The first full-length trailer for the film adaptation of the beloved children’s book A Bear Called Paddington teeters briefly on the border between cute and creepy, before falling firmly into the land of nightmares. The first image from the film already inspired a “Creepy Paddington” meme—and while this trailer may not be as disturbing as Paddington inserted into The Shining, it does feature the anthropomorphic bear shoving toothbrushes into his ears, Hannah Horvath-style, tasting his own earwax, then destroying a family’s bathroom.
Colin Firth voices the marmalade-loving bear in the film, though Paddington doesn’t seem capable of speech in this trailer. Instead, Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville gets a low-key comedic showcase as Paddington’s host, Mr. Brown. Unfortunately, even a solid grammar joke toward the end isn’t enough to shake the unsettling vibes of Paddington’s uncanny valley of CGI bears. The film opens December 25, 2014.
