“Paddington 2 is the biggest movie ever made,” one user posted on X in 2022.
This tweet was not ironic.
In the seven years since its release in January 2018, the film about the quest for a marmalade-loving bear to find the perfect gift for his beloved aunt is home to internet phenomenon, spawning memes, fragments of thought, Nicholas Cage It has become a support from. For a while, it was the best-reviewed film of all time on the aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
“A very eclectic group of people responded to it,” Paddington 2 producer David Heyman and his 2015 predecessor Paddington said in a recent phone conversation from his London home. I will,” David Heyman said. For example, Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro confessed to Heyman, who he was a fan of.
When “Paddington 2” first arrived at the theatre, as the franchise's third feature article, “Paddington in Peru” has already passed a $100 million milestone in the international box office , in the state, it was just a modest box office success. Since the DVD and streaming release, a dedicated community of online fans has emerged around it, evangelizing the outsider bears who have brought joy to their lives.
“There's humor for adults. Heyman, who grew up reading Paddington's books written by British author Michael Bond, said: “To feel adorable and to speak to an audience.” It never has. It has a big, beating heart.”
All three films are based on a children's book about duffle-coated hard steer bears, first published in 1958. In the first film, Paddington emigrates from Peru to London, with a story inspired by the World War II rescue operation that brought nearly to it. He had 10,000 children from Nazi occupation Europe to Britain. The second film directed by Simon Farnabee and scriptwriter Paul King is an action adventure with stunning set sequences, following Paddington through court trials, prison escapes and bold pursuits by train.
Securing the return of original film cast members – Ben Whishaw with a gentle voice as Paddington, Hugh Bonneville is unhappy, but well-meaning Mrs. Brown and Sally Hawkins as heartfelt Mrs. Brown – It was easy, Hayman said. And it was a breeze to bring in a dream team of new things: Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan, a ridiculously double the villain.
“Hugh knows the good parts,” he said with a laugh.
King's confidence as a director has grown from his first to his second film, Heyman said. He became more comfortable with the swarm of visual effects needed to create a CGI bear represented during filming with the toy bear head on the stick.
“I had a lot more time to focus on the script and work with the actors,” Hayman said. “It was really fun. The spirit of the film was reflected on the set.”
That may have been most obvious with the bus beaverkley style dance numbers that remained inside the prison as the final credits began to roll. He was locked up for ten years due to a plan to assemble Paddington, who stole the pop-up book. He leads around 300 other prisoners by tap number with a tap number set to “Roof Rain” from Stephen Sondheim's musical “Follies.”
“Hugh was all in,” said choreographer Craig Rebel Horwood. He created the 90-second number. He recruited 300 heavy sets with his tattoos Professional dancer Friends who make up the army.
“Everyone who looked rough, we were in there,” Horwood said. Horwood planned for about a month, including a three-week teaching grant to tap dance. “I had no problems getting someone for the gig. No one refused me.”
He equipped with a pastel umbrella and a pink striped uniform in size xxl with a pastel umbrella and a size xxl. We then filmed from Sunup to Sunset, narrowed down to the final few deadlines, and the midnight deadline was approaching.
“It's like Mama's Rose in the 'gypsy' moment,” he said. “Everything is rose,” the number of that type. ”
The same could not be said about the film's first US box office revenue. “Paddington 2” was a huge success in the UK, but according to the box office revenues on the data site, it was tough to win $15 million on a modest budget of $15 million from the pack over the weekend, according to Martin Luther King Jr. I did. .
One challenge explained that Weinstein's company, which initially held partial North American distribution rights for the film, was against co-founder and former co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. It was a financial crisis that was exacerbated by many sexual assault allegations. . On the verge of filing for bankruptcy, the company did not sell the rights to Warner Bros. until within two months of the film's release date.
“So, Warner had one hand tied behind his back in terms of marketing,” Heyman said.
Ultimately, this strong review, including praise from the newspaper and word of mouth, helped the film in the US, but it never achieved success in the UK. According to box office gross Mojo, the 2017 film.
In other words, “Paddington 2” was made available for viewing on Amazon Prime videos in March 2018, and became a streaming hit in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The film shows what we can do if people resonate with each other more,” said 28-year-old Jason Chow, a visual effects artist based on Los Angeles.
But not everyone saw a generous spirit in the classic bear version of King and Farnabee.
One strange footnote to Paddington 2's reputation came on the blog a few years after the film was released. The film had a solid, perfect score with rotten tomatoes. Suddenly, in 2021, a freelance film critic wrote on his blog that he gave “Paddington 2” a negative review on BBC Radio in 2017, then fell to 99% (no one that review) (Cannot find it).
Blogger Eddie Harrison wrote that he grew up reading Bond books, and in “Paddington 2,” the bear's “completely lacks charm,” he said, “Evil and Beady Eye and Rutty's He writes that he has “fur”.
“This is not my Paddington Bear,” he added. from Space on your first opportunity. ”
Within 12 hours of his May 2021 blog post, he became Paddington Hive's No. 1 public enemy. Hours after the score fell, the Hollywood Reporter published an article about the downgrade and follows dozens of news outlets.
Why did Harrison care?
“The revised critique has realised that Paddington will be knocked out of his perfect RT score,” Harrison wrote in his blog, Film Authority, in his Fallout description. However, he said he included dox and vandalism as well as death threats, he pointed out that he did not expect vitriol's strength.
“That's just an opinion, man,” Harrison said.
Heyman certainly maintains another view of “Paddington 2.” One is shared over the internet.
“The second is to look for people's good,” Hayman said.
“In an age of life with irony, Paddington is a very generous and rude personality,” he added. “And the film reflects that.”
