‘Paddington In Peru’: Review

Dir. Dougal Wilson. UK/France 2024. 105mins.

As marmalade-sandwich movies go, Paddington In Peru is perfectly palatable but something of a thin-shred supermarket variant, rather than the chunky, chewy artisanal delights that were Paddington (2014) and the even better Paddington 2 (2017). Taking Michael Bond’s inquisitive ursine hero out of London and back to his jungle roots, this is a brisk adventure romp boasting a prestige cast including Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas, and lavish production values – notably breathtaking Colombian and Peruvian locations, including UNESCO World Heritage site Macchu Picchu.

 The least striking of the series so far

Glossy as it is, the film – directed by Dougal Wilson, taking over from Paul King – is neither quite as winsome not as parent-pleasingly sophisticated as it sets out to be. It falls short of both the wit and the canny all-audiences appeal of the previous episodes, which grossed over $268 million and $227 million respectively. Even so, Paddington in Peru will unfailingly tickle family audiences including smaller children – hair-raising thrills and ‘mild peril’ notwithstanding – when it opens in the UK on November 8, with China next month and a wider international rollout in the New Year. 

Including something of an origin story for its furry hero (voiced as ever by Ben Whishaw), the film begins with a prequel showing him as a cub in Peru, out to grab a juicy orange, only to take a perilous tumble through foliage and down river – and rescued by his adoptive Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton). Years later, back in London, his loving hosts Mr and Mrs Brown (Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer, the latter taking over from Sally Hawkins) anticipate an empty nest as their children Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) get older. But a letter from the nun (Olivia Colman) who runs Peru’s Home for Retired Bears sounds an alarm about Lucy – so the Brown family, including housekeeper Mrs Bird (Julie Walters) cross the Atlantic to see what’s up. 

There ensues a journey up the Amazon, accompanied by rakish riverboat captain Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas). What follows ticks off the familiar machinery of South American adventure – rope bridges, rickety planes, mysterious inscriptions, a lost temple. A giant rolling rock is a nudge at Indiana Jones, and Banderas’s arrival on his boat, blasting out classics on a vintage gramophone, carries echoes of Fitzcarraldo – but generally the film plays its laughs straight rather than for cinephile winks.

Early on, we learn that Mr Brown’s insurance firm has been taken over by an American company, and the motto is now ’Embrace risk’. That’s the blueprint for a film that is brasher and more thrill-oriented than its predecessors – but it also suggests a hard-nosed corporate approach that dilutes the series’ charm. Where previous director Paul King favoured a look of manifest toybox-style illusionism, new helmer Dougal Wilson – an advertising and music-video veteran – takes a less flip, more impersonal blockbuster approach. The script is by Mark Burton, a long-time Aardman hand, and Jon Foster and James Lamont, the duo behind TV’s Whishaw-voiced animation series The Adventures of Paddington (with King and his collaborator Simon Farnaby listed in the story credit). The narrative plays the twists and turns of the quest to purposeful effect, but with few real surprises. 

It’s a pleasure to see and hear the returning regulars; the perfectly-synched match between Whishaw’s candid delivery and the CGI bear’s facial expressions continues to be the series’ unifying thread. However, as the Browns’ now adolescent progeny, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin are under-used, as is Mortimer’s appealingly level-headed Mrs Brown – although one misses Sally Hawkins’ spiky eccentricity in the role. 

There must surely be Olivia Colman fans out there who have always dreamed of seeing her as a guitar-playing nun, and they won’t be disappointed by her mischievous channeling of the Julie Andrews archetype, gamely dispensing grins. Antonio Banderas, however, is grossly indulged as a swaggering, sinister but bumbling trickster haunted by his gold-hungry ancestors, including a deranged conquistador. He brings more bluster than grace to the role(s) – and seriously, rather than a Spanish star, couldn’t the production have risked a major Latin American name as the villain (e.g. Ricardo Darin or Alfredo Castro)? 

With a brief coda that is notably cheekier than all that precedes it, Paddington in Peru pretty much delivers what the poster promises. Older children will appreciate the brisker pace and peril, so the overall strategy may be a smart commercial move – but this is the least striking of the series so far. And given the previous episodes’ emphasis on cultural diversity, the film shows precious little curiosity in the culture or the population of its chosen setting – apart from a brief shot of Paddington posing with indigenous children.