Search - Paddington Bear Goes to School on DVD

Adorable stop motion and cut-out animation form.

apfb | Pasadena, CA | 02/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Paddington Bear book is presented in stop-motion and cut-out animation form. I have loved the Paddington Bear books throughout my life; I really enjoyed this feature. I especially liked the calm pace of this feature-- much better than the ADHD-inducing cartoon features. Many of the scenes made me laugh out loud, much like the books sometimes did.

Multiple bonus episodes on this DVD include: Please Look after This Bear; A Bear in Hot Water: Paddington Goes underground: A Shopping Expedition; Paddington and the 'Old Master'; A Spot of Decorating' A Family Group; Paddington Makes a Bid; Do-It-Yourself.

I would have given this DVD 5 stars if the entire feature had been in stop-motion animation and if the sound mixing had been better (distortion and variable volumes @ times). Paddington Bear and almost all of the props pertaining to him are done in stop-motion animation (like the cover photo). All the humans and background scenery are done in cut-out animation. I think that having only Paddington in the stop-motion form focuses more of the story on him. One single narrator performs all of the voices for the characters and does the background narrative. The narrating actor does a wonderful job and captures the spirit of Paddington Bear.

I would liken this feature to a very well-done animated audio book.

Unfortunately there are no subtitles-- my five year-old daughter enjoys watching her DVDs with the subtitles to learn to read."