When I was first hit by Covid-19 and struggling with brain fog, I knew there was only one thing that could restore my sense of wellbeing.
A short brown bear with a blue duffle coat.
Since Paddington the movie came out in 2014, followed three years later by Paddington 2, I have been indebted to the original writer, Michael Bond, the films’ cast and crew, and everyone who had a hand in bringing the world that is Paddington to life.
Whenever I am sad, or anxious or sick, I watch Paddington 1 or 2. When I fall asleep, it is to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry narrating A Bear Called Paddington.
It is not uncommon that after a few beers with friends I will find a way to work the conversation towards the franchise and declare with gusto: “he’s just such a bloody good bear”.
I have binged hard on the limited Paddington universe. Some may say too hard.
And on Tuesday, the Paddington Movie Twitter, now X, account broke five years of silence, confirming that a third film in the franchise would come exclusively to theatres in January 2025.
More specifically, I will be able to view Paddington in Peru 449 sleeps from the time of writing.
For keen Paddington fans such as myself, this came like a divine revelation. “Finally,” I posted. “The will to live.”
https://t.co/paX1HyKzb5 pic.twitter.com/rmmrYQFGk1
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) October 23, 2023
For Paddington Bear is not just a stylishly dressed young bear with clumsy attributes and a can-do attitude. He is emblematic, to me, of everything good and true in the world.
Despite being an outsider, his heart is open. He has an innocent, generous inclination to trust humankind. He is gentle, loving, caring, with wonderful manners.
He has a lust and vigour for life that is rare in the age of social media, climate change and bad news headline after bad news headline.
To Paddington, an ideal day is a plate of marmalade and a walk by the sea. It is that simple.
I wish anything in my life were that simple.
Plus, it’s just all so naff and lovely. The world of Paddington is one where, when a family see a Peruvian bear carrying a suitcase and wearing a hat, they don’t call an animal welfare line or reassess their grip on reality but engage in a chat.
It’s a world where prison inmates wear funky toques while they cook and everyone’s outfits are a chic shade of pink, a world where elderly bears, despite hailing from the jungles of Peru, have British accents and wear speckled glasses.
Maybe I come to the third Paddington film with a mild sense of delusion. This is a fan who, when on the tube in London earlier this year, passed Paddington station and exclaimed to my friend: “I wonder if they named it after the bear!”
This is obviously absurd. Keen Paddington connoisseurs would know Bond came to the character after noticing a lone teddy bear on a shelf in a London store near Paddington station on Christmas Eve, 1956.
But I am not alone. The first film boasts 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, its sequel rates even higher, at 99%. In 2021, it rated a flawless 100%, becoming the best-reviewed movie of all time, toppling Citizen Kane.
Bond’s books have been translated into 40 languages and sold more than 35m copies worldwide.
According to Licensing Biz’s 2015 Power List? of most influential brands, Paddington is the fourth most valuable global character brand (though to me he is not a brand, he is a bear).
Will Paddington in Peru solve all my problems? Will it fix my existential dread and growing sense of malaise that everything is very bad and continuing to get worse?
No, of course not. But it will be, I am sure, two hours of reprieve from relentless reality. Paddington will do many silly things, and the stakes will be high – but not too high – and viewers will be reminded of the value of love and friendship and hope and manners.
In the words of the great man himself: “If we’re kind and polite, the world will be right.”
I’d like to believe he is correct.
