The image, premiered by the Telegraph June 10, features a gently smiling CGI-version of Paddington in his signature blue duffle coat standing outside Buckingham Palace with a suitcase (presumably filled with marmalade.)
As the still began circulating the web, film lovers were eager to the discuss details of the movie itself; casting choices (Colin Firth [OP: Colin dropped out of the film -- is creepy paddington to blame?] and Nicole Kidman, among others,) release date (Nov. 28 in the U.K.) and the film's animation style.
Others, however, were more concerned about Paddington's look.
While, as Complex noted, the "slimmed-down" version of the film's title character "at least somewhat resembles the book version," many found Paddington's expression in the image quite... well, creepy.
Within hours of the original still being released, Twitter users started using the hashtag #CreepyPaddington to describe the character.
Many turned to Photoshop to illustrate the point, inserting Paddington into classic horror films like The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, and The Exorcist.
New Paddington film best enjoyed with some fava beans and a nice chianti. #creepypaddingtonpic.twitter.com/AO5zEETSrP
— blauereiter (@blauereiter) June 12, 2014
For the afternoon audience, one of those #creepypaddington pictures: pic.twitter.com/miS9aBCTPo
— Andrew Jones (@EthanRunt) June 11, 2014
Paddington Myers #creepypaddington@NickdeSemlyenpic.twitter.com/l1rqgHkeop
— Olly Gibbs (@ollyog) June 11, 2014
Where we’d imagine seeing #CreepyPaddington and our favorite from around the Internet: http://t.co/mz5M1Zx9OKpic.twitter.com/4D1FCNdBN2
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) June 11, 2014
On June 11th, 2014, a single topic Tumblr blog called creepypaddington was launched to roundup some of the meme's best submissions (like this one, below!)
there's some more text and more pics at the source.
what horror film would you put creepy paddington in?!