We’ve now reached our second to last villain as of now in the Paddington film series. I do not know if there are plans for a fourth one but in some ways I hope not. Also this third movie feels the most different. I’ve mentioned how Paddington as a character and a series is a celebration of London and its culture, that is lost somewhat in this third movie as we move the location from London to Peru. Now, I get this as Paddington is an immigrant and Peru is his original home.
Now follow me here as I go on this comparison but I’ve been thinking about the American counterpart to Paddington and the answer I came to was Superman. This comparison might seem odd but consider both had to leave to their homes after tragedies, Superman’s home world was destroyed and a horrible earthquake destroyed he home of Paddington (yet to be named that) and his aunt and uncle. Furthermore, Superman’s family along with every other Kryptonian died and Paddington lost his uncle, Pastuzo dies of a result of the earthquake.
Discounting the Gunn directed DCU Superman movie, a young Kal-El was sent to earth to be given a better life and Paddington’s Aunt Lucy sends Paddington to London for a similar reason as she is getting too old to raise him. They both find better lives and communities in their new homes. Also consider how Superman is someone that sees the good in everyone, that is also true of Paddington and in a way became beacons of good for their adopted homes.
I bring this up as his something that is seen in today’s villain with Hunter Cabot as we are presented with an interesting villain who isn’t bad guy per se but is somone who is driven by greed and sickness. Yes, he is still an antagonist and does awful things but in a way he’s driven by addiction.
First Appearance
We first meet Hunter after the Browns learn that Aunt Lucy has gone missing are are determined to find her. Well more so Paddington’s part. We see him as a boat caption who Paddington hires begging as he is a desperate cub. He at refuses until learning that they are heading to Rumi Rock and his daughter Gina tries to talk them out of it knowing her father is cursed and has a sickening addiction to gold and finding it.
Hunter gives into his vices however and brings the family aboard. Now this is something fascinating to consider as this character is played by Antonio Banderas who can play both suave and comedic. See him as Puss in Boots n the Shrek franchise and I do think that this also true in a sense here with Cabot. We will touch on that more when looking at his personality.
Personality
Honestly his personality is mostly played for laughs but it is a bit tragic as his family has been cursed by one of his earlier ancestors to always search for gold. This is something we see all throughout the movie and again as I’ve described throughout, this is a sickness and one that has consumed him.
It is so bad to a point where the desire for gold overrides any logical train of thought and this is observed as we see him being berated by the hallucinations of his ancestors who had also been plagued with sickness. Yet underneath it all, Cabot is a good person. He just needs help and that help came in the form of Paddington’s hard stare.
His signature move which Paddington uses on people when they’ve forgotten their manners. Paddington uses it on Cabot when Cabot is willing to give up his daughter for the sake of the gold. The catch with the hard stare is that it can only be used on people who know they’ve done something wrong. Alas it wouldn’t easily work on immoral people as much as we wish.
Grand Desire
I’ve touched upon this a bit already but it is to find the gold in El Dorado and he goes so far as to abandon the Browns and his daughter on the ship to obtain this goal. He even goes further by kidnapping Paddington and holding him hostage while the poor bear is a bit aloof. Again, this something of a sickness as I’ve described throughout and Cabot wants to give into his sickness even knowing his ancestors have all died looking for treasure.
It speaks to how far he was willing to go in order to obtain what he wanted and in a way, it’s tragic while also still being comedic. It’s as though you want to laugh at Cabot while wanting him to get better.
Most Evil Deed
This one was easy to pinpoint and it ties into his sickness as he willingly strands Gina, his daughter and only immediate family in order to find the gold. This speaks to how far gone he is as this desire/curse/sickness has consumed him to the point that he is pushing family aside. The gold is the only thing that matters to him and that is tragic as family should come first but he has blinders on and is only focused on the gold.
Redemption
I already mentioned Paddington uses the hard stare on Cabot in order for him to realize what is truly important and again it works but it also helps Cabot to realize Gina is his true treasure and Paddington helps him to break free of his family curse. At the end of the movie, we see he’s given up his quest to find gold and instead spend more time with his daughter. This is a contrast to the film’s main villain who isn’t able to let go of her desire yet appears to have more of her faculties.
Throughout the whole movie, it is shown as though Cabot is the main villain but as we will observe in the final Paddington villains blog, that is not the case.
Is Hunter Cabot a Good Villain?
In many ways, I’d say he is a tragic villain in this series compared to the other three where Millicent is ruthless and cold willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goal. Yes, this is also true of the other three but Phoenix was more of a showboater and Hunter is someone I pity and as for the final villain, I don’t want to go into much detail yet as I’ll be covering her next time as I look at…
Reverend Mother
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