THE TITLE
Once sequels identified themselves with
a number after the title. These days, though,
it’s more common for a sequel to bill itself with
an unwieldy subtitle. But King plumped for
Paddington 2 right from the off. “I like the
simplicity,” he says. “Though I wish it was
called Paddington: Rogue Nation.”
THE PLOT
Most sequels up the ante. Paddington 2 ups
the aunty, building the plot around Paddington’s
desire to buy a 100th birthday present for his
absent Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), thousands
of miles away at a home for retired bears in
Lima, Peru. “He finds this pop-up book of
London,” explains King. “Aunt Lucy always
dreamed of coming to London but gave up her
dream to look after Paddington when he was a
cub. So this is his way of bringing London to
her.” Unfortunately, the book contains clues to
B
esides that time Rick Astley showed up to sing on stage
with Foo Fighters, few surprises in recent years have been
as pleasant as Paul King’s Paddington. A wonderfully whimsical
adaptation of the Michael Bond books about a talking bear
from darkest Peru who rocks up in London in search of a home
and happiness, it was well-received critically (five stars, said
Empire) and went great guns at the box office, raking in over
$260 million worldwide, enough to keep its ursine underdog
(underbear?) in marmalade for life. Bright, inventive, charming,
quaint and imbued with a lovely message about tolerance and
acceptance, it’s already something of a family classic.
So then, to the sequel. And that usually means one thing: bigger.
Rightly or wrongly, sequels are associated with the idea of scaling up, and
scaling up frequently means there’s no room for charm, or fancy, or being
quaint. Something King had to face up to when he started working on
Paddington’s further big-screen adventures. “There is a slight dread of the
sequel,” admits King. “How is it not just diminishing returns, really? That
inflationary process can spoil what’s special about it.”
Nevertheless, King has forged ahead and crafted Paddington 2,
attempting to straddle the fine line between retaining the original’s
whimsical magic, while giving into the lure of a bigger budget. “He’s
packing heat this time,” says the director. And he’s also been pumped
up in a number of key areas.
Clockwise from
left: “Anyone fancy
a marmalade
sandwich?” Paddington
attempts to endear
himself to his fellow
prison inmates; Hugh
Grant does his best
‘baddie face’ as villain
Phoenix Buchanan;
Drama! Paddington
loses his iconic
hat; Meet prison inmate/
cook ‘Knuckles’ McGinty
(Brendan Gleeson).
