The delightful PADDINGTON 2 warms our heart with gorgeous video and immersive audio in its Blu-ray debut.

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By Matt Cummings

I’m not entirely sure what’s happening in the box office these days. Save for the incredible success of Marvel movies, it’s become nearly impossible to figure out what audiences are interested in watching. DEN OF THIEVES ($48M), RED SPARROW ($46.8M), and even PADDINGTON 2 ($40.4M) dulled at the box office. For the latter, it’s especially dumbfounding, as the sequel is just as good – and maybe even more captivating – than the original. Its debut on Blu-ray this week reminds us that there are still great and wholesome stories to be told about love, friendship, and the unshakable bonds of family, all surrounded by an adorable but klutzy bear. The home release impresses with gorgeous video, strong audio, and a bevy of supplements.

THE MOVIE:

Having happily settled in the Brown family in Windsor Gardens, Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) has become a fixture in the community. For his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, Paddington decides to purchase a unique pop-up book of London, unaware that the book contains a secret code to a long-lost treasure. When the book is stolen, Paddington gives chase and is framed and jailed for the theft. His foster mother (Sally Hawkins) and father (High Bonneville) don’t believe that the warm and sociable bear could have stolen it and immediately begin to suspect the local washed-up actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant) to be the culprit. Meanwhile in prison, Paddington meets the gruff chef Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson), whose poor cooking inspires Paddington to suggest changes using his family’s marmalade recipe. But with Buchanan closing in on the treasure and the Browns missing a prison visit, Paddington begins to think the Browns no longer care for him, forcing the bear to hatch an elaborate escape plan in an effort to clear his own name.

It’s easy to understand how PADDINGTON 2 became one of the highest-rated movies of all time by RottenTomatoes.com (100%): its warmth and compassion make it an instant buy, reminding us of our favorite comfort food or memories from our childhood. WB demonstrated early on this winning combination with the original PADDINGTON, seeking a great balance between a loving childhood story, excellent casting, and a quirky, almost Muppet-like sense of frivolity throughout. There’s a wonderful musical number, and Writer/Director Paul King returns to craft and helm a story about love and family that’s hard to get through without tearing up, especially at film’s end. Whishaw emotes a tenderness in Paddington that seems to make any and even struggle less so, and Hawkins and Bonneville turn in solid performances as caring foster parents. Gleeson was also a wonderful addition, bringing his well-crafted resume to a kid’s movie that is all the better for it. The same goes for Grant, who plays the egotistical English Buchanan with a suave, dark comedic twinge. His comeuppance and the resulting end credits scene is fabulous, with all the glitter of a 50’s musical. You will also find yourself wondering how King was able to make such a photo-realistic bear on just a $40m budget. The quality of both the bear and the sets is exquisite, as we’ll cover later, reminding us that CGI-heavy movies don’t need big budgets to look great.

These admissions also come with a sense of confusion as I was stunned to see the film’s haul of just $40.4m domestically, which was half that of the original. It barely (no pun) made back its budget, and even its worldwide haul ($227m) fell short of the original. To see such a winning combination fail demonstrates why Hollywood’s struggles to get butts in seats will continue. Not every weekend will bring in INFINITY WAR numbers, so how does Tinseltown reckon the failure of such a well-made movie like PADDINGTON 2? The answers are unclear, but the direction shouldn’t be: continue to make great movies and audiences should (eventually) follow. I would be saddened to learn if WB decided to pull the plug on future Paddington movies, but at least its minuscule budget of $40m is something which could keep the series in play. Let’s just hope there’s enough will on the part of WB to stick with a series that has become truly magical; given our difficult political and social times, PADDINGTON 2’s message is the perfect cure.

VIDEO QUALITY:

To say that WB’s transfer of PADDINGTON 2 is stellar is to give it less credit than it deserves. This is an impressive MPEG4-AVC transfer, perhaps one of the best of 2018, as it excels in every way possible. Starting with the bear himself, Paddington’s fur and eyes have a photo-realistic nature to them, and his movements are perfectly captured and display in HD. Colors are warm and inviting, and when the tone shifts to the colder environment of the dark prison cells, the print shines just as well. Details in the prison kitchen display chips in tile and scratches on the flooring, which then give way to explosions of color as flowers, white table cloths, and desserts decorate the once-dank prison cafeteria. Details in clothing and sets are crystal clear, showing off wrinkles in McGinty’s chef hat and Buchanan’s eclectic wardrobe. One of the unique parts of the movie arrives in those pop-up book scenes, which come alive in sepia-like tones, helping audiences visually associate those scenes with historical times. They’re really wonderful and add a distinctive tone to a film that didn’t need to do so in order to impress us, but get high marks anyways. Skin tones are lifelike, while hair (both CGI and real) reveal individual strands.  Also, shadows never get swallowed up into blacks too soon. There’s plenty of chances here, especially during some of the outdoor night scenes at the carnival, but WB and King do their best to play their best hands. WB has demonstrated recently that intends to treat every film it releases equally well as it arrives onto home video, ensuring that there’s no aliasing, banding, or edge enhancement.  PADDINGTON 2 is a reference-quality home release for WB, and I can’t imagine how much better it probably looks in 4K.

AUDIO QUALITY:

Warner Bros. presents PADDINGTON 2 with an immersive Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack that played quite well on my 5.1 set up. My experience has been that most 7.1 titles appear louder but also slightly more detailed, as the level of sound is instead “layered in,” as opposed to merely exploding in a mass on the listener. This one is no exception, from Composer Dario Marianelli’s fanciful score to the various sounds of London, and the overall sense that WB has taken great care in bringing this to the home medium. Dialogue arrives in the center channel, which just doesn’t dial up the dialogue but completely separates it. Left and right channels effortlessly blend phasing as Paddington races from left to right or engages in a musical number. But it’s the surrounds that make the greatest and most consistent impact. The city of London comes alive as we get fine detail in everything from street voices to car horns, while even the prison kitchen scenes reveal the sound of boiling water and we even get the page turning of the pop-up book. The LFE comes to life more so at film’s beginning, as we learn how Aunt Lucy and Paddington met, the rushing water of the rapids booming through the LFE and erupting in all speakers. It’s again a testament to WB for taking such care with a title like PADDINGTON 2, making it one of the best audio experiences of the year.

SUPPLEMENTS:

PADDINGTON 2 contains a rich amount of Supplements, all of which are displayed in HD:

• • Audio Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Paul King
  • Paddington: The Bear Truth
  • How to Make A Marmalade Sandwich
  • The Magical Mystery of Paddington’s Pop-Up Book
  • The Browns and Paddington: The Special Bond
  • Music Video with Phoenix Buchanan
  • Knuckles: A Fistful of Marmalade
  • The (Once) Famous Faces of Phoenix Buchanan

Our evaluation copy arrived as a Blu-ray/Digital HD copy.  The slipcase is embossed and the colors are bright.  At the time of this posting, we were aware of only one domestic alternate release: Walmart is offering an activity book inside their slightly-alternate slipcase.  There is no interior artwork for either release.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

It’s become cliche for marketing departments to immediately classify a film as an “instant classic,” but PADDINGTON 2 makes a strong case.  It stands to make a lot more in the home market, as word of its perfect (and deserving) Rotten Tomatoes score becomes more known.  Filled with great performances, excellent CGI, and several tear-jerker scenes, it’s easily the best kids film I’ve sen in awhile (and yes, I did see COCO).  Video and audio are reference-quality, and the excellent supplements definitely fill in more details of the production.  Let’s hope Warner Bros. keeps its skin in on this game, as I believe Paddington and the upcoming Winnie the Pooh live-action will be this generation’s versions of the Disney classics.  Anyone who walks away from this one unimpressed is either a robot or has no soul, as the home release dutifully reveals.  This one comes highly recommended.

PADDINGTON 2 is rated PG for some action and mild rude humor and has a runtime of 103 minutes.