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Thursday, January 11, 2018

Earning #WhomYouKnow 's Highest Recommendation, @PaddingtonMovie #Paddington2 Makes Its US Debut Friday, January 12, 2018 in the USA! #MovietimeinManhattan @wbpictures From Darkest Peru and London to the Big Screen, Paddington Continues to Capture Your Heart with His Classic Style of Knowing What's Important with the Latest Authentically Artistic Moviemaking Talents of Today @paddingtonbear @HackedOffHugh @JoannaLumley


“If we’re kind and polite, the world will be right.” 
- Paddington

“Paddington looks for the good in all of us. And somehow… he finds it.” – Mr. Brown


Everyone's favorite bear is back starting tomorrow, and Paddington is ready to bring cheer to your winter blues, America!  A hit for all ages, Paddington 2 is classic entertainment at its very best.  A character that we all knew in childhood is just amazing on the big screen and his supporting cast is just as great as the last time, if not better and the Brown family is back.
This is NOT just a kid's film at all.

Paddington is exactly what the world needs today to incorporate the right values in life including the right kind of love and respect.  He is a bear that is intent on living a life of high standards, and we love it. We thought Paddington 2 was better than the original and if the theater played it back-to-back, we would have stayed to see the whole thing a second time.  It is that great!
Pictures speak louder than words; our Paddington was being introduced to a cuisine beyond marmalade:

We feel Paddington is a member of our family so there was little possibility of us not liking this film.  The only way he's changed is that he now wears a red hat, not a yellow one.
If you like Whom You Know and our philosophy of finding the good in people, guess who deserves some credit for that...and yes, Peachy did read all of the Paddington books many years ago.  She's been reading since she was three. Paddington Bear was first introduced in Michael Bond’s 1958 book A Bear Called Paddington. From that beginning, Bond wrote more than 20 volumes featuring the duffel coat-wearing, marmalade sandwich-loving bear, which have together sold over 35 million copies worldwide, and been translated into 40 languages. The antics of the little bear whose perfect manners and good intentions frequently lead to comical mishaps and moments of high chaos, continue to capture hearts the world over.

In the age of computer-generated trendy nonsense that will inevitably come and go, the only successful stories that will withstand the test of time are the classic tales, like Paddington.  The newest generation has the luxury of befriending him on the big screen starting tomorrow.

“Paddington has a very clear set of old-fashioned values he learned from his Aunt Lucy in Peru,” says writer/director Paul King. “He is always kind and polite, and looks for the good in everyone. They’ve stood him in good stead at home and made him a popular figure in the neighborhood. But we wanted to see how kindness and compassion stand up in a wider, more cynical world—and if, when the chips are down, people are prepared to think the worst of the outsider.”

Sally Hawkins, who was also exceptional in Maudie with Ethan Hawke recently, plays the fabulously quirky Mrs. Brown and no one else could have pulled it off better.

 Her imaginative ideas superlatively jump off of the screen.
 
 Paddington teaches us all where darkest Peru is and we believe that his Aunt Lucy, a bear of course, and in this movie, she's celebrating a big birthday.  Paddington must have been reading our book reviews...in our 23,000 plus posts we actually have recommended a LONDON POP UP BOOK:
and he discovers a London Pop Up book at a lovely antique shop that commemorates such spots as Piccadilly Circus and St. Paul's.  
A London pop-up book is clearly the right gift; Aunt Lucy is not the roller skating type.  Armed with ambition and determination, Paddington sets out to earn some money to buy the book to send to Aunt Lucy so she can feel as if she is experiencing London virtually through the book.  He tries a barbershop which presents challenges, and does better with window washing.  You are going to love his ladder.
 
Note that in London it seems that circuses that come to town are called steam fairs.

American girls of Peachy's age first met him through Four Weddings and a Funeral, a massive hit, and his star status was further catapulted with the great success of Notting Hill.  Speaking of that neighborhood, we love the Portobello Road presence in Paddington 2 which shows the best spots of London, all of which we recognized.  Guess who loved to shop on Portobello Road every Saturday when she lived in London.
Another total winner we were pleased to see is Joanna Lumley, who is also known as the unforgettable Patsy Stone.  She hilariously plays the agent, Felicity Fanshawe, to Hugh's actor, Phoenix Buchanan, and she seems to have placed him in some superb dog food commercials.
It is so refreshing to see an old character become new again through the intelligence of great authentic movie-making, and in a time when total garbage is being marketed to children, Paddington presents a superior choice to showing children how to behave and become great people.  If you like us, you like Paddington who is a character who keeps his promises and shows how important that is, as well as having an upstanding reputation.
 We won't give away the plot, but you can be sure that trouble ensues and somehow, the angelic and flawless Paddington (we told you we could not be fair about someone we've always known) ends up in of all places, jail.
Brendan Gleeson is in a word, phenomenal as the jail's chef, NUCKLES, pronounced like the knobs on your fingers.  For all the food-obsessed reading us, you are going to be crazy about the jail kitchen scenes of marmalade indulgences and more. 
 
Paddington makes friends everywhere he goes, including jail.
Oh, the saving grace of a marmalade sandwich! And the genius of the hot-air balloon design.
Up with bears on the big screen!  We want to see more!
  
The escapades are seemingly never-ending, and you will adore them.
 The ending could not be more touching.
  Peachy Deegan's own Paddington clip-on that she has always had of course came to see the film too and he contributed to this review.  Hallak is going to have a tough job getting the marmalade off of the Geiger suede collar but they are surely up to the task.
Paddington 2 has earned Whom You Know's Highest Recommendation.
 





Following the worldwide hit “Paddington,” one of the most successful family films of all time, this much-anticipated sequel finds Paddington (Ben Whishaw) happily settled with the Brown family in London, where he has become a popular member of the local community, spreading joy and marmalade wherever he goes.

While searching for the perfect present for his beloved Aunt Lucy’s hundredth birthday, Paddington sees a unique pop-up book in Mr. Gruber’s antique shop, and embarks upon a series of odd jobs to buy it.  But when the book is stolen, it’s up to Paddington and the Browns to unmask the thief.
Reuniting many of the original film’s cast while welcoming those in new roles, “Paddington 2” stars Golden Globe nominee Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”), Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins (“Blue Jasmine”), three-time Golden Globe nominee Brendan Gleeson (“The Guard,” “Into the Storm,” “In Bruges”), Oscar nominee Julie Walters (“Billy Elliot,” “Educating Rita”), Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (“Iris”), and Oscar winner Peter Capaldi (short, “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life”), with Golden Globe and BAFTA Award winner Hugh Grant (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”), and BAFTA winner Ben Whishaw (“The Hollow Crown”) as the voice of Paddington.  The starring ensemble also includes Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, and Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (“Vera Drake”) as the voice of Aunt Lucy.

Paddington’s return to the big screen was again helmed by BAFTA-nominated director Paul King (“Paddington,” “Come Fly with Me,” “The Mighty Boosh”) from a script written by King and Simon Farnaby (Sky TV’s “Yonderland,” “Mindhorn”), based on the best-selling and internationally adored books by Michael Bond, creator of Paddington Bear.

The film was produced by multiple award-winning producer David Heyman (the “Harry Potter” films, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Oscar nominee for “Gravity”).   Serving as executive producers were Rosie Alison, Jeffrey Clifford, Alexandra Ferguson Derbyshire, Ron Halpern, and Didier Lupiter.

Creative talent returning behind the camera included director of photography Erik Alexander Wilson (“Tyrannosaur,” “Submarine”), production designer Gary Williamson (“Bunny and the Bull,” “Submarine”), Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming (“Wonder Woman,” “The Dark Knight”), and editor Mark Everson (“Mindhorn,” “Alan Partridge”), joined by editor Jonathan Amos (“Baby Driver”).  Visual effects were provided by the highly acclaimed British VFX company, Framestore, led by animation director Pablo Grillo (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and VFX supervisors Andy Kind (“Gravity”) and Glen Pratt (“Beauty and the Beast”).  The score is composed by Academy Award winner Dario Marianelli (“Atonement”).

“Paddington 2” was shot on location in and around central London, as well as on the legendary soundstages of Warner Bros. Leavesden and Pinewood film studios.

Warner Bros. Pictures and StudioCanal present, in association with Anton Capital Entertainment S.C.A., a Heyday Films Production, “Paddington 2.”  The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.  www.paddington.com

©2017 StudioCanal S.A.S. All rights reserved.

Paddington BearTM, PaddingtonTM and PBTM are trademarks of Paddington and Company Limited.

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