YMMV / Paddington (2014)

• Adaptation Displacement: Countries who aren't as familiar with the original books or previous adaptations (such as the United States) tend to be more familiar with the film and its sequel by comparison.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Millicent says "I've never stuffed a human before", is she actually willing to kill the Browns to get Paddington? Or is she bluffing in the hopes that they'll hand him over? The fact that she is earlier seen torturing someone and then possibly killing him via drowning does give her threat some credibility.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Early trailers for the film focused on Toilet Humor and Paddington's Unintentional Uncanny Valley look, and with Colin Firth dropping out many thought the film would flop. When it actually came out it got rave reviews from critics on both sides of the Atlantic for being not only a delightfully sincere family film but also staying very true to the spirit of the books. It was also a financial success, grossing over $259 million with a $55 million budget.
• Can't Un-Hear It: For many fans of the film, Ben Whishaw has become THE voice of Paddington.
• Ho Yay: Paddington states the explorer named his Uncle Pastuzo after an "exotic wrestler he met in a bar once". He says this in a way that the explorer was quite taken with said boxer, accompanied by a shirtless picture of the man.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A good chunk of people came to watch the film mainly because Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi was in it.
• Moral Event Horizon: Millicent crosses it right off the bat with her desire to kill and stuff an obviously sentient animal. She takes it even further right at the end when she is completely willing to kill the entire Brown family in order to get to Paddington, commenting that she "never stuffed a human before."
• Memetic Mutation: During the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022, memes portraying Ukraine as Paddington became common. This phenomenon stems from several Slavic countries being associated with bears, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy having been the Ukrainian voice actor for Paddington before he went into politics.
• Nightmare Fuel: The vision of stuffed-and-displayed Paddington. It's an example of the Uncanny Valley being intentional and quite disturbingly executed.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Jim Broadbent as Mr. Grueber the antique dealer. He's such an important supporting character in the books, that it'd be impossible to do an adaptation without him, and as a fellow immigrant he understands what Paddington is going through better than anyone else. That and his tea train he uses at Elevenses is really cool.
  • The Royal Guard outside Buckingham Palace who takes pity on Paddington and offers him shelter from the rain, tea service and a sandwich that he keeps under his hat.
• Older Than They Think: While many familiar with the more stylized Paddington from the books and previous adaptations found his more realistic design in the films to be off-putting, the design is actually very faithful to the original illustrations of him by Peggy Fortnum, who originally depicted Paddington in a more realistic style early on in the series, before gradually going for the more well known more stylized direction in later books.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Although the film was made for children, there are a lot of adults fans who grew up with the character and love the film as well.
  • The film and its sequel has a small, but notable following amongst fans of Wes Anderson, due to the stylistic similarities between the Paddington films and Wes Anderson's films. To where some fans consider both to be some of the best Wes Anderson films not done by him.
• Retroactive Recognition: The Ukrainian version of Paddington is voiced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who later became president of Ukraine and became widely known as the sitting head of state during the 2022 Russian invasion of the country.
• Spiritual Successor: To Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee. Instead of a magic nanny bringing harmony to a British family, it's a little bear from Peru looking for a new home, and he stays.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Paddington looks way too much like a real bear. Yet, some fans have been pleased to note that the facial expressions seen in the trailer look like they've been lifted directly from Peggy Fortnum's illustrations in the first book.
• The Woobie: Paddington. He loses his uncle, his home, and he's forced to go to a new country and hope for the charity of others to survive. True, he does end up Happily Adopted on arrival, but all the same... Even so, he struggles quite a lot thanks to being a Fish out of Water and Mr. Brown's initial rejection of him.

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