YMMV / Paulie

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Given Marie's father's dismissiveness towards Paulie despite helping his daughter come out of her shell, as well as actions such as buying a cat, leaving it within reach of Paulie, and then accusing the bird of being toxic for Marie when she rightfully accuses it of trying to eat him, it is easy to insinuate that her father was jealous of Marie's bond with Paulie and grasped opportunities to get rid of him.
  • Did Dr. Reingold keep Paulie locked up in the lab out of adamance that he'd eventually obey, or had he already given up and just held him prisoner out of pure spite for humiliating him?
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Paulie taking flight for the first time. After Ivy passes away, Paulie gets over his fear of flying to continue his journey back to Marie. And after spending a night at the Grand Canyon, he manages to fly all the way from there to Los Angeles. An incredible feat for a bird who had just recently learned to fly, and all by himself no less.
  • Misha standing up to Dr. Reingold and quitting his job to help Paulie escape and take him back to Marie at The Climax of the film.
  Dr. Reingold: What do you think you're doing?
  Misha: I'm taking [Paulie] back where he belongs
  Dr. Reingold: He belongs to the institute.
  Misha: No, he belongs to little girl who needs him. And you knew. You knew it all the time. (turns to Paulie) Paulie, come. (Paulie perches on Misha's hand)
  Dr. Reingold: Who do you think you are?
  (Beat)
  Misha: I am Michail Andreevich Vilyenkov! And you are a liar and a coward and a very rude man!
  Dr. Reingold: And you are fired!
  Misha: No! No, I'm not fire! I am quit!
  (promptly takes off with Paulie before Reingold tries to grab Paulie from his hand)
• Jerkass Woobie: Marie's father. While he does have a bad attitude toward Marie for not speaking correctly and he's a Fantasy-Forbidding Father, it's established early on in the film that the reason he acts the way he does is that he's a Shell-Shocked Veteran from serving in The Vietnam War.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The younger Marie is portrayed by Hallie Eisenberg, sister of Jesse Eisenberg, who voiced the main character Blu in the animated film Rio, also about a pet parrot who is separated from his owner and his adventures on his quest to find her, and is also originally an Acrophobic Bird.
• Special Effects Failure: At one point, a big deal is made of Paulie's wings being clipped. Earlier in the movie, several of the birds depicting him had wings that were very visibly already clipped (note when he spreads his wings to pose for a painting). The clipping of pet birds' wing feathers is commonly done for practical purposes and it only makes sense that the birds used in filming would have been clipped to reduce the risk of them flying away if startled, but it's a pretty distracting detail all the same.