Review: The Adventures of Paddington “Paddington Clowns Around”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Paddington offers to throw Mateo a party. Mrs. Brown excitedly offers to provide her clowning services for entertainment, saying she studied it at drama school. Mr. Brown counters that she hasn’t clowned in years.

She shows him up by seizing Judy, Jonathan, and Paddington’s sandwiches and expertly juggling them (if mixing up the flavors upon return.)

Paddington plans out the party, complete with a bouncy castle and balloons. Mrs. Bird prepares a cake, using an old Scottish recipe: haggis and smoked fish (“Just kidding! Carrot cake.”)

Mr. Brown has booked an animal act: Mr. Fun’s Exotic Animals. But when someone arrives at the door, who else could it be but Mr. Curry? He protests that “it’s almost like people don’t think I’m fun” before heading in with his boxes. Unfortunately, contained in the boxes are his snake: Susan.

Mrs. Brown is preparing to clown, while Paddington tests the bouncy castle and Judy and Jonathan blow up balloons. Unfortunately, a miscalculated jump sends Paddington flying. He pops most of the balloons when he lands, but is still excited to show Mateo the bouncy castle.

Mr. Brown was preparing pin the tale on the donkey, but being surprised by Susan caused him to pin the bouncy castle instead.

Can Paddington find a way to save the party from a rough start, or at least prevent additional mishaps?

Our take:

Ugh, clowns.

It fits Mrs. Brown’s character to have studied something so outlandish. But the whimsical approach to party entertainment pales in comparison to Mr. Curry’s dry responses to the Brown siblings excitedly asking,

“Do you have lizards?” “No.”

“Bearded dragons?” “That’s a lizard.”

I do appreciate most of the clowning consisting of Mrs. Brown getting trapped in her disappearing act box, but the fact still remains: clowns aren’t funny! Everything going wrong with the party is fairly realistic, but Mateo’s assertion that he loves clowns strains the imagination just a bit. I will accept that Paddington and Mrs. Brown are the funniest clowns the rest of the cast has ever seen, but only because the bar is so low.

Of course, it’s the Paddington universe, so ultimately everything works out because the characters care for each other, want to help, and make an effort to fix things when they go wrong. But much like the titular character’s wrap up asserts, I prefer him being a bear to being a clown as well.

Visually, this episode is solid. The fluid movements for the clowning, the camera movement for the deflating bouncy castle, and of course, Mr. Curry’s reptile outfit are all rendered exceptionally in the show’s signature style, while still adding some unique flair. The curly rainbow wigs, although sadly associated strictly with clowning, also feature an interesting texture to add visual appeal.

Despite my distaste for the topic, this episode manages to pull it off with classic Paddington style. Nothing to write home about (apologies to Aunt Lucy) in my opinion, but a solid addition to Season 2’s growing repertoire.