Passion Pictures has partnered with the director trio, Againstallodds, to bring together Barbour jackets and Paddington Bear: it doesn’t get more English than this. The film features a hand-drawn Paddington as he puzzles over what to get Mr Brown for Christmas to thank him for looking after Paddington. In a pleasant twist, Paddington focuses on rewaxing an old coat instead of buying a new one, in true sustainability-driven fashion.
Kevin Grady at Againstallodds says that “storytelling plays an important role in the work we do and this project was no different.” Since the majority of its animation work tends to be CG-based, Againstallodds is always on the lookout for more traditionally-produced 2D projects. “Hand-drawn animation is actually where our roots are based and we have lots of experience there.” Harking back to the good ol’ days of animation, the animators had to mimic and remain faithful to Peggy Fortnum’s established illustration style of Paddington Bear.
When beginning the process, the most obvious starting point, says Grady, was researching Fortnum’s work. “We all had a basic idea of what that style was, but to be accurate, we needed to have a closer look at the source material by delving through the archives and extracting as many examples of her work as possible – especially her drawings directly associated with Paddington.” According to the creative director, even Fortnum’s most simple sketches are very expressive, so the studio wanted to try to retain this. “Overall, it was a case of trying to mimic everything about it from the line strokes and stylings of the shapes, to the level of detail.”