When we talk about the Paddington films, it is often about the cozy atmosphere, the lovable figures and the clever villain: interior casting. Like one of Wes Anderson’s doll houses, the first two Paddington films can be opened and a detailed world, which is equipped with many playful elements, appears in which you can only feel comfortable.
Paddington in Peru, the third part of the series, ventures from the dreamy picture book London and goes to the darkest jungle of Peru. Handings and adventures lurk here
– This can no longer be packed in a doll’s house. Paddington is thrown from one scene to the next and walks more than ever in the footsteps of two Hollywood legends: Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Paddington in Peru is a festival for everyone who longs for Physical Comedy in the cinema
From rapids to eerie ruins in which wild animals lurk: To master this obstacle course, Paddington has degraded up a lot from the silent film icons. Keaton and Chaplin stand for a brilliant intersection of action and humor, which seems to be extinct in today’s cinema. Even stunt expert Tom Cruise could Physical Comedy Not in a mission: recovery impossible film.
Physical Comedy means the conscious use of facial expressions, gestures and body as a comedic element, often in interaction with an object or a situation that is a challenge and that has a possible loss of control. Physical comedy plays directly with our expectations and – even if words are not forbidden – works especially on a visual level.
Perfect for a medium that is primarily told about pictures: When Chaplin tries to balance a wooden house on a cliff in the mountains in Goldrausch by running from left to right and then right to the left, this is a prime example of physical Comedy. Keaton, who desperately wants to create one wooden beam after the other in the general, is also part of it.
At this point we can hit the sheet of Paddington directly, because Keaton and Chaplin Since the beginning of the DNA of the series. Paddington clumsy appearance is basically the digital answer to the sometimes breakneck, but often also with optical illusions of the slapstick champions. The action-packed final of Paddington 2 shines with steam locomotive acrobatics, for example.
More Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin than ever: Paddington jeens to his role models
The opening to the adventure film loses Paddington, the film series, a few of the wonderfully arranged Wes Anderson recordings. For this, the elaborate SET-Pieces of the third part reveal significantly more options for the To take physical comedy to the extremesometimes even in direct reference to the big role models. Keaton in particular often appears as a cinematic reference in Paddington in Peru.
Paddington As a chaos captain of a whining ship, a direct sequel to Keaton’s short film water could not be beams. When a huge wall later falls on him and happened to be exactly where that wall has a hole, this is a clear reference to Steamboat Bill, JR. In which a house facade tilts on Keaton, which at the end still raised from one Giebel window looks.
Even the most obvious Indiana Jones reference-Paddington runs away from a huge boulder-can be attributed to a Keaton plant: in Buster Keaton, the man with the 1000 brides, the star has to escape a armed boulder, not to mention His, well, 1000 brides. The most amazing is how haptic and real it all feels.
Although Paddington is not a real person who can bend your body on a film set, so that the physical comedy’s central element is located in front of the camera, every gag lights up. Certainly some miracles can be worked with computers in post-production, but a look at the current blockbuster cinema shows that rarely come out so tangible, so gripping scenes.
What makes the Physical Comedy in the Paddington films ingenious is its intuitive effect. Every inconspicuous moment has weight, tells a little story and is in harmony with the character of the different figures. Immediately you are as a viewer: In involved, be it in a life -threatening situation or an amusing punch line that sneaks into the background through movement.
Paddington in Peru shows what the rest of the blockbuster cinema has almost completely forgotten
No clumsy spectacle that is briefly carried into the film and disappears after the scene applause: the physical comedy is created from the trains of the figuresfor example from paddington zeal. Basically, he wants to do everything right, wants to be exemplary and friendly. In most cases, however, this leads to a misunderstanding because, as a bear, he has no idea what rules apply in the human world.
The most enjoyable sequences are those that start with a small observation and increase to complete escalation. On the river trip in part 3 Paddington notes that something is wrong on board. However, every attempt to become master of the situation rides him deeper into the trouble. He rolls over the deck helplessly tied to a steering wheel, while the boat fluctuates uncontrollably in all directions.
This finely coordinated game with everything that can happen on the scene has been lost both comedies and action films. One of the few exceptions in the recent past was the prologue from where the lie falls, in which Sydney Sweeney is cumbersome under the hands dryer after accidentally turning the tap a little too enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise creates a massive action cinema that is connected to the stunts of Keaton and Chaplin through its sophistication and complexity, but is rarely interested in the cheerful playfulness and lightness that the adrenaline shop back and forth on the screen as effortlessly as nerve -wracking Leave. Jackie Chan’s legacy is also increasingly fading.
The physical comedy displaced the jokes and brutalo action from the cinema
Shouldn’t the newer Fast & Furious films with all their exaggeration be created for Physical Comedy? Think about what a swing would bring into the now tiring material battles. Or Deadpool & Wolverine with his meta approach? Why does the humor mainly feed on coarse dialogues, while the action is stiffened to overstilized outbreaks of violence?
Jim Carrey, who his villain Dr. Ivo Robotnik in the Sonic films in one True festival in silliness transformed, is an alternative. However, the films of the video game template of the same name do not come to the finesse of the paddington. We can be excited to see what the naked cannon reboot with Liam Neeson (and Sandra Hüller!) Is to offer that awaits us in the cinema at the end of July.
At first glance, Neeson looks like the most inappropriate candidate to start Leslie Nielsen’s legacy. Last but not least, grim action thrillers shape the last two decades of his career. He could hardly be away from a Johnny English or a Jacques Clouuseeau who chases the pink panther. But maybe this unlikely combination results in the attraction.
For the time being, Paddington, a digital but very friendly bear, keeps the torch of the Physical Comedy up in the cinema and proves how incredibly entertaining it can be if you let the picture speak especially in the film, instead of every joke Discharge from the script via dialog supports. Even when walking past you can get stuck because the magic simply results from movement.
Paddington in Peru has been running since then January 30, 2025 in the German cinemas.