Over the christmas holidays, I visited the cinema twice. I have wanted to watch both of these films for a long time as I have seen the series for Paddington and the original Annie film. Considering the age of the other viewers in the cinema, I was one of the oldest but these two films reminded me of my childhood. Annie was my favourite childhood film and I still sing and quote the song lyrics - much to my family and friend's annoyance! As for Paddington, I love the series and used to constantly watch it. I also now have a brown, fluffy dog which somehow I related Paddington too, whilst watching the film.
Annie
Annie was an amazing film, not a disappointment to my beloved original; it really lived up to that! Personally, I enjoyed the fact that it was up-to-date because it had references to social networks such as: Twitter and Instagram. Most of the original songs were altered slightly to fit in with the adaptation and there were some new songs with a more hip-hop feel to them. The actors and actresses were perfect for the story, I especially loved Cameron Diaz as Miss Hannigan. In the film, I would have liked to see more of a role of Sandy - the dog Annie adopts. The song 'Sandy' is one of my favourites and it wasn't featured. Yes, the dog is still in the film but, in my opinion, I think it should have had a bigger role. Besides that, I can't fault the movie, it was really enjoyable to watch and I left smiling, with the songs fresh in my mind. To be honest, I think I was singing them on the way home and my voice is pitchy, at the best of times!
Paddington
The Paddington film started off with a background story to the rest of the movie. At the end, you find out why this is so relevant. I also like how it stayed true to the series and featured Marmalade a lot, even when Paddington was with the family in London. The film shows the innocence of Paddington, which comes across as sweet when he states that there are 42 different ways to say 'It's raining'. Little things like this and the fact that he greets passengers on the station make you really warm to his character. The other characters were played well, there is the stereotypical family that included some familiar faces from other films. I sat through about 20 minutes trying to figure out who the little boy was and I realised that I'd seen him in The Impossible. I always do that when watching new movies. I accidentally lose concentration from the film momentarily. Anyway, there was also Nicole Kidman who played Millicent and Hugh Bonneville who was Mr. Brown. The story line was easy to follow and it was a family-friendly adventure - a definate feel-good film!
All opinions are honest and 100% my own.
xox