Sometimes a film can have a warmth and charm transcending its failings to be thoroughly enjoyable; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was brim full of corny jokes and a pretty ordinary plot – its reviews in the MSM were at best mediocre. But its solid cast and theme of older people who had not given up on the idea of love and sex touched a chord with a mature audience, and it ended up at number three in the Australian box office in 2012 as word of mouth spread.

When a film has warmth, and charm, and little to no failings, then you have an instant classic.

Everything about Paddington 2 is nigh on pitch perfect; the wonderful cast of British and Irish character actors don’t put a foot wrong; Ben Whishaw’s voice characterisation now the definitive Paddington; the CGI so good you forget the bear’s not real; costume and set design which is inspired; an inventive and amusing plot touched with whimsy; jokes, slapstick and meta, which rarely miss the mark – look out for the calypso version of the Love Thy Neighbour theme song; locations both London and rural which showcase Britain at its very best; an ending inspired by Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

To make a criticism that the pacing in the second half of the film perhaps fell away just a little at one stage would be like criticising the entire Apollo Space Program for Neil Armstrong’s failure to use the indefinite article when saying ‘That’s one small step for a man’.

And the best thing about the movie is that you’ll leave the cinema with a fuzzy warmth. Guaranteed.

No bear is a failure who has friends.

***** 5 stars