Winnie the Pooh vs. Paddington — who would win in a bear-off?

polygon.com:

Who comes to mind when you think of an adorable, accident-prone bear getting into hijinks with his human family? Paddington or Winnie the Pooh? Both are fictional bears of fine standing, who provide joy to children and parents alike. Or even just sad adults who need to see some good in the world. Then there’s clever wordplay and decision to wear tops without pants.

Pooh and Paddington have a surprising number of similarities. But if we had to pick one or the other — like, gun to the head because there can be no other reason you’d rank these two beautiful baby bears — how do you choose? The answer is obviously an incredibly well-researched, highly scientific set of Cute Bear criteria based on decades of study.

Dear readers, we’re going to have to make some hard choices today. And I promise I won’t be biased by the fact that for the last several weeks I’ve been listening to a podcast episode on repeat where a man named Otis Gray reads Winnie the Pooh to help me fall asleep.

Actually, public domain is a score for Pooh. Ten points for accessibility.

Current standing Winnie the Pooh: 10 Points Paddington: 0 Points

Both of these bears have been around a long time – Pooh since 1926 and Paddington since 1958 – where did they start in their style journeys? Turns out: naked!

A.A. Milne created Pooh bear loosely based on a very generic bear his son – Christopher Robin, natch – carried around. The real bear itself? Boring. Blasé. Nothing special. The book version? Hero. Sweet. Perfect cherubic baby bear.

Paddington, back in 1958 in Michael Bond’s first original book for the character, actually looked much the same as he does today. Both bears hadn’t yet anthropomorphized to the point of needing clothing yet. Pooh hadn’t gotten