Paddington in Peru, 2024.
Directed by Dougal Wilson.
Starring Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Samuel Joslin, Madeleine Harris, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Colman, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Carla Tous, Hayley Atwell, Oliver Maltman, Joel Fry, Robbie Gee, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Imelda Staunton, Ben Miller, Jessica Hynes, Ella Dacres, Aloreia Spencer, Nicholas Burns, Ashleigh Reynolds, Amit Shah, Ella Bruccoleri, Carlos Carlín, Simon Farnaby, Emma Sidi, Hugh Grant, and Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
SYNOPSIS:
Paddington returns to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.
A beary take on the treasurer of El Dorado, Paddington in Peru trades London fish-out-of-water hijinks and tear-inducing pleas for kindness for a CGI-heavy formulaic Amazonian adventure of peril that, while endearing, never reaches the highs of previous installments. It’s a noticeable step down in quality, often playing like your average family-friendly film, at a certain point mainly going for thrills rather than witty banter and heartwarming lessons in manners. Even the thematic messaging seems like an afterthought this time, reminding what the movie is about moments before the epilogue in a halfhearted, slapdash fashion.
Truthfully, none of this should be surprising. Director Dougal Wilson takes over duties from Paul King (responsible for the first two entries before moving on to his take on Willy Wonka, only contributing to the screen story here), working from a screenplay by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont (with Paddington created by Michael Bond), none of whom have worked on either of the previous movies. The latter two have worked on an animated TV series titled The Adventures of Paddington, which explains why Paddington himself (still voiced by Ben Whishaw with an innocent and polite gentle warmth) feels in character.
However, most of those amusing gags occur early on (a photo booth in London, a hilarious broken floorboard gag when searching for a clue, a struggle climbing into a hammock) and, as already mentioned, fade away once the plot transitions into three groups of characters competing for treasure. To clarify, Paddington is looking for his missing Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), who had written to her nephew saying she was feeling lonely, only to be gone when he and the Brown family arrive in Peru’s Home for Retired Bears. In charge is the suspicious Mother Reverend (a playful Olivia Colman, also getting a chance to do some equally silly singing), who often blatantly incriminates herself in a running gag of obviously having something to do with the disappearance. All that remains left behind are Aunt Lucy’s glasses and a sacred bracelet connected to El Dorado that might have something to do with where the bear went.
Together with the supportive Brown family, now with grown-up children and becoming increasingly distant, deciding that this vacation is just what they need to reconnect, Paddington and they enlist a boat tour guide named Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) alongside his daughter Gina (Carla Tous) to navigate the waters and into uncharted territory. It is a journey that Gina advises against, but Hunter sympathizes with the emergency and braves the danger. It also turns out he sees literal ancestral ghosts (also funnily played by Antonio Banderas) egging on a family curse and obsession to find the El Dorado treasure.
There are encounters with potentially deadly spiders, treks throughout the jungle, and character betrayals on the path to the treasure. While that might sound tantalizing, ambitious, and refreshing for this series, it’s also somewhat perfunctory and only elevated by the reliable Paddington charm. Even the Brown family (played by Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer stepping into the Sally Hawkins role, now with adult children played by Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris) don’t have much to do. The latter two are noticeably silent at times; basically, they are out of obligation for the thread about family the film tries to emotionally tie everything back to.
Technically, Paddington in Peru is something new for the series and does retain the signature delight of the characters, comes with more likability wacky villains, and the wonderful voiceover work from Ben Whishaw also still delivers a moving touch, even if there isn’t much of an emotional pull here this time. It’s solid but no treasure like the previous two films.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
