Post by klep on Jan 6, 2020 7:52:15 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/6: Paddington & Paddington 2
JANUARY MOVIES WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
January has a reputation for being a “dump month,” a month in the release schedule where studios plop their worst or least marketable movies. Coming right after the November and December months of prestige and holiday seasons, January tends to have lower theatre attendance. It’s not a prime spot and so that’s when studios can unload a bad movie or a movie they don’t know what to do with in order to make whatever profit they can without completely losing their investment. January sees a lot of lowbrow comedies with crudely written jokes, action-thrillers that don’t live up to their trailers, and, in recent years, an assortment of supernatural horror. The January dump month typically doesn’t see family films because it comes right after the holiday season and there’s typically several Christmas-timed releases doing well enough to last several more weeks in the box office. Even if we were talking about movies that aren’t great, it would be unusual to see both Paddington and Paddington 2 dumped unceremoniously in January. But Paddington and Paddington 2 are secretly two of the greatest movies of the decade.
Why dump them?
I think part of that is that they’re so unlike the rest of their peers. In a post-Shrek entertainment landscape CG animated family films and family films with a CG character have relied heavily on pop culture reference jokes, big name actors (regardless of whether they’re suited to voice acting), a pop soundtrack, and bodily function humor. There’s some examples of that formula working well (Shrek 1 & 2) and there’s some examples of that formula working terribly (Shrek 3 & 4). But regardless of consistency, it’s very much the norm. It’s so much the norm that I almost didn’t even see Paddington because it looked like it would be similar to Yogi Bear (2010) and The Smurfs (2011). I get the feeling that the American distributors that released Paddington and later Paddington 2 had the same thought and couldn’t come up with any way to distinguish these movies as different from the pack.
The Paddington movies are different though; they’re as old-fashioned as it gets. There’s no contemporary pop-culture references, but the scripts are more than happy to quote William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. The slapstick is rarely simple pratfalls and is often elaborate setpieces that owe a creative debt to vaudeville and silent film.
Paddington himself is different from the pack too. A lot of family films have wisecracking leads that project coolness (or that want to project coolness, like Kung Fu Panda’s adorkable Po). Paddington doesn’t have an air of coolness, nor is he ever tough or cynical. Paddington is innocent and curious. He asks questions because he wants to know the answers. He looks for the good in people and is quick to trust everyone he meets. He recites and believes in Aunt Lucy’s mantra that, “If we are kind and polite, the world will be right.” He’s extremely literal in what he says and how he hears things that other people tell him, and that can get him into trouble at times. But he’s not oblivious and knows how to give a hard stare to shut down someone who has forgotten their manners. Paddington works hard and doesn’t take shortcuts to success. Paddington cares about the people in is life and always does nice things to make their lives better.
In the first movie, a Peruvian earthquake leaves Paddington homeless and his Aunt Lucy unable to continue taking care of him. Aunt Lucy sends him off to London in search of a new home. The movie draws parallels with children uprooted during World War II - London children sent to the countryside to be safe from bombing and Jewish children sent to England to be safe from persecution. The historical specifics might not mean anything to 2010s children yet, but the emotional resonance is what matters most here. Paddington meets the Brown family who takes him in just for the night. They’re nice enough to recognize a stranger in need, but they don’t see themselves as his saviors. Home isn’t something you can instantly find, and family isn’t either. Niceness isn’t the same as closeness, and acquaintance isn’t the same as love. The Browns help Paddington follow faint clues to find the only tenuous connection he might have in all of London, a geographer who visited Peru many years ago and met his aunt and uncle. The geographer isn’t someone that Paddington himself has ever met, and the connection is more of a hope than a sure thing. But over the course of their search and in the face of eventual peril, Paddington finds a new family in the Browns and a new home in their residence.
In the second movie, Paddington wants to buy a birthday present for his beloved Aunt Lucy back in Peru and sets his sights on an expensive antique pop-up book of London. He vows to get a job (hijinks ensue) to earn the money it takes to buy this present. However, unbeknownst to Paddington, a dastardly actor has sights on that pop-up book (which may be a treasure map); the nefarious thief steals the book and Paddington is framed for the crime. The movie deals with the hard lesson that telling the truth and doing the right thing doesn’t always lead to positive outcomes. Paddington does everything right, tells the truth, and still goes to prison ("10 years for grand theft and grievous barberly harm"). That’s a rough theme to teach children and the movie handles it beautifully well. In prison and surrounded by mean people, niceness initially makes new enemies. But an undeterred Paddinton still sees the good in everyone and even sees the good in Knuckles McGinty, a fearsome chef prone to violent tantrums. Paddington manages to befriend the entire prison through the power of politeness and orange marmalade. And from both within the prison and outside in his home neighborhood, everybody Paddington has ever been nice to makes a commitment to be nice right back. Everybody in a surprisingly large cast has a moment to do whatever is in their power to save Paddington. It’s hard to learn that doing the right thing won’t always turn out well. But it’s reassuring to know that you get back from the world what you give out and kindness is too powerful to go unnoticed.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/13: Moana
MOVIES AT SEA WEEK!
For Movies at Sea Week we're setting sail with the first Disney princess to be based on Polynesian culture. Join us next week as we discuss 2016's Moana, available on Disney+ and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/7: Uncut Gems
The podcast concludes its look at ill-advised gambling and debts to the wrong people with the new film from the Safdie brothers, Uncut Gems. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, still in theaters.
JANUARY MOVIES WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
January has a reputation for being a “dump month,” a month in the release schedule where studios plop their worst or least marketable movies. Coming right after the November and December months of prestige and holiday seasons, January tends to have lower theatre attendance. It’s not a prime spot and so that’s when studios can unload a bad movie or a movie they don’t know what to do with in order to make whatever profit they can without completely losing their investment. January sees a lot of lowbrow comedies with crudely written jokes, action-thrillers that don’t live up to their trailers, and, in recent years, an assortment of supernatural horror. The January dump month typically doesn’t see family films because it comes right after the holiday season and there’s typically several Christmas-timed releases doing well enough to last several more weeks in the box office. Even if we were talking about movies that aren’t great, it would be unusual to see both Paddington and Paddington 2 dumped unceremoniously in January. But Paddington and Paddington 2 are secretly two of the greatest movies of the decade.
Why dump them?
I think part of that is that they’re so unlike the rest of their peers. In a post-Shrek entertainment landscape CG animated family films and family films with a CG character have relied heavily on pop culture reference jokes, big name actors (regardless of whether they’re suited to voice acting), a pop soundtrack, and bodily function humor. There’s some examples of that formula working well (Shrek 1 & 2) and there’s some examples of that formula working terribly (Shrek 3 & 4). But regardless of consistency, it’s very much the norm. It’s so much the norm that I almost didn’t even see Paddington because it looked like it would be similar to Yogi Bear (2010) and The Smurfs (2011). I get the feeling that the American distributors that released Paddington and later Paddington 2 had the same thought and couldn’t come up with any way to distinguish these movies as different from the pack.
The Paddington movies are different though; they’re as old-fashioned as it gets. There’s no contemporary pop-culture references, but the scripts are more than happy to quote William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. The slapstick is rarely simple pratfalls and is often elaborate setpieces that owe a creative debt to vaudeville and silent film.
Paddington himself is different from the pack too. A lot of family films have wisecracking leads that project coolness (or that want to project coolness, like Kung Fu Panda’s adorkable Po). Paddington doesn’t have an air of coolness, nor is he ever tough or cynical. Paddington is innocent and curious. He asks questions because he wants to know the answers. He looks for the good in people and is quick to trust everyone he meets. He recites and believes in Aunt Lucy’s mantra that, “If we are kind and polite, the world will be right.” He’s extremely literal in what he says and how he hears things that other people tell him, and that can get him into trouble at times. But he’s not oblivious and knows how to give a hard stare to shut down someone who has forgotten their manners. Paddington works hard and doesn’t take shortcuts to success. Paddington cares about the people in is life and always does nice things to make their lives better.
In the first movie, a Peruvian earthquake leaves Paddington homeless and his Aunt Lucy unable to continue taking care of him. Aunt Lucy sends him off to London in search of a new home. The movie draws parallels with children uprooted during World War II - London children sent to the countryside to be safe from bombing and Jewish children sent to England to be safe from persecution. The historical specifics might not mean anything to 2010s children yet, but the emotional resonance is what matters most here. Paddington meets the Brown family who takes him in just for the night. They’re nice enough to recognize a stranger in need, but they don’t see themselves as his saviors. Home isn’t something you can instantly find, and family isn’t either. Niceness isn’t the same as closeness, and acquaintance isn’t the same as love. The Browns help Paddington follow faint clues to find the only tenuous connection he might have in all of London, a geographer who visited Peru many years ago and met his aunt and uncle. The geographer isn’t someone that Paddington himself has ever met, and the connection is more of a hope than a sure thing. But over the course of their search and in the face of eventual peril, Paddington finds a new family in the Browns and a new home in their residence.
In the second movie, Paddington wants to buy a birthday present for his beloved Aunt Lucy back in Peru and sets his sights on an expensive antique pop-up book of London. He vows to get a job (hijinks ensue) to earn the money it takes to buy this present. However, unbeknownst to Paddington, a dastardly actor has sights on that pop-up book (which may be a treasure map); the nefarious thief steals the book and Paddington is framed for the crime. The movie deals with the hard lesson that telling the truth and doing the right thing doesn’t always lead to positive outcomes. Paddington does everything right, tells the truth, and still goes to prison ("10 years for grand theft and grievous barberly harm"). That’s a rough theme to teach children and the movie handles it beautifully well. In prison and surrounded by mean people, niceness initially makes new enemies. But an undeterred Paddinton still sees the good in everyone and even sees the good in Knuckles McGinty, a fearsome chef prone to violent tantrums. Paddington manages to befriend the entire prison through the power of politeness and orange marmalade. And from both within the prison and outside in his home neighborhood, everybody Paddington has ever been nice to makes a commitment to be nice right back. Everybody in a surprisingly large cast has a moment to do whatever is in their power to save Paddington. It’s hard to learn that doing the right thing won’t always turn out well. But it’s reassuring to know that you get back from the world what you give out and kindness is too powerful to go unnoticed.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/13: Moana
MOVIES AT SEA WEEK!
For Movies at Sea Week we're setting sail with the first Disney princess to be based on Polynesian culture. Join us next week as we discuss 2016's Moana, available on Disney+ and for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/7: Uncut Gems
The podcast concludes its look at ill-advised gambling and debts to the wrong people with the new film from the Safdie brothers, Uncut Gems. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, still in theaters.