Writing of Paddington the last month sent my mind back thirty years - heaven help me! - to watching Paddington Goes to the Movies, a delightful featurette-length episode of Film Fare's animated TV series based on Michael Bond's lovable (but trouble-prone) bear....Like the rest of the stop-motion animated series, the film featured a three-dimensional Paddington puppet alongside a cast of drawn-and-cut-out humans with narrative and voices provided by one of the great storytellers of his age (and a not inconsiderable classic actor to boot) Sir Michael Hordern.
The 'special' tells how Paddington, caught in a rainstorm while shopping, tries to take shelter in the local Podium cinema where the 1952 musical, Singin' in the Rain is being screened...
Refused admission (not because he's a bear but on the grounds of age!), the impressionable bear takes a peep through an emergency exit, sees Gene Kelly's celebrated "singin' and dancin' in the rain" number...
...and immediately goes into his own homage homage performance of what is one of the best-loved and most recognisable sequences in cinema history...
For copyright reasons, I'm unable to show you the film on this blog, but - if you've never seen this delicious little gem - then follow the links below to watch it on YouTube...And, on the subject of Singin' in the Rain pastiches, I just have to add the classic sketch by the great British comedy duo Morecambe and Wise who presented a 'rainless' version of the film's titular song-and-dance routine which featuring a loving recreation of the original set and (by Ernie) Kelly's choreography, but with only the Policeman (the hapless Eric, of course) getting wet...
Hope you have a fine - and rain-free - day, today!
4 comments:
Oh what a way to start the day! I can just imagine the noise Paddington's feet would have really made in the rain instead of the tap-tap. It would have gone "splooff splooff".
I don't think I ever did see the complete clip of Gene Kelly singing in the rain, but I regularly watch Eric & Ernie's spoof! One of the funniest things on TV!
I haven't watched the whole of the Paddington dance episode before: it's brilliant. I'm not sure when it was made, but it looks to me as though Paddington did the Moonwalk before Michael Jackson.
What terrific synchronicity, I've written here before of the connection I had with Paddington from my Mom reading his books to me as a child. Singing in the Rain is a film she's always loved dearly. These details coupled with the fact that we almost lost her in the last 48 hours from internal bleeding- thank God the source- only a busted blood vessel that was simply stapled shut as soon as it was discovered, lead me to want to Sing in the Rain, which I actually did last night after hearing the good news.
SHEILA - Paddington as an inspiration for Michael Jackson! I knew it looked familiar!
BILL FIELD - I'm so glad for you and the family that all has ended happily for your Mom. And I'm sure Paddington sends his love, too...
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