There’s a blink and you’ll miss it cameo early in the new Paddington film, third in the series and first to return the beloved bear to his native Peru. The fleeting shot sees a framed photo canonise the Platinum Jubilee meeting of Paddington and the late Queen Elizabeth II. It’s a lovely nod but stark marker of just how much the world has changed since our last visit to 32 Windsor Gardens. Five Prime Ministers, a new monarch, global pandemic, TikTok, Brexit…all since the release of Paddington 2. It’s overwhelming. To this end, a return to marmalade sandwiches and a more comprehensible grasp on quintessential Britishness can’t help but feel rich in reassurance.
A rather lovely vocal performance from Lupita Nyong’o anchors The Wild Robot, which is itself a wholly lovely film. Adapted from the 2014 book by Peter Brown, the film arrives as yet one more hit from Lilo and Stitch director Chris Sanders, who also gifted DreamWorks their How to Train Your Dragon franchise. In keeping with the studio’s recent move to a more painterly house style, boasted here is a panopticon of sumptuous animation, giving rise to a rusticity in its artistic world building. Recalled are those classic Disney tales of zany forest critters and Walt’s own interest in the brutal beauty of the natural world. Added is contemporary interest in the rise of artificial intelligence, albeit with more nuance than most.
London, 1934. The Daily Chronicle’s acid tongued theatre critic torments a popular but cripplingly insecure actress via a sequence of cheerfully vitriolic reviews. He is Ian McKellen, she is Gemma Arterton. Together, they elevate an otherwise middling effort from Leap Year director Anand Tucker. They, and a clutch of tremendously catty barbs in a script from Patrick Marber, making his long overdue return to cinema. Where The Critic boasts strength in the line, however, the wider whole hasn’t half the zest and flavour.
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