Paddington in Peru Review

It has been a long seven-year wait for Paddington’s cinematic return. The third film in the Paddington series sees the lovable bear return to his ancestral home for a big family adventure.

Paddington (Ben Whishaw) has become a British citizen. He gets the opportunity to use his British passport when The Reverend Mother of the Home for Retired Bears (Olivia Colman) writes to Paddington and tells the bear that Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) has been acting out of character. When Paddington and the Browns arrive in Peru the Reverend Mother tells them Aunt Lucy has disappeared and the family resolves to go into the jungle and find the centenarian bear.

The third Paddington movie sees a lot of changes. The biggest involved the people behind the camera. The director of the first two films, Paul King, had moved on to Wonka and only had a story and executive producer on Paddington in Peru. The directing duties were handed over to Dougal Wilson, who was making his feature film debut. There were new writers, with Aardman Animation veteran Mark Burton, and writing duo Jon Foster and James Lamont (Adventures of Paddington Bear, and Paddington Meets The Queen) writing the screenplay. The threequel did retain the cinematographer Erik Wilson and composer Dario Marianelli to ensure there was some consistency.

The obvious changes for the threequel were the setting and genre. The first two films were set in London and showed how Paddington improved the lives of everyone around him. The threequel moved the Browns to Peru and took them on an Indiana Jones-style adventure. This setting and story made Paddington in Peru feel more like Dora and The Lost City and Jungle Cruise, although the first Paddington film did have a cute reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Paddington in Peru shook things up since Paddington couldn’t infect as many people with kindness. Treasure hunting and exploring are nothing new to the Paddington film series, but it’s the first time Paddington had to partake in these endeavours.

Paddington in Peru had a lot of hurdles. The long gag between the films meant there was a lot of anticipation, especially since Paddington 2 was fantastic and one of the best sequels ever made. There have been many threequels that have struggled to close a trilogy. If you want a brief summary, Paddington in Peru, wasn’t as good as Paddington 2, but it was still an entertaining family adventure. This put Paddington in Peru in the same territory as Return of the Jedi and The Dark Knight Rises, good films that had to follow a great predecessor. Paddington in Peru was better than many other family films released in 2024.

Wilson seems like he took on a big challenge since Paddington in Peru was his feature film debut. He has previously worked on commercials and music videos. He’s best known for making many Christmas ads for John Lewis, including “Monty the Penguin” and “Buster the Boxer.” It seemed like he had the technical ability, and the John Lewis Christmas ads have pulled on many heartstrings. Paddington in Peru didn’t have as much sentiment or witty lines as the previous films, but it made up for this with physical comedy.

Paddington did get up to a lot of mishaps again and there were lots of funny sequences throughout. There was a delightful musical number that referenced The Sound of Music. There were lots of antics like a reference to The Lone Ranger, Paddington taking on the challenge of getting into a hammock and a moment emulating a famous stunt in Steamboat Bill, Jr. Paddington in Peru was the second family film to show Antiono Banderas dying a lot, the previous one being Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

The most notable new members of the cast were Colman and Banderas. Colman was a delight as a sweet, smiling nun who was hiding how much she really knew. It’s not the first time she has played a duplicitous character, but Colman is so good at it. Banderas excels at playing larger-than-life characters and he was great as the riverboat captain whose greed got the better of him. Banderas had to act with multiple versions of his character, and it was fun to see his delusions take over.

Within the Brown camp there were changes. The children were growing up and becoming more distant. Judy (Madeleine Harris) was planning to go to university, leading Mrs. Brown (Emily Mortimer) to suffer from early set empty nest syndrome. Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) turned into a lazy gamer who invented devices, so he didn’t have to get up. Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) had regressed since he became overly cautious and needed to learn to take risks again. Paddington described the Brown family as being divided despite living under the same roof. The standard British holiday adventure was a way to reunite the family.

One of the most notable changes was Emily Mortimer replacing Sally Hawkins. Mortimer seemed like she was given a thankless task due to Hawkins’ reputation and the Hawkins version was the glue that held the Brown family together. Mortimer’s version of the character was sweet but naïve as she tries to keep a sunny disposition as the vacation goes array.

Paddington in Peru had a lot to live up to and there has been some negativity towards the film since it wasn’t as strong as Paddington 2. On its own terms Paddington in Peru was an entertaining family film that can delight people of all ages.