Review: The Adventures of Paddington “Paddington and the Fingertrap; Paddington Rides a Scooter”

Overview

“Paddington and the Fingertrap”
Paddington is loaned a Chinese fingertrap from Mr. Gruber, but quickly finds himself entangled with Mr. Curry. The two attempt to cooperate so Mr. Curry can audition for the town play. Hijinks ensue.

“Paddington Rides a Scooter”
Paddington meets with Judy and Jonathon at the park to ride scooters and play make believe. They’re joined by Mateo, who explains he no longer pretends to do tricks, but does them for real on the half pipe.

Our Take

This rendition of the classically sweet and gentle Paddington makes for a show that you could easily watch with its intended audience, whether that’s your own kids, or little ones you’re temporarily caring for.

The storylines are simple, if a bit overdramatic, and framed by Paddington’s correspondence with his Aunt Lucy back in Peru. Like many children’s shows, each episode has a lesson or message for its young viewers, which these letters set the stage for.

In “Paddington and the Fingertrap”, he explains to Aunt Lucy that, from this adventure, he learned that a trap can sometimes be something that brings people together. The events of the episode go on to show how that’s the case, although it’s unlikely any adult would suffer Mr. Curry’s fate of being completely unaware of how to free himself. The suspension of disbelief works fine for the younger set, and like in all “stuck together via trap/super glue/handcuffs” type plots, there’s plenty of fun slapstick humor to be enjoyed before the happy resolution for our fuzzy protagonist and his exasperated friend.

“Paddington Rides a Scooter” lends just a bit more nuance, since its main conflict of whether or not certain characters are “too old” for games of make believe is likely to be familiar to young viewers. The episode starts with Paddington asserting in his letter that you should never give up doing something you really love, which in this case, is playing pretend. Judy and Jonathon are having a ball making up stories and acting them out. When Mateo says he used to play pretend when he was younger and now rides the half pipe, Judy attempts to join him, leaving Paddington to struggle with creating an exciting enough story for “Super Jonathon’s” tastes. Dinosaur-obsessed Mr. Curry gets a chance to shine by creating an adventure featuring the ancient beasts, and lucky-helmet clad Paddington experiences some unintentional acrobatics before the group comes together to enjoy the power of imagination.

These stories are greatly enhanced by the art and animation of the series. The characters are rendered with impressively textured CGI, which results in a claymation-inspired look that boasts silky-smooth motion. This approach yields captivating expressions to help connect to the story, along with charming details, such as being able to see the individual stitches in Mr. Curry and Mr. Grouper’s sweater vests. The visual aspect of this series alone is proof positive that just because it’s kid’s entertainment, doesn’t mean there’s a lack of care when it comes to production quality.

Overall, these episodes, and the series as a whole is twee, but fun and watchable for all ages. Although if you do tune in be warned: the catchy theme song (P-A-Double D-I-N-G-T-O-N Paddington Bear!) is sure to get stuck in your head for weeks.