Paddington is a famous fictional character. It is actually inspired by a teddy bear and it will now get its own feature movie which will see him come to London.
While not as popular s Winnie the Pooh for example, Paddington has his own loyal following. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 and was created by Michael Bond.
Paddingon is a polite bear who comes from Peru. He always adresses people by “mister” or “miss” and “missus”. He is always well-meaning but often gets into trouble. His name comes from Paddingon Station in London and was given him by his human friends the Brown family who finds and adopts him.
That’s the story. Bond was inspired to create Paddington in 1956. On Christmas Eve he was passing by Paddington Station and saw a lone teddy bear in a store. He bought it as a present for his wife and 10 days later he wrote the first story. It took a little while though until the book came out in 1958.
Slowly but surely Paddington started to build his fan base. In 1972 Gabrielle Designs made the first real teddy bear based on Paddington. So basically he did a full circle from being inspired by a teddy bear to turning into one.
In 1975 Paddington got his on cartoon. Then another one in 1989.
Now comes 2014 and Paddington is about to get his first feature movie. It won’t be an adaptation to the original story though. It will draw inspiration and details from it, but ultimately the movie will follow it’s own timeline.
The movie version of Paddington won’t look quite like a teddy bear but like a real bear. He will be dressed the way we all know him though. His duffle coat is here and also his trusty hat that has a secret compartment where he keeps important items.
Paddington opens on 28th November and stars Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington bear.
