iteration comes through this, this explorer. But the, the book describes his love of marmalade and his speech as part of his character, and they don’t really add anything, which I, I love the fact for a children’s book, it left so much to your imagination that this would just be, this is make believe this is a thing.
You, you didn’t have to have an explanation. I didn’t mind it in the movie. I, I didn’t mind that they added the story. Uh, in general. Um, but I do think the, the book just giving you this lovely picture of, of this bear and he, him loving marmalade. Why, you know, why would he do that? And marmalades a famous English.
Uh, snack and, and spread and things like that, but
[00:10:54] Rebekah: I think it worked in the book to do it the way that they did and leave so much to the imagination. And I think it worked in the film to change the, the motivations and the backstory behind all that. So I liked it. Like I, I thought it was just a clever.
Direction. Uh, another character add-on that’s not in the book at all is Millicent Clyde a museum Taxidermist, who we discover near the end of the film is the daughter of Montgomery, Clyde the Explorer. So we’ll get into what she does and how this changes things. She was, I would say Montgomery and Millicent Clyde being added were definitely the biggest character changes that affect tons of stuff during the plot.
So it was a fascinating, uh, thing. What’s her face? Uh, what’s the actress’s name? N
[00:11:42] Josiah: Nashville’s Zone. Nicole Kidman.
[00:11:45] Rebekah: Nicole Kidman. Oh,
[00:11:49] Donna: Keith
[00:11:50] Rebekah: Urban. I’ll get into it later. She, I will say her portrayal of the character that they make was. Great for what it was. It was very fantastical and silly and ridiculous in the right way for the film.
So I thought she did a good job portraying the character that they put in there. So
[00:12:07] Josiah: I think that alongside Millicent Clyde is this film’s Keith Urban in a way. Mr. Curry only in so much as he is a sycophantic trying to win Millicent’s heart in the film. He, he does appear, which is
[00:12:28] Rebekah: hilarious.
[00:12:29] Josiah: He, he does appear as a curmudgeon in the book, but obviously Millicent isn’t there in the book.
So he, he’s not like, he is in the film where he is a little ominous, antagonistic. He is funny, but he is trying to win Nicole Kidman’s heart. So he kind of goes along with her dastardly plans for part of the film. I like the, I like the part where he’s trying to be a creepy guy on the phone and Mr. Brown said, uh, tells his wife, it’s Mr.
Curry on the phone with a funny voice.
[00:13:05] Rebekah: He’s like, no, it’s not. It’s mi Mr. Burry. Like, that was the, that was the best I could come up with. That was good. I also loved the scene in the book where Mr. Curry, they think like. Is coming around. He’s gonna be more fun. He’s gonna be a little bit better. And it’s during, uh, Paddington’s magic show.
And I love, ’cause like a bunch of the things that he’s doing in these like illusions, he’s, you know, following a, a list of what to do and, uh, Mr. Curry offers his watch as part of one of the things except Paddington forgets to read all of the instructions and he destroys Mr. Curry’s watch. And I like I laughed audibly when I was reading that.
I thought it was just so clever.
[00:13:47] Tim: Yeah. Mr. Curry, it said, this is, this is such an expensive watch. And the other, uh, another character that appears, um, said, no, you bought that from my secondhand store for three pounds. You know,
[00:14:00] Donna: I think my only struggle with Mr. Curry, I liked the character. I thought he was a great, um, representation of that.
But I couldn’t get away from seeing the actor as Dr. Who he looked exact, they didn’t change anything about his appearance. It just took me away a little bit. It didn’t mess up the movie for me. It was still wonderful, but I’m trying to, I try so hard not to see the actor as somebody else. I’ve known them to portray.
And so, um, that was a small, I mean, it wasn’t, didn’t end things for me, but yeah.
[00:14:36] Tim: Another character that, that is in book or film, uh, Mr. Henry Brown, he’s very important to the plot, but in the film he’s even more cautious than, than in the book. Uh, they added a career of a, an, I think, was it an insurance risk analyst or some, some type of risk, an analyst.
So he is always saying That’s this many percentage points more likely, blah, blah, blah. You know, so
[00:15:01] Rebekah: that was one of my favorite, like little just quirky add-ons for the vibe of the film that worked really well was him going around and being like, it’s, did you know that 37% of accidents in the home before breakfast occur on a staircase like it?
I don’t know if that’s the exact quote, but it was just so cute.
[00:15:21] Donna: Okay. Compare that to Peter Capaldi as, as Mr. Curry. I never saw Hug Bonneville as his. A patriarchal character in Downton Abbey. I didn’t see that he was Mr. Brown. So does that mean it’s the acting? Is that Nor
[00:15:38] Rebekah: did I, but I did never see, um, that show.
So you didn’t watch Downton Abbey? So I didn’t watch Down Abbey,
[00:15:45] Donna: but so did, do you think Josiah, like, would you think that’s part of it where he, they didn’t change he bonneville’s appearance at all?
[00:15:53] Josiah: Yeah. Yeah. I think what you’re saying is that Peter Capaldi is a bad actor. I think you’re right.
[00:16:00] Rebekah: Sorry.
Peter Capaldi. Uh, so the children, Judy and Jonathan Brown, they’re, uh, in the book, they’re kind of like Paddington’s age, it feels like. I don’t know how old Paddington is, but they all seem like he’s a little bear, like older children, but not kind of to the tween teen area of of life yet in the film, they’re a little bit older.
Judy is the oldest. Um, she’s probably what, like eighth or ninth grade? Jonathan, maybe a couple grades behind her. Seems like sixth or seventh grade age. Um, bo of both of them have like distinct personalities, distinct interests and talents. Uh, Judy has like a very small side romance plot and all this stuff.
And I thought that it worked really well in the movie. Uh, she and particular is definitely kind of angsty, like she’s got that teenager thing going on. Um, I thought this was nice, I think in the book because of how it’s structured and it totally made sense and I don’t have a problem with it at all. In the book, they’re kind of just flat characters.
They’re just kind of there. But in the film, they’re both rounded and given their own small character arcs and like that you just find out more about them. And I thought that that was a really interesting way to, to implement like in the film.
[00:17:14] Tim: Yeah. In the, in the film, Paddington. Makes a, makes the comment that, that Judy has, she has this disease of embarrassment.
’cause everything Oh, that’s embarrassing. That’s gonna embarrass us. You embarrass me. Yeah.
[00:17:30] Donna: The book Mrs. By who’s their housekeeper, a live-in housekeeper, which I thought was pretty cool. You don’t hear about that a lot anymore. You know, you, uh, but I, I thought it was really touching that she was there with them and, and was kind of, uh, overseeing the family.
I loved her role. Okay. So in the book, she’s just, she’s a strict housekeeper. She’s nice. That’s fine. The film expanded her role to this heroic, uh, like, uh, the comic relief, um, moment. She, she’s got, toward the end of the movie, she, she just pulls out all the stops and saves the day with her. Wise sage knowledge of, of how, how she can take down the, uh, the bad Millicent Clyde and I really enjoyed Mrs.
Bird. I thought the part was definitely a supporting part. She didn’t try to overtake the whole thing, but her, her addition was great.
[00:18:36] Josiah: Um, well, I was going to say that this plot point with her heroic at the end reminds me of a British classic. And I assume it wasn’t explicitly supposed to be a reference to Charles Dickens, but what it makes me think of is a tale of two cities.
Do any of you know a tale of two Cities enough to remember the big bad guys at the end? Uh, I think it’s, it’s Madam Defarge. I might be getting this wrong, the character names, but I think Madam Defarge. Is like the bad guy who’s like turning nice people into the French Revolution is basically why she’s so bad, including very nice people we like.
And so at the end, one of the main characters, nurses, like one of their her maid, miss Pross, is the one to take down. Madame Defarge.
[00:19:30] Rebekah: Well, I have a distinct memory. It sounds like Mom doesn’t want me to say who the actor is that plays, uh, Mrs. Bird. So I won’t. However, I will say that I have a memory from the first time I saw this film, which I’m pretty sure I saw in the theater where I had got, we’d gotten through like most of the film, and I think we got to her big climactic moment at the end, and I immediately was like, that’s, and I named the character I recognized her as, but I did, it took me the whole movie.
So I do think it’s interesting, you’ve got several of these people. Um, Mrs. Brown, you know, has a pretty significant part in another movie that came out around the time of this that is not a children’s film. Uh, but I, I feel like it is interesting. It just is such an interesting thing to note, like how we see actors as parts they play and as parts they don’t play.
Um. We were watching something else the other day and I, I said, oh, that’s such and such, and I like named the character they play. And I could not tell you the actor’s name. Like I just, you know, I think that some of those iconic roles just are somewhat unavoidable, but I do wonder why it is that sometimes we recognize them and then sometimes we doesn’t even occur to us and we like suspend our disbelief so entirely.
[00:20:44] Josiah: You know, a secondary character in the book, in film is Mr. Gruber, the antique shop owner. The film adds a little more to his backstory. He’s an immigrant just like Paddington, and, and they relate to one another in finding a new home around London.
[00:21:02] Tim: I think his role seems to be a little larger in the book than it is in the film.
[00:21:06] Rebekah: Paddington like visits him regularly and things in his different kind of the things that he has going on.
[00:21:13] Tim: Yeah, there are are some other additional characters that are added for the film. Uh, the Geographer’s Guild members, a security guard at the National History Museum and some things like that. But basically all of the characters from the film, otherwise are from the book.
[00:21:32] Rebekah: Yeah, there’s, I think that what they added was really clever, but it didn’t feel overdone, so that was great. Um, all right, so let’s get into the plot of this film slash book. The book was very episodic, so I was actually kind of surprised ’cause by the time we got to chapter three, I thought, oh, this isn’t like a, it doesn’t feel like there’s a.
Storyline. It’s just several episodes. So there are eight chapters. Each of them is just kind of this chapter of something that Paddington goes through. The first one is where he meets the family. Um, the, they’re very like low stakes. There’s no villains, there’s no big climaxes. The whole point is just kind of this charming tale of this bear who somehow, what is, I think it’s Mrs.
Brown maybe in the book who says he always manages to fall upward or something like that. Um, where he just, he’ll make some mistake. But paddington’s mistakes kind of
[00:22:26] Tim: fail upward. I think it is
[00:22:26] Rebekah: fail upward. Yeah. They always turn into something better.
[00:22:30] Josiah: Just such a British, it’s so British and cozy. It’s honestly what Thursday Murder club, I feel like was going for, but uh, just not quite as British as Paddington.
Paddington captures it in a way that I don’t think is just for kids. I think it’s cute for the whole family.
[00:22:49] Rebekah: And it, it does remind me too, of like episodic shows where there doesn’t have, like, there were shows that we really liked, including a lot of British television where there doesn’t really have to be this big through line where we’re following some big heavy plot.
And like all, it’s just kind of, every episode is just kind of a fun little mini adventure. And I didn’t mind the low stakes like. I thought it was really sweet. And we’ll talk a little bit more about some of the, the things that were taken out maybe, and not in the movie at all, but the film takes that and they take the concept of Paddington and they take several of the little things that happen in the book and basically say, Hey, we need a, a plot with the beginning, a middle, and an end.
Which I think makes sense. It would’ve made different sense if you did this as like a television show and did episodes, you know what I mean? But I think as a film, it made sense to create an actual, they, they gave it a villain. They made, uh, they, there were several like storylines and subplots that were kind of going throughout.
And I think that it worked as a movie as much as the book worked as a book, you know what I mean? For children.
[00:23:53] Tim: I agree with that. Maybe this is the place to say it or maybe it’s not. But, um, I questioned some of the, how they got there. I, I didn’t mind it being a through story, you know, with. With a plot and all of that.
I’m just, some of the plot was strange for Paddington.
[00:24:15] Rebekah: In what way? Like what would you say sticks out to you as the strange parts
[00:24:20] Tim: I, the, the villain. I thought that was an awkward part for me. She does a, she does a good job. It just feels awkward.
[00:24:30] Rebekah: Um, so before we get into how we all feel about like the villain storyline, let’s kind of start at the very beginning of the film, they introduce what takes us into something very different.
[00:24:42] Donna: At the front of the film, uh, there’s this black and white. Section that it starts out with the Explorer. That’s where we meet, um, Clyde. And, um, he teaches the aunt and uncle to speak. And, and he, uh, they’ve spoke, they spoke language, but they spoke Peru. Peruvian is, would that be the part they speak bear?
[00:25:03] Rebekah: Because he ta when Paddington talks about
[00:25:06] Donna: it, he’s like, that’s right. I was thinking they also had the ability to speak, but I, I remember now. That’s that’s correct. Um, and he introduces them to marmalade and some, and customs and just mannerisms, you know, of a, where he came from. Uh, the film then changes to color and we meet Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pazo who help him make marmalade.
They teach him how, and they have Marmal day. Um, and then Uncle Pazo is tragically. Taken from us, taken from them, uh, during an earthquake. I, I felt like they handled this well. I didn’t think Uncle Pso, I, I didn’t think it was like a bad thing. It was understandably sad, but they were able to move on and I liked that they, you could see that Aunt Lucy wanted to continue to help Paddington grow and be a good bear and, and all those things.
So.
[00:26:11] Rebekah: I thought they handled it really appropriate, like it was age appropriate, what you saw and didn’t see, felt appropriate for the, the target audience and all of those things. I also felt like because you’re creating a narrative rather than just kind of an episodic story, that it gave a lot of motivation to Paddington and like it also explained why despite his many, you know, little mistakes and the things that he did, it also kind of explained why he fit into a family so well.
’cause you got to see him as part of a family who loved his uncle and, and got along with him and it, you know, it, I felt like it was very age appropriate. But just in a good way. So yeah.
[00:26:52] Tim: A wise little bear.
[00:26:54] Rebekah: Yeah.
[00:26:55] Tim: Mm-hmm. In, in the book, the Browns offer him permanent, a permanent home very quickly. Um, the film, however, they give him temporary shelter and eventually they’re going to let him in.
Uh, but there’s also a part where Paddington leaves for a short period of time, uh, because he believes he’s gonna be asked to leave, and so he is just gonna make his own way or whatever.
[00:27:19] Rebekah: That section breaks my heart. He like is laying on a bench in the rain, and I’m like, Mr. Brown, you are the worst. How dare you make this poor bear be homeless?
Like I, it was like, it upset me a little, and then I was like, very glad. Obviously when he,
[00:27:34] Donna: when
[00:27:34] Rebekah: he
[00:27:34] Donna: came back, this was also touching to, to see Mr. And Mrs. Brown to see their relationship and see how, how they unfold their relationship, but also how. She’s very free and fun loving, and she’s, she’s whimsical, he’s very serious and overly concerned with safety.
But you see how they love each other and how they act together and how she can, she doesn’t, Lord, I never felt she was like lording over him. I felt like their relationship was very, very well portrayed.
[00:28:13] Rebekah: And I also thought it was cute that you basically see both of them are very fun-loving and freewheeling.
And then they show you the scene where they pull up on the motorcycle and she’s going into labor and this won’t change us, babe. And he’s like, no, of course not. And then by the time they leave the hospital, she’s like. What is this? He says, this is our new car, and his hair is short all of a sudden, and she’s like, it’s very beige.
It was. I thought that was just such a good
[00:28:40] Donna: way to take that interesting comparison to that birth and Ricky Bobby’s birth, so mm-hmm. Ah, yes. It’s the American Paddington not covering that.
[00:28:49] Rebekah: Oh, yes. Wow. Ricky Bobby, the American. The American Paddington Bear.
[00:28:54] Josiah: That’s my thesis for my doctorate.
[00:28:59] Rebekah: Okay. I would like to hear you argue that dissertation.
[00:29:02] Josiah: Thank you. I’m much more interested in the connection between Paddington and Tale of Two Cities, but I will commence with, I think that’s
[00:29:09] Rebekah: probably more interesting.
[00:29:11] Josiah: The film does add a storyline about the search for the Explorer from the beginning of the movie, Montgomery Clyde.
[00:29:19] Rebekah: Yes,
[00:29:20] Josiah: there. This is a large plot point and it leads to a side quest.
Very, very funny, very comical. With, uh, Paddington and Mr. Brown at the Geographer’s Guild. Great trope. You see it in, uh, films like, I don’t know, bird Cage, Adams, I don’t know. I’m running out of other examples, but I feel like it’s a trope where you get the really serious guy, the really serious man to dress up in a funny outfit, and the audience loves him more than they did before.
[00:29:52] Donna: That whole thing was hilarious. And the dude. The dude like, oh, who are you? And he’s like, and, and Hugh Bonneville picks up on it. I mean, just so well, I thought it was great. The best part of that being Hugh
[00:30:04] Rebekah: Bonneville doesn’t even have a wig on. You can see his short hair, like out of the back of the hat and or outta the back of the little like head thingy has on.
And it’s so funny, the guy’s like, Ooh, that guy. And he’s like, where’s that beautiful woman? Find her. And I’m like, are you blind?
[00:30:21] Donna: The film also adds a new villain. Millicent Clyde, who we just established before, was Montgomery’s daughter, and we discover that toward the end. It was an interesting surprise, and I’ll say as surprises go, I, I wasn’t thinking, I didn’t assume that I should, let me say it that way.
It’s a
[00:30:42] Josiah: twist that the good guy you’re looking for, his daughter is the villain. That’s, I like that twist.
[00:30:48] Rebekah: And I thought we were just talking about the Geographer’s Guild. It did actually surprise me, and I’ve seen this movie before, but I forgot that those two subplots were literally connected and then I was like, oh,
[00:30:59] Donna: yeah,
[00:31:00] Rebekah: yeah.
[00:31:01] Tim: Disparate parts.
[00:31:03] Donna: Yes. Um, she, they give you enough of her backstory to see that she’s a very embittered young woman and she’s very hurt. And by the trauma of her childhood, uh, of she felt her dad was treated badly. And, um, so they, they have this great little story in there where she wants to get Paddington and stuff him and keep him on display in her own museum.
Um. There’s a, this is where the heist adventure comes in that we talked about with Mrs. Bird near the end of the movie. And it was also, it was not only funny, it was also that satisfying Oh yeah. The bad guy. They got it. You know, they got him, they, they, they dis you know, they, they, they were victorious.
[00:31:52] Rebekah: I also like the, in the heist, it’s when Mr.
Brown is forced to become brave and not care so much about the risk and it like brings the whole family together because they’ve decided to rescue Paddington. And so I wanna hear your thoughts on how you like or don’t like the Millicent storyline, but I thought regardless of her characterization, I guess I do think that the way that they brought the family together and like, gave Mr.
Brown that agency and he really has this whole arc was really interesting.
[00:32:25] Tim: I thought it was a little awkward. Um. Yes, it was, it was an interesting thing that, you know, the, he, the hero, the, the, uh, explorer that was the hero to the bears turns out to have a daughter who is the villain. Um, and I got that, I suppose part of it was awkward because it included Mr.
Curry and I felt like in the books, Mr. Curry was, was a villain because he didn’t really like Paddington and things like that. I guess for me, I was thinking this took it to a different level, uh, for a children’s film. You know, she wanted to, she wanted to kill Paddington. Um, let’s, let’s be clear. She didn’t want to simply stuff him.
That meant she wanted to take his life. It would’ve been just as good for me if she would’ve been, you know, I need to expose this bear. This is the one that my father talked about. And he was discredited because he never had proof. Here’s the proof. Um, I, I don’t know. It just seemed like it went a little overboard
[00:33:34] Donna: to me.
What I saw was a lot of folks that I’ve known over the years who took a childhood injustice hurt something, whether they were hurt or a parent was hurt. In this case, it was, she was upset because her father got removed from the guild and it, and it. Cause them to have a less than rich and posh life. But how many people do we know who go into their adult lives carrying something from their childhood that they cannot get past?
And so I don’t like Nicole Kidman in general as an actress. I’m not, never been really keen on her. I think we said before, I felt like she carried off this role. Okay. I felt like she carried it off as the, the goofy kind of goofy, evil villain. I wasn’t, I thought the thing with her and Mr. Curry was unnecessary.
I definitely agree with that. Um, but then when I get to the scene where they’re in the room and hug Bonneville’s, like, I have to get around there. How can I do it? The only way is to go out the window and crawl around, you know, scale around the building and you see him and Mary and they kiss and it’s like, no, you can’t.
Do it, do it for the family, do it, you know, for Paddington. So I guess it’s kind of a mixed emotion there, because I thought what they did worked, they tied up a lot of loose ends with it. It didn’t just flop somewhere. I guess maybe that’s why I liked it a little better than you did.
[00:35:10] Tim: I just, I suppose I, I kind of see the, um, the addition of a, of a physical villain, um, unnecessary because Paddington seems to be a story where the, the villain is the unknown.
Uh, so there’s al there’s always conflict with the unknown, you know, the different things that he encounters, um, people, he encounters the way they may feel about him or the way that they may see him, uh, is a villain. And then, you know, like Mr. Mr. Brown’s, you know. His desire for nothing to ever, ever be dangerous or whatever, that’s kind of a villain that he has to conquer.
Uh, I see the villain different, uh, in the, in Paddington. So I didn’t think they had to have a physical villain that was trying to, trying to kill him.
[00:36:05] Rebekah: Interesting. Yeah, I mean, I thought it lent into the absurdity that things like the bath scene started off like, I thought that the villain being absurd. It, I do see what you mean in terms of like it going too far and I’m, you know, I’m not a, I’m not a screenwriter.
I don’t know how I would’ve done it differently, but I can see what you’re saying feels maybe like it went a little too far. But I don’t know. I thought it was silly and I thought, again, it felt as adults, you’re picking up on the realities of what her saying, I’m gonna stuff pad it. You’re picking up on those realities.
I think kids. Aren’t like the way that they presented it and the language they used and the way, like what you saw and didn’t see, felt like it was again age appropriate, where they’re not necessarily gonna be picking up on some stuff in the same way as an adult will, like put pieces together. You know what I mean?
So
[00:37:01] Josiah: I liked it. I liked that they had a villain to add tension throughout. Um, I wonder if there’s, I wonder if she is a perfect villain thematically. Like what is, what is the reason that Paddington is a good guy? Is it that you know, he’s looking for family and the Browns are trying to make family work. So like family is important.
So is Nicole Kidman’s character thematically opposite in that she is dishonoring her family legacy of exploring and loving nature? You know, I think that that’s okay. I think that maybe that could be, uh, tightened up a little more to make her exactly the opposite of what makes Paddington and the Browns good guys.
But, uh, you know, I think it was good that she was able to add tension throughout the movie and not just be one episode at the end.
[00:38:02] Rebekah: I also will say like, I agree. I like, I feel like she was a good addition. I will say though, not knowing that twist of like her being Montgomery Clyde’s daughter until the end.
It. I don’t know. I felt like the Montgomery Clyde storyline felt less satisfying ’cause I really wanted them to find him and they don’t. And so there was part of that that I think, you know, maybe knowing that earlier in the film might have been a little more satisfying or like less of a letdown. ’cause I do think that that was probably the one miss is like, they go through all this stuff to find Montgomery Clyde.
And it’s sad because his legacy was destroyed and there’s no other, like, he’s not, I don’t know, he’s not actually honored in any way. She doesn’t have a turnaround either, which is fine. I don’t mind it if a villain is really a villain,
[00:38:52] Josiah: but, but who’s wearing his hat? His new legacy is padding.
[00:38:56] Rebekah: True. It does basically, you know, it gets moved over to Paddington.
[00:39:01] Josiah: Someone could have said that, but Yeah.
[00:39:04] Rebekah: Yeah. Made it more
[00:39:04] Donna: obvious. And if we wanna get really deep with it, you could say. Her outcome of ruining her dad’s legacy was contrasted with Henry and Mary having this kind of wild, fun-loving beginning. He gets over the top with the, the safety and the care of everything, and then comes back and kind of goes back to, yes, there’s safety and yes, we need to live well, but we should live fun and we should not be as as cautious.
So I guess I could see, I don’t know. Do you think anybody intended for that depth of, uh. Comparison to be in there.
[00:39:48] Josiah: Hasn’t he got like a hundred percent of rotten tomatoes, like 99% or something?
[00:39:54] Donna: It’s high. It has a great, it has great ratings. It’s held onto them. So
[00:39:58] Tim: to keep it in line with, with the adventures of Paddington from the book, the, the Bear called Paddington, the film borrows some of the, the iconic scenes, uh, from those episodes.
The first bath disaster, although it’s, it’s expanded of course for so good, for the visual medium, uh, the underground scene where Paddington doesn’t know what to do with the escalators and, and the, like, the, the up down the, you have to, you know, dogs have to be carried, which I, I found that interesting.
The son said, dogs have to be carried.
[00:40:32] Rebekah: That was so cute. And so he
[00:40:34] Tim: goes and gets a dog to carry, um, that initial scene where they meet him for the first time. Uh, those are all. Pulled directly from the book.
[00:40:45] Rebekah: That dog scary thing sent me. It was so good. I did truly love that one and I liked that they did it and they like worked it in.
I think there’s also, um, I, um, I’m trying to remember what it was now at the end of the seaside holiday, which is one of the cut scenes, like from the book that’s not in the film, there is like this thing where Paddington makes a mistake and then they’re like, oh, he’s so amazing and, which is kinda what happens every time, but it reminded me of something that they did when he accidentally saves the thief in the movie or helps.
Not save, helps capture that thief. The Ball Wallet thief guy. There was something at the end of the seaside thing that felt like inspired that scene, but they shifted it so that it had nothing to do with like going to the, the sea. But there were several book scenes or plot lines that weren’t included in the film, obviously.
So a few of them were, he gets lost, Paddington gets lost during a shopping trip. Um, my favorite one, he goes to the theater with the Browns and he doesn’t understand the concept of acting like he doesn’t understand what’s happening. And so the story on the stage was this man who is like rejecting or sending away his daughter or something.
So Paddington leaves and Mr. And Mrs. Brown are like, where are you going? And he’s like, I’ll be right back. And he goes and finds the actor and he shouts at him and he’s like, you better take your daughter back ’cause he doesn’t understand. So the actor brings, this is just so cute. The actor brings in the actress that plays his daughter in the, in the stage play.
And the daughter character says, don’t you see? Because he said like they’d made a point to say the actor was like in a bad mood. And then the girl says, don’t you see? Your acting was so good that this bear mistook what was happening for reality. So isn’t that amazing? And so then he comes back and acts the second half of the play really Well, which is so cute.
[00:42:43] Donna: Like, and Paddington becomes, uh, the line, line line. He’s the line prompter. He gives him line, the line prompter. Yeah. And
[00:42:52] Rebekah: so the line
[00:42:52] Tim: prompter, boy love that is, is missing for this night. Didn’t come in. The
[00:42:56] Rebekah: guy was in a bad mood ’cause he kept missing his lines because that kid was gone
[00:43:01] Tim: opening night and
[00:43:02] Rebekah: Yeah.
[00:43:03] Tim: Lines weren’t quite straight.
[00:43:05] Rebekah: Yeah. And so the other two that I had written down were the seaside holiday. They go to the, the sea and that was hilarious. Anyway, uh, they’re all really cute. And then the magic trick fiasco that he learns. You talking about cleaning his ears with toothbrushes? Yeah, we did that.
I think that was an added to the film thing that wasn’t from the book. Yeah, it was, that was a different, that that was a different one for sure. Yeah. Sorry. So clever and gross, but hilarious, like mm-hmm. Yeah. I thought, man, that I’m glad that they kept the, the first time he uses the washroom, like the bath scene was so funny.
And when they blow dry his hair and they finally get him to actually wash, he looked like, apparently several of my favorite childhood toys. Yep. Where his fur looked burned, comes all the way back around and yelly.
[00:43:56] Tim: That’s right. You know what the, uh, poor bear.
[00:43:59] Donna: Uh, talking about what’s good for, we’ve talked about like things that we thought were appropriate for children or not.
For me, him pulling the toothbrushes out of his ears and they’re covered and they’re brown was so disgusting. And then just a few minutes later to see Henry in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Well, and Paddington looks in and it’s like, and he makes a comment. He makes a comment about it. Oh, the
[00:44:25] Tim: should you use but for children, should you be using that ear, that ear brush?
Yeah. It’s on your teeth or something, whatever the comment is.
[00:44:32] Donna: It’s the perfect potty humor for little kids. Yes. It’s just so goofy and whatever. Yeah. I loved it.
[00:44:40] Josiah: Well, I know it’s getting into setting changes, but I wanted to talk about the, the setting being modern Day England in both book and film as in modern to the book in 1958 and modern to the movie in 2014.
So they update it to be contemporary, but obviously the time periods are very different,
[00:45:01] Rebekah: which I, I don’t think the book was super dependent on a lot of the contemporary stuff. Like it feels a little more timeless. But I did like the modern day London stuff in 2014. Like I thought that that was cute.
[00:45:15] Tim: The film removed a lot of the talk about money.
Uh, Mr. Brown gave him an allowance of a pound a week and he talked, talked about, you know, how much it costs to get this and how much it costs to get that, which would’ve been contemporary to 1958, but would’ve, would’ve been awkward, uh, in 2014. And if they’re thinking about the movie being something that people would watch over and over and over, well this is 11 years later.
Um, and it still looks, it still looks modern because there’s nothing in it that is super stamped to the time. Um, if that makes, that makes sense. We, we do see darkest Peru, uh, at the start of the film and in the conclusion and just, not really a spoiler, but, uh, the third film is Paddington goes to Peru.
[00:46:11] Rebekah: I can’t believe that you would spoil the name of the third film for me, the
[00:46:14] Tim: name of it.
Um, but the darkest Peru stuff, other than him talking about it, it, it’s not in the book
[00:46:21] Rebekah: for what it’s worth. I think it’s Paddington in Peru. Not Paddington goes to Peru. But, um, also, I felt like this was one confusing thing. ’cause they, they still use darkest Peru. Like they say it like that, but. It’s just a, a jungle.
Like it’s not dark. I didn’t really understand. I, ’cause in the book it’s like, it’s just spoken about and then you see it in the film, but it’s not dark in any way. So then that was like, well, why didn’t, why did we keep that and not make it look like really dark and covered? It was kind of funny to me,
[00:46:56] Tim: explored is what that would’ve meant.
Mm. Uh, in the fifties, the, the places that were still un undiscovered, un um, untouched by the hand of Western culture.
[00:47:09] Rebekah: Other than that, the film does add a few locations to support this kind of like throughline plot. So you get to see the National History Museum, uh, Mr. Brown and Paddington go to the Geographer’s Guild, which by the way, I thought the design of that, where they use the little air powered, whatever they’re called, um, suction to, you know.
Send around information. I thought that was so clever. Uh, we also see Millicent’s Taxidermy Museum, and then we also see several like con contemporary London sites and some of the interesting things that occur in London. So like there were street musicians, for instance, that wouldn’t have been present in 1958.
They were really cute. It was adorable. So there were several things like that. But for the most part, the setting, mom and I were talking about this this morning, the setting itself really doesn’t change a whole lot other than that time period. And then adding a few locations. Visually to support just the whole plot line.
[00:48:04] Donna: Just to
[00:48:05] Rebekah: clarify,
[00:48:06] Donna: the musicians literally had zero to do with anything except they were just inserted in different places to be funny. Is that right? I mean, I, I thought, am I missing something? No, it was just like
[00:48:19] Rebekah: a cute, I think the whole thing is this childhood. Well, so this leads me into kind of the next question.
What did we like that was the same from book to film, and so like, I think that the musicians were one example of the, this kind of the lighthearted children’s story where it’s like not everything moves the plot along or is logical. It just kind of cements that world building of a place that’s like a, like a child fan, a childhood fantasy type of thing.
And so one of the things I like the best about this book that they definitely kept in the film is. This is a talking bear. And it was only slightly odd to anyone that a bear was talking and eating marmalade and wearing a hat. Like, I just thought it was so precious to hear and watch Paddington just kind of go around and people were like, is that a bear?
And instead of being like, oh my gosh, like, you know, put him on TV and it was so cra it’s like, oh, that’s so weird that that’s a talking bear. But yeah, that makes sense. Like it’s just this acceptance of something so absurd in the sweetest way.
[00:49:26] Donna: Um, mine, the, the things I liked were pretty simple. I liked, um, I could probably find a bunch of stuff, but I liked the fact that they kept Mrs.
Brown as their housekeeper because they could have, you know, another, another story or another screenwriter could have seen that and thought, uh, do we need, you know, should she live in the house with it? What, what would her role be? I’m glad they didn’t take that away. I thought that was very fun. And, um, I love that they kept.
The, I, I love the line, and I’m not sure this is in the book, but the line where paddington’s, where they’re talking about marmalade having the exact nutrients, uh, bear needs for the day, ASEs, I, I really, I thought that was great that they hung onto those things and kept him looking the way he did. So those, those would be my picks,
[00:50:18] Tim: like that.
I enjoyed the, the escalator stuff, the, with the London Underground, they did less of it in the film. It was not quite as elaborate. Uh, but I, I found that a, an interesting one. And I really did love the part of, you know, dogs must be carried, you know. He goes and gets a dog. It just, it just kept it lighthearted.
And I think that’s, that’s also one of the things with the band, which is not in the book obviously, but the band is just to kind of keep it lighthearted no matter what the plot is. There are these people just kind of singing about all the things that are going on.
[00:50:57] Josiah: I like how the film adapted and maybe even expanded, but certainly adapted the family element from the book about the Brown family.
Just accepting Paddington right away and trying to figure out like, how do we live with a talking bear as part of our family. It’s new, but it’s not that weird, as Rebecca was talking about. But, uh, I like it’s all about family and loving one another and, uh, a little bit of a foster, foster family sort of parallel and, uh, community get it coming together to.
To take care of Paddington, all that sort of stuff is in the book and it’s in the movie and it’s delightful in both. Yeah,
[00:51:44] Rebekah: I think on that token, another thing I would probably personally say that I enjoy about this whole thing is just that Paddington making mistakes doesn’t ultimately lead to them rejecting him.
Like they kind of don’t know why he makes mistakes all the time and they want to help him not have so many snafus. But I love that the book introduces Paddington as this character who like makes kind of awkward choices or you know, he’ll do something ’cause he doesn’t really understand how something is supposed to work and it leads to some, you know, hijinks of whatever sort and like.
In the film, obviously there’s a little bit more of the, like, he almost does get like rejected because of the, the trouble he causes, for lack of a better term. Uh, actually he almost gets kicked out ’cause they think he’s lying about something. I guess it’s not really the trouble he causes, but I, I thought it was really cute in the book, you know, from start to finish.
It’s like he, he fails upwards, you know? And they appreciate him for that.
[00:52:44] Donna: Yeah. The one difference I don’t think we got into too much was I was very thankful that the daughter quickly changed over to, to loving Paddington. Now granted it was peer pressure that changed her because she saw her friends thought, oh, that’s so cute.
When they saw him, whatever, and she decided he was cute, but. I at the be very beginning, I was like, oh, I can’t remember how, how quickly she turns around. Please turn her around quickly. She’s awful. So I, I was glad for that. Let’s move on to discover a little bit of basic information and trivia about Paddington.
I friendly
[00:53:26] Tim: there. Yeah.
[00:53:27] Donna: The book released on October 13th, 1958 titled A Bear called Paddington. It is one of 29 books featuring our friendly Bear. Uh, the movie released on November 28th, 2014 in the uk. Then December 3rd, 2014 in France, and then January 16th, 2015 in the us.
[00:53:52] Tim: That’s odd for a, for a January release in the US ’cause that’s after the holidays.
[00:53:59] Donna: Yeah. I thought it was interesting too. I, I didn’t realize it. I. Don’t remember, obviously, but I thought, oh, it would’ve been a great Christmas movie. The book rating on Good Reads was a 4.24 out of five. Thought that was all right. I That’s pretty high. Yeah, it is. And that was 86,000 ratings. So it’s, it’s had a lot of hits out there.
Um, the Rotten Tomatoes critics rating was 96%. Didn’t this hold a hundred percent for a while? I, if I remember correctly, when it came out, I, I didn’t necessarily follow IMDB or Flicker, but, or, or these things. But for some reason, I remember thinking sometime after the movie was out. Wow. It’s still at a hundred percent.
That’s pretty cool. 96 is still amazing. Uh, the IMDB rating is 7.3 out of 10, and the flixter audience score is 81%. So solid. I mean, I think from our, our comments would. Would mirror many others for sure, that this was just a great film. Um, the box office numbers look like this. The production cost of the film was 55 million, uh, opening weekend in the us 19 million USA Canada gross, 76 million international, understandably, because this was a, a, a European, uh, uh, flick for sure, 250 million.
And so the total box office at this point is 326 million. Uh, it was rated pg and what was it? Rated pg probably because of the, the theme, the scary elements, the death. I think there’s, yeah. I think that’s fair.
[00:55:50] Tim: Uncle Zo.
[00:55:52] Donna: Yeah.
[00:55:53] Josiah: Hey, do you guys know who, don’t look it up. Who voiced Paddington Bear?
[00:55:57] Donna: I recognized it.
I saw the name, but I, I didn’t,
[00:56:00] Josiah: I looked it up at the end of the credits. Ben Whishaw haw. I don’t know how to pronounce his last name, but you’d probably recognize him. But he’s not been a huge role in many movies. I think two of his most recognizable roles were in the Mary Poppins Returns movie. He was Michael, the son of, he was the son who’s all grown up now and uh, in, was
[00:56:27] Tim: he in Peter Rabbit?
[00:56:29] Josiah: Oh, maybe I was gonna say Skyfall. At no Time to Die.
[00:56:36] Tim: Oh. He was in Jamie Bond interest, I think it is. He was cute. I think it he was the, he was the villain in Gotcha. Oh yeah. Peter Rabbit, I think. Fun. I haven’t seen that one. Fun.
[00:56:46] Rebekah: Paddington too had a lower budget, um, for. It’s film because I thought 55 didn’t sound like that much for the first movie.
The second one, which came out in 2018, it had a budget of only 40 million and it made 227 million worldwide, like with everything included. So it didn’t do quite as well, but it definitely still made its budget back and more. But that is so interesting to me. We, I don’t know. I see. I feel like we see these numbers so often then they like cease to have meaning.
[00:57:16] Tim: Here’s something that, that I think about when you’re, when you’re talking about the, the numbers and the, the CGI, I never looked at this film and thought, wow, that’s a CGI bear.
[00:57:28] Rebekah: Really? I didn’t, they did such a,
[00:57:30] Tim: they did such a good job. However, you know, it’s a toy, so, okay. It didn’t have to look realistic.
Exactly. But you just, you just never looked at it and thought, oh, well that’s. That’s CGI or whatever. It’s like, okay, I get it.
[00:57:46] Rebekah: I thinks, I think part of it is because the way they filmed it, they used a lot more CGI than just Paddington because the way that their house was, you remember the doll house, right?
Like, so that, and some of the other shifting things, the way that they filmed the bath scene is obviously like there’s a lot of CGI stuff in there. It’s not all practical. So I think that there were a lot of things that were just subtly fantastical, like created with CGI, that Paddington felt like he fit versus if you tried to have something that was filmed very, like just practical sets and then throwing in CGI, like, I think it was just very, very well finessed.
[00:58:25] Donna: There’s not a little motion capture person hooked up in a bathtub that goes down the stairs, you know? Maybe, oh my
[00:58:33] Tim: gosh. Did you, did you notice in the film that the tree loses its flowers? And then they come back and it’s painted, painted on the wall.
[00:58:43] Rebekah: The wall. Well, and they’re like growing a painted on the wall when Paddington comes back in.
Like, and so there were, it was stuff like that. It’s subtle and it, it makes you feel like you’re in this like slightly mag more magical kind of scene scenery of whatever. Um, so author Michael Bond, the idea, uh, he got the idea for Paddington when he saw a teddy bear on a shelf by itself on a London store’s shelf, uh, on Christmas Eve of 1956.
He bought it for his wife. And, uh, purchasing the bear is what inspired him to write this creation of what ended up being many, many books in a row and movies and all sorts of fun stuff.
[00:59:24] Donna: Yeah. I thought that was so sweet.
[00:59:26] Josiah: I was looking up like how expense, like with the budget stuff, why was it so cheap?
And I was seeing if they did anything special with, or, or also how life like. Paddington was, despite the relatively low budget, it’s like, it seems like they just did the normal things with little stand-ins. Sometimes a puppet, sometimes a tennis ball, uh, attached to a crew member for their eye lines to match up or something like that.
But yeah, it seems all simple. I was also looking about the old news reels that were used in the beginning of the film. There were like children being evacuated from London during World War ii. You know, the labels around their neck that Aunt Lucy references at the beginning of the film. Uh, they were hold, you know, the kids holding all of their possessions that they owe in small cases.
And, uh, the ies. Mm-hmm. Just like the PE season Narnia, uh, that was the inspiration for the lonely bear standing outlined at Paddington Station, wondering if he would ever find a home. I think that’s a beautiful, beautiful image that maybe in 2014 did require. A slight reminder, whereas in 19 58, 19 56, whenever it was, probably didn’t need the reminder as much
[01:00:42] Donna: infamous bear.
So a stuffed toy Paddington. Um, he was chosen to be the first item to pass between Britain and France when the two sides of the channel tunnel were linked In 1994, they sent through a stuffed animal as the first thing to go through it. He also appeared with Queen Elizabeth too in a prerecorded comedy sketch.
Again, prerecorded. Did we think the bear was there, um, during her platinum party at the Palace in 2022 of the 70th anniversary of her Queenship. I know it’s not a word,
[01:01:21] Rebekah: but say that, say that five times fast. Platinum party at the Palace Platinum Party at the Palace Platinum Party at the palace. That’s cute.
So, out out of curiosity, this just like, brings me to the question how big an icon, have the Paddington books been in British culture? Are they like, seems like it’s pretty significant.
[01:01:39] Tim: Well, I remember they made a lot of reference to it on some of the comedies that we’ve, that we’ve watched from Britain from the seventies and things like that.
[01:01:47] Donna: And I, I did read something, just a note about, in some of the trivia I was reviewing that said the marmalade sales skyrocketed in Britain when this came out. And because it was such a beloved thing that, you know, and I could see it’s, it is timeless. I mean, we’ve used that word a few times and I could see why it would hold.
Its, its beauty and its popularity. It’s
[01:02:11] Tim: very warm and comfortable
[01:02:15] Donna: and I don’t know if this would make a difference or not in the way. It’s so kind of all across the board, everybody can know this bear and recognize the bear. But there’s not really a Christian or a non-Christian theme to it either. It’s just a feel good story.
You could say there’s Christian theme and the love that they showed to the bear and that they, the theme accepted him. I would say the themeing is like
[01:02:38] Rebekah: family very specifically, right? Yeah. Right.
[01:02:40] Donna: It’s, it’s just such a pro-family thing and I think that would probably, I. Make it beloved as well. So,
[01:02:47] Tim: so the first stuffed toy of Paddington was manufactured in 1972.
That seems really late to me considering the book started coming out in 58. Um, today, the, the book would’ve come out in 58 and the toy would’ve been introduced with the book. Um, but it was manufactured in 72 by Gabrielle Designs a small family business owned by Shirley and Eddie Clarkson. They presented the prototype there to their children, Joanna and Jeremy Clarkson.
Oh, at Christmas,
[01:03:22] Rebekah: Jeremy Clarkson. Yes. That Jeremy Clarkson. Yes. It’s his mom.
[01:03:28] Tim: Shirley dressed the bear in Wellington boots to give him stability to stand in stock. Inspired by the 64 book, Paddington Marches on where he receives a pair of boots for Christmas.
[01:03:39] Rebekah: And it all comes full circle because Jeremy Clarkson now has to put on those, those muck boots all the time to go and take care of his farm.
Oh,
[01:03:47] Donna: alright. The mini game is Mom’s surprise as a. Nod back to our summer of Potter in 2024. I noticed right off a couple of people that I recognize from Harry Potter franchise. So there ends up being four in this movie. Can you name the four people and who they played?
[01:04:07] Tim: I think it’s, it’s, um, Mr. Gruber, the, the store owner.
He is the professor and I never sl remember the name sl? The professor Slughorn, yes. Mm-hmm. That comes in at toward the end of the book. Yeah. So
[01:04:20] Donna: take one. So dad got, that’s good for Jim Broadbent. Yes.
[01:04:25] Josiah: I’m pretty sure. Molly Weasley. Julie Walters is Mrs. Uh, not Brown Bird. That Who’s Mrs. Bird? Julie Walters.
Yeah.
[01:04:35] Rebekah: Her accent is very different and she has a different color of hair in this movie. That’s why I didn’t place her until the end of the film. I was like, that’s Mrs. Weasley. Yeah,
[01:04:45] Tim: I think I’ve always thought that was Tracy Oldman.
[01:04:49] Josiah: She’s also in Mama Mia. And she doesn’t seem like Molly Weasley at all. So that has helped me kind of notice who Julie Walters is outside of that.
[01:04:57] Rebekah: Yeah.
[01:04:58] Josiah: Um, so
[01:04:58] Tim: Rebecca, you’ve got two more to choose from.
[01:05:01] Rebekah: Okay. So I said I thought I knew all of them. Now I’m thinking of four. Those two, I definitely were the most obvious. Uh, let’s see, the, it’s is Mrs. Brown one of them? No. No. Okay. I thought that she was somebody, I’m trying to place where I remember seeing who I thought that was.
Must be an actress that looks very similar. Okay, hold on. So let me think. Uh, the guy who plays Dr. Who, who, I can’t ever remember his name, but the Mr. Capaldi,
[01:05:29] Donna: Peter Capaldi. Peter
[01:05:30] Rebekah: Capaldi, Mr. Curry. Was he in it? Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, maybe, I don’t know. Then I thought those two were in it as psych care. Was it him?
Yeah. What if I told
[01:05:37] Donna: you, yeah, gimme a hint. What hint, what if I told you they were voices?
[01:05:43] Josiah: Oh, oh, okay. Who voices? Pso.
[01:05:47] Rebekah: Is it PSUs and Aunt Lucy? Both. Mm-hmm. Oh, yes. Oh, golly. Yeah. Okay. Never Rebecca. How, how dare you years have
[01:05:56] Donna: known?
[01:05:56] Rebekah: I know, I don’t, I’m sad
[01:05:58] Donna: now that I missed all that. Hemmington mi Hemmington.
We mentioned Pezo something. Yes. It’s at the, when I went through the credits, I went, oh, PON,
[01:06:09] Tim: is that, is that right?
[01:06:10] Donna: Michael Gaon. Wow. Okay. So Dumbledore. Isus. I was gonna
[01:06:14] Josiah: say Gandalf. I’m so glad I didn’t.
[01:06:18] Donna: And who is our favorite of all? Harry Potter. Cherry Elizabeth the
[01:06:25] Josiah: oldest. Elizabeth, she’s Lucy,
[01:06:27] Donna: is Yes.
Um, sweet Amelda Donin voices on Lucy, who plays professor. That’s amazing. She has won over something. She’s won over my heart now as Aunt Lucy
[01:06:38] Rebekah: for some reason. Just so you know, this has nothing. I’ll do my verdict first. So I’ll kind of introduce this. I know that it’s the Christmas season and so, uh, this reminds me a lot of the vibe of how this feels, feels like a Christmas movie, even though it’s actually not Christmasy specifically.
Um, it also, aside from me,
[01:06:58] Tim: there’s no Christmas in it.
[01:07:00] Rebekah: Yeah. It reminds me of the vibe of a boy called Christmas, or a Boy named Christmas, which is one of our favorite Christmas movies to rewatch that’s newer. It has a very similar vibe, and they have a live-in nanny in that movie. And the Live-in Nanny is the actress that plays Professor McGonigal.
So like, I was like, oh, it’s McGonigal at the end. Like I had that same kind of experience with that. Um, this was delightful and charming. The book was short, easy to read. I mean, it’s hard, again, to rate it because it’s like. I don’t necessarily just pick up kids’ books, but like, if I had children I would read them this book, you know?
Um, so it was really charming. I loved the books. Episodic Nature, we’ve talked about that as well. Um, so I would probably give both of the, these a nine out of 10. I thought the movie for me was like, I’ve put this on several times in the background. It feels like Christmas, not during Christmas. So if I really want a little taste of Christmas spirit at a different time of year, when it would be weird to put a Christmas movie on, like I’ve put this on in the background, um, I think that it was really well done.
It just makes you feel good like it at the, by the end, I just feel. Good in my little heart, you know? And so I love stuff like that that just feels wonderful at the end. I, I wouldn’t say that the book or movie were necessarily better, I think that they were pretty different, like very similar in that the characters don’t change that much of, you know, they’re mostly different because the plot is what is completely kind of turned upside down.
Um, but like I said, I don’t mind it in either direction. Like I liked the way they did it in both. Um, and I would read or watch these again. I thought it was such a fun one to cover. So,
[01:08:42] Donna: yes, I would agree with you. I don’t really have a lot to add. I, I feel like the book is something that would be enjoyable maybe when life is stressful.
Because it, it doesn’t include the Clydes and that whole story. And it, there’s a lot of things that they put in the movie that are interesting, interesting, on film and funny to watch are kind of silly or, or over, uh, overly acted for the comedic effect. The book doesn’t have those, but what it has is a, just a sweet, pure tale of, uh, uh, that that stretches your imagination and it gives you just, it, it’s a feel good mushy vibe.
And so, um, if we didn’t say this before, I think the book is a right at three hours to listen to. If you listen to audiobook, it would be fun to listen to an audiobook with your children or read it. I mean, it’s, it’s just lovely. And so, uh, I’m, I’m gonna go with Rebecca. I, I can’t really say. One’s better than the other, except for the fact that I tend to lean to the movie genre more so than, than books in in general.
Um, and I’m, I’m so glad we covered it. Uh, finding out that this. Bear was created in Toy Form by Jeremy Clarkson’s. Mom makes it all the more cooler to me, uh, because we’ve enjoyed him in his career over the years. And so, um, a lot of fun things about this that I, I’ve really enjoyed.
[01:10:31] Tim: I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the movie.
I think there are some times when, uh, you just want to recapture some of your, that childhood wonder. Um, and it doesn’t matter how much it cost to fix the bathroom. Um, it was just, it was just fun and enjoyable and you didn’t have to worry about all of those kinds of things. Um, I would give, I, I think I would give each of them, uh, a nine out of 10.
I think I would, I would mirror Rebecca. Um. They, they’re just, they’re charming. Um, I actually want to listen to another one of the books. I listened to this, um, last year. ’cause I thought we were doing it a little earlier. I thought it was in last year’s Christmas stuff, I think. But I listened to it again for this, so I’d be, so, it would be fresh in my memory.
And, um, when I don’t need to read a book for something else, uh, this would be a very enjoyable book to read. And, uh, I enjoy sitting, sitting with kids and reading books. Um, I need to do some more of that. And, uh, it’s just, it’s just wonderful. There’s a wonder, uh, about it. And I, I enjoyed it.
[01:11:45] Josiah: So cute. I mean, I, you know, I got a one up you, so I think I’m gonna give the book and movie a nine and a half out of 10, just essentially British.
Cozy, fun for the whole family pro, uh, you know, family coming together, uh, loving each other and, you know, bringing in outsiders and them becoming insiders and, uh, the community coming together. It’s just so, so many great tropes and aspects taken all together. Put into a little story that just makes you smile.
I did hear, I’ve been revisiting a lot of Red Dwarf, the British sitcom that we all grew up on, and there was one YouTuber who was talking about how Red Dwarf, he was talking positively about Red Dwarf and how it represented the, you know, middle class, even like the lower middle class of British culture in a way that wasn’t often portrayed.
And he used Paddington as an example of. The cliches, the cliche British culture that was often portrayed, especially internationally and how, you know, Americans just think that all of England is like Paddington, but you know, a lot more of it’s like red dwarf characters than Paddington. So, you know, I thought that was a funny perspective to have that Paddington does feel essentially British to us, but it probably doesn’t represent as much of Britain as we kind of think, you know, it’s across the pond.
We’re not connected to that. But, uh, at the same time, I very much enjoy that. It’s not just about being British, it’s about being a family. And I’m, I’m gonna edge it out for the movie was slightly better for me. I think the, the format of it works really well, but both of them are. Basically timeless classics that you can revisit over and over again.
Find new things here and there and enjoy it every time. Beautiful.
[01:14:01] Rebekah: Well, thank you guys so much for joining us and, uh, just spending time with family. I hope that you are enjoying this Christmas season just as much as we are. Um, I hope that your decorations are up and that you are spending some time with family and hopefully watching some corny movies and, uh, hoping that Santa Claus brings you everything that you want.
Uh, I know what I want is a couple of five star ratings and reviews. That’s my favorite thing to get as a gift. Um, you can also find us on Patreon social media, um, and we have a Discord link in our description. And, uh, I don’t know, from my family to yours. Happy Christmas everybody.
[01:14:44] Josiah: Yes, happy Christmas.
Merry holidays.[01:15:01] Music: Hail Paddington. Paddington is a bear and is a bear.