Paddington in Peru

With the success of the first two Paddington films, it’s inevitable that a third film, Paddington in Peru, would follow to make it a trilogy. While I was unfamiliar with Paddington when this film was announced, I quickly became a fan after watching the first two films in anticipation, and hoped that the third would maintain the same level of quality despite a change in director. After seeing it opening weekend, although it doesn’t quite reach the same heights as the previous films, it does nonetheless feel like a worthy successor to the original duology.

Paddington 2

As with the first Paddington film, I will admit to not seeing Paddington 2 when it first released, mainly due to how silly it looked in the marketing. After actually watching the original recently, I found myself eager to watch the sequel at the next opportunity, enough to actually track down and read a library copy of the original A Bear Called Paddington book in the interim. I can not only speak more confidently of the first film’s faithfulness to the source material, I can also say that I enjoyed the second film, which I rented through Amazon Prime Video, even more than its predecessor.

Paddington

I will admit to not having much familiarity with the British children’s literature icon Paddington Bear, though I was at least aware of him with his iconic red hat and blue coat. It’s because of this unfamiliarity that I did not see the 2014 film adaptation Paddington, or its sequel Paddington 2, when they first came out, though I had been meaning to watch them after hearing how good they are. With the upcoming US release of the third film, Paddington in Peru, I finally got around to watching the first film to see how good it was, and found it to have exceeded my expectations.

Nanny McPhee

 

When I first saw trailers for Nanny McPhee, based on the Nurse Matilda book series by Christianna Brand, ahead of its 2006 US release, I wasn’t sure about watching it since I was just entering my teenage years at the time, but the curiosity nonetheless persisted in the back of my mind for some time. On a recent flight, however, I saw this film pop up as one of the in-flight entertainment options, and so I finally found my chance to give it a fair shot. Unfortunately, my experience was marred with a number of sub-optimal conditions, including having to use cheap headphones bought from the terminal after a pair of mine broke shortly before another preceding flight, plane noise necessitating the use of subtitles to understand the dialogue even after turning the volume on my phone higher than I normally would, and very spotty Wi-Fi that lead to connection issues (I could not get my phone to connect properly no matter what I did and ended up having to use another family member’s phone that could) and a near-constant onslaught of buffering, in addition to the film being presented in modified full-screen as opposed to the original widescreen. Despite this, I actually enjoyed Nanny McPhee enough to want to watch it again under more optimal conditions.

Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia

Gabrielle Vincent’s Ernest & Celestine books may be harder to come by now, but when I finally watched the 2012 animated adaptation, which got an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, years after it came out, I liked it enough to track down a former library copy of the first book due to a lack of modern availability. 10 years later, this film would receive a proper sequel, subtitled A Trip to Gibberitia, the idea of which had me excited. Although I had known about it for a while, I somehow missed its limited US theatrical run, but I would finally get to see it when GKIDS listed an English US Blu-ray release, and found to be just as enjoyable as the first film.

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

While Aardman’s feature film output is generally uneven for the most part, one of their better films is Shaun the Sheep Movie, a film based on the Shaun the Sheep stop-motion series spinning off from Wallace & Gromit. I had first heard about a sequel, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Farmageddon), through a trailer in front of a screening of Early Man, however I was unable to watch it because it distributed through Netflix in the US and I do not have an account. That changed, however, after the US received a home video release following an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, though it wouldn’t be until recently that I obtained a copy. While its quality compared with the first film can be debated, it nonetheless retains the same spirit as the original animated series.

Shaun the Sheep Movie

One of Aaardman’s best-known works is the popular Wallace & Gromit franchise, which endures to this day. Notably, the third installment in the series, A Close Shave, introduced audiences to the character of Shaun the sheep, who would become popular enough to warrant his own spin-off series, the appropriately-titled Shaun the Sheep, which itself would warrant its own spin-off known as Timmy Time. The popularity of the Shaun the Sheep series would eventually warrant its own theatrical film, Shaun the Sheep Movie. While I’ve only seen a handful of Shaun the Sheep episodes and liked what I saw, my interest in the film came from already being a Wallace & Gromit fan, and after watching the film on home video, I enjoyed every moment of it.

Ernest & Celestine

Note: This review contains spoilers for Ernest & Celestine.

While researching The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, I learned more about an animated film called Ernest & Celestine (French: Ernest et Célestine), based on a series of Belgian children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent. The visuals and the premise of a mouse and bear becoming friends in spite of interspecies prejudice were enough to make me curious about seeing it, which became possible once I received the Blu-ray from GKIDS as a Christmas gift. Notably, while it originally premiered in 2012, its stateside release in 2013 made it eligible for the 2014 Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film and ultimately lost to Disney’s Frozen. After finally watching Ernest & Celestine, I am honestly baffled as to how it even lost to Frozen in the first place.

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

I first heard about The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (French: Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes…) when I stumbled upon it while browsing the Shout! Factory website, then read about it further through the GKIDS website. What really captured my attention was the unique art style and the premise of the title story, in which a fox ends up mothering chicks while raising them to be food. I then found out that it was partly based on a graphic novel, The Big Bad Fox by co-director Benjamin Renner, and that Renner had also been a director on the acclaimed French animated film Ernest & Celestine, which also caught my interest. Sometime later, I received both The Big Bad Fox and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales as a birthday gift, deciding to read the original comic before watching the movie to see how accurate the adaptation was. Regardless of its creative liberties, I absolutely enjoyed the movie and thought it worked perfectly on its own merits.

Early Man

Aardman Animation, perhaps best known for their series of Wallace and Gromit shorts by Nick Park, is a studio unique for persisting in the Claymation style of stop-motion animation, particularly featuring plasticine characters. Though their main output consists of animated shorts, they have produced a handful of feature films, including, but not limited to, Chicken Run (2000), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Arthur Christmas (2011) and Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015). Though I had enjoyed many of their films in the past, I didn’t know how to feel about their most recent release, Early Man, based on previews. With theatrical showings rapidly dwindling, however, I went to see it while I still had the chance. Having finally seen it, I now better understand why audiences weren’t really flocking to it.

In prehistoric Earth, an asteroid impacts the surface and wipes out the dinosaurs, but spares a nearby tribe of cavemen, who invent soccer (consistently called football throughout the film) while kicking a ball-shaped chunk of the asteroid. Fast forward to the Stone Age and this same tribe now hunts rabbits in the valley for survival. One of the cavemen, Dug (Eddie Redmayne), wants to hunt mammoths instead, but Chief Bobnar (Timothy Spall) insists otherwise. Later, a Bronze Age army led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) drives the caveman out of the valley and into the nearby badlands. Dug seeks revenge, but unknowingly triggers a sequence of events which leads to him challenging Nooth’s best soccer team to a match with his tribe’s future on the line.

What unfolds is more or less the plot to a typical underdog sports movie. If you’re familiar at all with how that sort of movie works, then you have an idea of what to expect. The way Early Man executes this type of plot is entertaining, since it also injects a little Stone Age flavor and has some clever laugh-out-loud moments. However, it doesn’t leave a huge impact one way or another, just kind of somewhere in the middle. That said, the voice acting is pretty good overall, especially from Eddie Redmayne as Dug and Tom Hiddleston as Lord Nooth, the latter of whom plays a much sillier kind of villain than in the Marvel Studios films.

As with Aardman’s other features, the animation is a definite strong suit. The animation helps to capture the scale of each moment, including the crowd scenes that were undeniably difficult to animate in stop-motion and at least one moment where a giant prehistoric duck becomes larger as it enters the foreground. Animating a sport in stop-motion convincingly is also an achievement in and of itself. Notably, two dinosaurs, a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops, at the very beginning of the movie are also animated in the style of the late Ray Harryhausen, a highly influential stop-motion animator.

Early Man is a good film, but not one of Aardman’s best. The clever writing and great animation don’t do enough to mask the predictable plot. It’s entertaining, but it’s obvious why it underperformed. Aardman fans are sure to find enjoyment in it, as would hardcore animation fans. As for everyone else, use your own judgment.

Hot Fuzz

Edgar Wright may be familiar to me because of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but his most well-known contribution to film is the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which is comprised of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz (this movie) and The World’s End. In preparation for the last one, we saw the first one, but then after seeing The World’s End we decided to see Hot Fuzz. What’s interesting about this trilogy is that they aren’t narratively linked, but share some common themes, feature Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and are written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (the latter of whom is also the Director). While Shaun of the Dead, released in 2004, is more of a romantic comedy with zombies, Hot Fuzz, released in 2007, is a parody of and homage to American buddy cop movies, but set in a rural English town. While an interesting follow-up to Shaun of the Dead, both in concept and execution, I didn’t find it to be as funny.

Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the single best officer in the London Metropolitan Police, with an arrest record that is 400% higher than everyone else and is the main reason that crime is so low. However, it seems that he is too good at his job, since he is transferred to Sandford, Gloucestershire for making the other officers look bad. Sandford is a very quiet town, having won the Best Village in Britain award for a few years straight, and is known for having zero crime, but a high number of accidents. Nicholas has a hard time fitting in, mainly because his methods clash with the laid-back officers in the station and he’s also paired with Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), who desperately wishes that being an officer was more like in the movies (a la Bad Boys II and Point Break). However, a series of grisly incidents occur, causing Nicholas to suspect foul play within Sandford. One problem though: no one believes him.

Hot Fuzz, like Shaun of the Dead, is very good at pulling off its concept. The sinister plot running through Sandford is introduced suddenly, but is interwoven throughout in a way that makes sense and has every angle of it addressed (mostly by Nicholas). Where someone sees, and accepts it as, an accident, Nicholas is able to piece everything together and manages to do a good job of it. The audience shares his frustration with trying to get anyone to see the murders as actual murders, but when he manages to finally figure it out, the twist of the true nature of the crimes, and their connection, is genuinely surprising due to how well-hidden it is from the viewers, with a questionable and ridiculous motivation on part of the killer befitting a comedy. It’s interesting how surprisingly complex and serious a movie like this can get, but it’s also good that it knows how best to play the elements for laughs.

Nicholas Angel (left) and Danny Butterman (right) after finding a disarmed mine.

Unlike Shaun of the Dead however, Hot Fuzz didn’t seem to be as funny. This doesn’t mean it’s devoid of comedy, as it’s able to exaggerate buddy cop tropes spectacularly and put a new spin on some gags re-used from the previous film, such as the ever-funny fence gag. What I mean is that there is less emphasis on the comedic elements as opposed to the more serious elements, but for how it all came together I still believe there was a great balance of the two. Perhaps there could have been more light humor sprinkled throughout, but I think that might have clashed with some of the moments meant to create nightmare fuel.

The action elements from the buddy cop angle are present, but have considerable emphasis within the final minutes of the film, which is basically one long action sequence. This sequence is also, as I have read, inspired by the ending of Bad Boys II, so it’ll be up to you to decide whether or not that is a good thing (I haven’t seen movies in the vein of Bad Boys II). In any case, the action is very creative and used the environment to its advantage, rather than just being a straight-up shootout. This I consider to be a good thing, as it shows how well the characters can think on their feet. Buddy cop fans will also find visual homages to films of that genre, which is a good bonus for those who can spot them (including one which is somewhat telegraphed). It’s also good to know that there was some research put into the script, including such things as the paperwork that’s actually involved with being an officer.

One thing which I can also commend is the acting. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost take on roles similar to the characters they played in Shaun of the Dead, but their synergy and ability to bounce off of each other has not diminished. Other returning cast, such as Bill Nighy and Martin Freeman, are still good as well, the latter of which actually receives a more expanded role as a minor character (in The World’s End, he becomes a supporting character). I also liked the subtlety in the acting, which lends to the feeling of a smart comedy wherein they aren’t heavy-handed about the humor (this is the reason why I am disinterested in most comedies nowadays based on the trailer alone).

This swan shows up more than once.

Having seen a number of Edgar Wright movies in a row now, I’ve noticed that he has a certain directorial style. There are certain gags that he seems to like re-using while still making them funny, such as the fence gag (this can also be due to Simon Pegg being one of the writers) and he also likes to zoom in during a montage. The latter has the advantage of being used for comedic timing, such as its use in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World where the montage stops so Scott can slowly tie his shoe. His collaborations with Simon Pegg, or at least this trilogy, also take place in a small town, have a pub involved in some way and also have some focus on either the girlfriend or mother of Simon Pegg’s character. While I do recognize some things between movies now, that doesn’t stop them from being good.

On a final note, since this is the middle part of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, the flavor featured in Hot Fuzz is the Classico flavor, which is colored blue and represents the police elements. Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End show the other flavors pretty quickly in an instance of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but there’s no need to worry about searching here because the flavor shows up much more often and there is more than one chance to catch it onscreen.

Like Shaun of the Dead and later The World’s End, Hot Fuzz is a great send-up of the genre of movies it wants to homage. The acting is still impressive, the comedy has excellent timing and the story get surprisingly complex while expertly balancing its core elements. Also like the other two movies however, Hot Fuzz has an ending that may not impress everyone, even more so when you see that it’s one long action sequence. Regardless, it is worth seeing Hot Fuzz at least once, if not more than once, especially if you are a fan of Edgar Wright or buddy cop movies. Please be sure to note however that it is rated R for a reason, even if it’s a good comedy from start to finish.