To say that Paddington is a British institution would be like saying that Doctor Who is a good science fiction show. As the bear with a disturbing Marmalade addiction is a huge part of British pop culture and with the review of the first episode having gone down well it only made sense to review the second episode in his most famous animated TV series and so then join me as I review the episode that sees Paddington having to deal with the trails and tribulations of having a bath with the episode in question being called simply just "A Bear In Hot Water" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is after finally arriving at his new home Paddington has to take a bath something which is easier said then done. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with this episodes plot being a direct continuation of the first episodes plot as now we get to see what Paddington can get up in his new home with the plot of this episode being one that much like the rest of this shows plots is delightfully simple in it's approach to things as all the amin crux of the episode is is just Paddington trying to take a bath and that's it and that's great as this is a character that doesn't really demand deep and thought provoking plots to make his adventures work rather he just needs the basic set up for an episode and that's really it and that's something that this is episode does wonderfully and while yes it would have been better if there was more to this episode outside of that one set up and that's really it and to this episodes credit it does pull of this set up wonderfully so much so that it was even adapted into the 2014 live action Paddington film as well with the smallness of the episodes plot really being a testament to how well that these stories hold up as while yes granted next to nobody has a bath anymore it is still a timeless tale with the way that this episode handles it being charming in it's own unique way with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Sir Michael Hordern as the episodes narrator with this episode making good use of him as a narrator. As he does describe everything that's going on including what the character is thinking which is something that does make this episode feel all the more charming then what it already is as it comes across as him reading us the story instead of him being paid to tell us the story which is something that is very easily could have done and it could even be argued that his narration helps to add a certain charm to the episode that might have been lost if someone else was doing it as he does add that extra special something to the episode and while yes it could be argued that the episode would work just as well without the narration as heck the two live action Paddington films work without a narrator this was the first time that the character had appeared in any other media and so he wasn't as well known back then as he was now and therefor giving the show a narrator does help to lend the episode some credibility as he was a fairly well known classically trained actor with it being helped by the fact that he does have the kind of silky smooth voice that is just perfect for narrating a kids TV show with his voice having a warm and kind hearted nature to it that works well for this show and while yes he does still use the same voice for alot of the characters in this episode here it was a lot less confusing as the episode was more about narration then it was about giving the characters a voice something which wasn't true for the previous episode where the episode relied more on the characters voices to tell the story and not the narration.
Now then as for what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the fact that this episodes acting being as good as it is not really being all that surprising as Sir Michael Hordern was as previously mentioned a classically trained actor and therefor of course his acting in all of this shows episodes this one included was going to be that good and while he doesn't give the characters a lot of different voices in this episode something which is still a bit confusing he does try to do an accent with him giving Mrs. Bird a slight Scottish accent which is something that does pull off really well in the characters one scene in the episode with him by default being the episodes best actor as while he doesn't give the characters much in the way of different voices he does try to make his voice sound a bit more youthful when it comes to characters like Jonathan and Judy and yet when it comes to Mr. Brown he's a bit more stern sounding with Mrs. Brown being somewhere in the middle which are great things as even tho there small things to include they do help to make it easier to tell just which character is talking and heck it could be argued that Paddington has his own unique voice with him sounding more like a typical British gentlemen or rather how a foreigner thinks a British gentlemen might sound and it is sis something that does work for Paddington with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actor has to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of him naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the animation for this episode really is the legends and the greats that are currently over at FilmFair. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with the episode doing a really good job of mixing stopmotion 3D animation with 2D animation really well with there being alot of scenes in this episode that make you wonder how they managed to pull it off with the best example of this being the taxi at the start of the episode as not only can you see Mrs. Brown a 2D character in the backseat but if you look closely the taxi also casts a shadow and has a 2 D driver which combined should make it a pain of a shot to pull off let alone look good and yet that is a shot that does look really good as it blends together two very different elements and makes them look quite seamless with the episode having more of a focus on stopmotion animation this time around as alot of the episode does focus on Paddington with the stopmotion looking really good granted it's not on the same level as anything from Aardman but for the time that this show was being made and the fact that they pretty much had one person doing all of the stop motion that being Barry Leith with the episodes stop motion shockingly not taking a step down in quality from the first episode as it is something hat does look really good with the episodes stop motion actually looking alot more better then the episodes 2D animation does.
Whilst this episode could be seen as being a nothing episode as nothing that's all that important happens in this episode what it does do is introduce the characters of Jonathan Brown and Mrs. Bird. As those characters were of course not in the previous episode and yet even tho this is there introduction episode neither character gets alot of time to showcase just what it is that there all about with Jonathan getting a little bit more screen time then Mrs. Bird as he runs the bath for Paddington and then warns the Browns when Paddington as left the bath running for far to long but that's really it as the last thing that Mrs. Bird does in this episode is say that she's going to make Paddington a Marmalade sandwich and that's it and to be fair given how little a plot that this episode has in the first place it does make sense that the new characters wouldn't get alot of screen time in this episode as the episode has to get along to the next plot point and to be fair to this episode the fact that all of it's character are fairly simple characters in there own right is something that does make them charming in the first place but in saying this it still would have worked really well if we he had gotten to see Paddington interact more with Mrs. Bird and with the other members of the Brown family as then we could have seen both sides trying to adjust to the new living situation something which the 2014 film would actually take the time to do as Mr. Browns arc for that film is trying to adjust to Paddington now being in his life and yet in this episode none of that was needed even tho it would have been fun to see what Mrs. Bird someone who is very no nonsense would think of Paddington in the first place.
While this episode does have alot of things that are working for it it does also have some things that are actively working against it. Like the fact that the episodes plot isn't the best that it could have been as it's just a continuation of the first episodes plot which is not a knock on that episodes plot it's just that that episode kind of wrapped up things rather nicely and granted it might have been done this way for both this episode and the following two episodes as they might have been done that way in the book that those stories are being adapted from which in this case is A Bear Called Paddington but what works in a book might not work in a TV show with the fact that the plot is a direct continuation being an example of this fact. With the other thing that doesn't really work all that well in the fact that none of the Browns offer to help Paddington when he's trying to work out how to take a bath as the kids tell him what to do and that's it and the parents aren't seen for the vast majority of the episode when one of them should have been there to help Paddington out as this would have been the first time that he's seen let alone taken a bath in the first place and so of course he wouldn't know either what to do or how to act in that situation and while it was fun seeing him constantly getting distracting while the bath was still running it is something that in the world of the show should have been stopped just by having someone by it a member of the Brown family or Mrs. Bird help Paddington out with this being something that would have hit home the fact that they all a bunch of loving and caring people in the process and yet the episode makes out that everything that happens in the episode is Paddington's fault and while that is true the rest of the family aren't blameless either.
One of the oddest things that this episode does is have the vast majority of the episode all take place inside of the Browns bathroom. As while we do yes get to see the Browns living room and hallway and the outside of there house that's all we get to see in this episode and yet that is something that does oddly work for this episode as while it does make the episode look cheap given the fact that it was mostly being animated by one man having alot of the episode just focus on Paddington in this one location is something that most likely was done to save him doing extra work but in saying this tho it still would have been nice if we got to see more of the Browns house even if it was just in passing as then we could get to see where the bathroom is in relation to the families respective bedrooms thus making the scene where the bathroom does start to flood all the more dramatic as now we have to worry the families bedrooms and i could have had the added impact of making the house seem alot more bigger then what it actually as right now the house feels alot more small due to the fact that we don't get to see that much of it with this being something that could have been by having the Brown children showing Paddington where the bathroom is something which they do anyway as there in the bathroom with him when Jonathan starts the bath but we never get to see the landing we only get to see the bathroom and that's really it when it would have made more sense if the family were shown showing Paddington where the bathroom is and we actually got to see them doing it and yet for ne reason we don't get that and while it doesn't hurt the episode it is something that does make the Browns house feel alot more smaller.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly five minuets and three seconds. With this being a solid running time for this episode to have as this episode doesn't need that long of a running time in order to tell it's plot as this is a plot that has the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time and doesn't need to be longer then what it is with this episode even using it's running time very wisely as the episodes plot is as well developed as it was even going to be as the episode doesn't have that much there in the way of plot in the first place and therefor it doesn't need to be that well developed as the only thing that needs to be developed is the set up and that's really it and to be fair to this episode that's all it needed to be developed as this is a plot that along with the first episode and up to the fourth episode is telling one big story of Paddington getting used to life in London with this episode being nothing more then a small chapter in that story with the episode even developing it's characters as well as it possibly could have done as the episode doesn't really leave alot of room for the characters to get that much development in the first place and yet what little development a character like Paddington does indeed get works really well as we see go from not really knowing how to use a bath to using one in his own unique way which was something that did work for the episode with none of the human characters not really needing any character development as this is an episode that doesn't really require it from them but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have t actually talk about the actual comedy thats actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With this episode having alot of really cute and funny moments in it with the idea of Paddington trying and failing to use a bath being something that does allow for alot of really funny moments in it and to be fair to this episode it really does take as fully advantage of it's set up as is humanly possible by giving us alot of funny moments that do feel true to the character of Paddington with the best joke in the episode being at the end when after failing struggling to take a bath in his duffle coat because he wanted to keep himself dry Paddington again tries to take a bath only this time it's a dry bath with not water in it which is a really cute joke to have and is something that does feel true to the character of Paddington as he wouldn't know how to take a bath and therefor he would of course with the most ridiculous solution after struggling to take a bath in the first place and heck it could be argued that the whole episode is one big joke as there alot of moments in the episode that are cute and funny like Paddington falling in the sink or him deciding to use toothpaste to make his ears white after being told to clean them because there black with all of this episodes jokes working as well as they do because of the fact that Paddington himself is such a likable character in the first place which is something that really does make all of this jokes work really well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode really is one that whilst it really can be skipped over by Paddington fans is one that really shouldn't be skipped over due to the fact that we really get to see Paddington really being his usual charming self and the fact that we really get to see key side characters introduced with the episode itself being a really charming and funny episode in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very episode in this very review that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally sued in this very revie well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.