Paddington has become IP - a franchise that is exploited to have global, quite sentimental, appeal. The source texts by Michael Bond are genuinely brilliant pieces of children's literature. Peggy Fortnum's original line illustrations are fairly close to the CGI manifestations and informed the visual language of the subsequent iterations by Ivor Wood et al. The original books and illustrations are canonical and the strength of the characters, relationships, settings, storytelling and a distinct visual language provide a depth for the current iterations. I really loved these books as a kid, like much great children's literature, they are rooted in a very tangible and believable place. These were one of the first works of literature in which I recognised places in West London that I actually knew and had been to and walked around which made the fantastical notion of a talking bear far more plausible to me as a child. Michael Bond lived in these streets as well and, to this day, I still think about Paddington when I walk past Porchester Hall and remember the incident with the crepes suzette. It is, I think, the same reason AA Milne is so effective - a bear rooted in the Sussex landscape. I was pleasantly surprised by the first couple of CGI movies despite being inclined to dismiss them but I guess the last one wasn't so great? To answer your question - Paddington is Children's Literature but not just for kids. Come take a walk round - when Michael Bond wrote the books 'Paddington' was more than just a station and back in those days encompassed areas now gentrified into Little Venice, Bayswater and Notting Hill. Families like the Browns are thin on the ground these days, displaced by oligarchs, the ultra wealthy and the unstoppable forces of globalisation but the streets and the ghosts and the stories endure.