Director Paul King Is Trying to Stay Humble Amidst Success of ‘Paddington 2:' 'I'll Try Not to Take It Too Seriously'
A beloved character from British children's literature, Paddington is an anthropomorphized bear who lives with the Brown Family and has various adventures with them. Various Paddington movies and series have been adapted from the Paddington book series (1958-2018) by Michael Bond.
Out of many adapted screenplays, the most notable Paddington movies are live-action animated comedy movies, directed by Paul King: Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2018). Both the films are critically acclaimed and fan favorites.
On April 27, Paddington 2 dethroned Citizen Kane from Rotten Tomatoes’ list of best-rated films with its reviews and took place on the top, becoming the "greatest movie of all time."
I do hope Mr Kane won't be too upset when he hears I've overtaken him with rotten tomatoes. — Paddington (@paddingtonbear) April 28, 2021
King Is Trying Not To Get Too Carried Away
During his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, King said he was trying not to take this achievement seriously. Not that he didn’t appreciate the gesture, but since he believes there is an eccentric list between Paddington 2 and Citizen Kane, he was trying not to get too carried away with this feat.
I won't let it go too much to my head and immediately build my Xanadu. But I have been cooking up a model just in case.
King joked that if the director of the 1941 classic Orson Welles were alive, he might have come up with something almost as good as Paddington 2 because of the vast technology present today. King quipped Welles went wrong because he didn't spend more time working on the script.
King also discussed how Paddington Brown himself and Charles Foster Kane would have reacted to this news. He envisaged Brown would crack open the marmalade and have a second sandwich without getting too carried away with the information.
He also gave an alternate scenario where the beloved bear would get carried away since he hadn’t earned such honor in his life.
As for Kane, the director said he would like to think Kane would drop the snow globe — referring to the famous snow globe scene in the movie and would mutter "marmalade."
'Paddington 2' VS 'Citizen Kane'
Citizen Kane, which was initially released in 1941, has been one of the greatest movies of all time. Out of all the 115 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, not one was negative.
That changed after Rotten Tomatoes updated the critic’s reviews and added one from 80 years ago. The review was by Mae Tinée, who wrote a piece for the Chicago Tribune titled "Citizen Kane Fails to Impress Critic as Greatest Ever Filmed." And just like that, the perfect 100% drops to 99% with 115 positive reviews and one negative.
Rotten Tomatoes literally dug up an 80 year old negative review of Citizen Kane and now the movie no longer has a 100% fresh rating pic.twitter.com/0I8cxvuGdd — Screaming Pectoriloquy (@Caulimovirus) April 26, 2021
Citizen Kane and Paddington 2 aren’t the only movies with 100% Tomatometer. Movies like Frankenstein, Leave No Trace, M, Singin' in the Rain, Toy Story 1 and 2, The Work, and The Terminator, among others, hold the perfect 100% critics' reviews.
Even in the Top 100 Movies of All Time by Rotten Tomatoes, It Happened One Night and Black Panther supersede both the movies. Citizen Kane holds the position of no. 3 while Paddington 2 ranks no. 59.
please don’t misinterpret the adjusted Rotten Tomatoes rankings to mean that “Paddington 2 is now the best movie of all time.”
Paddington 2 *already was* the best movie of all time. thank you. https://t.co/TmEbjUrWOA — david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) April 27, 2021
But why is Paddington 2 being considered as the greatest movie of all time? The answer is simple — Out of all the movies with 100% Tomatometer, Paddington 2 has the most reviews with a whopping 244 reviews.
Regardless, Citizen Kane still holds a higher percentage of the audience score with 90% to Paddington 2’s 87% as of the date of this writing.