Paddington in Peru opens in UK cinemas on November 8, followed by US theaters on January 17, 2025.
There’s an odd, enduring trend among British soaps and sitcoms in which characters are whisked away to an "exotic" location for a one-off special, with examples ranging from Africa to Benidorm to Australia. Fulfilling his duty as a cornerstone of British culture, it’s now our beloved marmalade-munching bear’s turn to head out on a caper abroad as part of Paddington in Peru. But while there are plenty of laughs to be had in far-flung lands, the bear’s latest adventure suffers the same fate as many of those holiday sitcom specials: a lovely idea, but one that’s never quite as enjoyable as the comforts of home.
Paddington’s return to his Peru homeland begins on the right track, both creatively and logically. An attempt to acquire a simple portrait from a photo booth to use in a new British passport quickly spirals into hilarious disaster as our gentle hero makes mistake after mistake. It’s in this sequence that newcomer Dougal Wilson, who takes over director duties from Paul King, demonstrates a clear understanding of what made King’s two Paddington films work so well. It’s a shame, then, that Paddington’s hallmark whimsical chaos is so rarely replicated elsewhere across the runtime. There are often occasions where it appears that Wilson has lined up the dominos for a wonderful Rube Goldberg machine-like scenario, only for the scene to take a much less funny path. There’s unfortunately nothing akin to the manic bathtub sequence from the first movie, and Paddington in Peru really suffers for its lack of sweet-natured anarchy and slapstick comedy we’ve come to expect from the series.
It’s a shame, too, because the unexpected Indiana Jones-like plot is so obviously well-suited to such chaos. Wilson is joined by a fresh writing team – Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont – who send the entire Brown family off to Peru in hunt of Paddington’s Aunt Lucy. It’s not long until the whole gang is lost in the jungle and forced to become not just explorers, but archaeologists in hunt of the mythical city of El Dorado. There is, thank god, the prerequisite giant rolling boulder to contend with, but nothing of the sort when it comes to a marmalade-flavoured take on Temple of Doom’s mine cart ride. The whole adventure movie angle is an odd one for Paddington to take, but it’s even stranger that Paddington in Peru doesn’t capitalise on the series’ previous physical comedy strengths when they so clearly fit here.
That’s not to say Paddington in Peru is a bad time, though. While not as joke-dense as its predecessors, it is nonetheless consistently fun. Ben Wishaw is as perfect a Paddington as ever, and while the script doesn’t allow him to bring anything particularly new to the character, that soft delivery is always a warm vocal hug. The accompanying Brown family feel somewhat sidelined for this adventure despite their constant presence, but the film would certainly miss them if they were gone – Julie Walters’ Mrs. Bird remains the joyful Scottish highlight of the troupe, but a thread emphasising the need to take more risks in life sees Hugh Bonneville’s Mr. Brown get a healthy handful of the better gags. The irreplaceable Sally Hawkins is regretfully absent (having run away with King to the land of Wonka), but Emily Mortimer makes a very fine Mrs. Brown with the limited space she has to make the character her own.
But, as with Paddington 2, the show truly belongs to a cherished British actor letting loose. This time it’s the wonderful Olivia Colman, her Reverend Mother dressed head-to-toe in a Catholic habit and grinning ear-to-ear in every single scene she steals. The script makes strong use of Colman’s innate ability to deliver manic punchlines with wide eyes and an even wider smile, ensuring her maybe-villain, maybe-not character remains an enjoyably daft enigma all the way to the finish line – although there’s definitely a stand-out moment in her Sound of Music-channelling musical number. Yes, really.
Sadly Antonio Banderas, who joins Colman as the story’s second mysterious outsider, offers nothing close to the same level of whimsy. Despite a fun conceit that sees him play gold-obsessed boat captain Hunter Cabot and his varied ancestors in an echo of Hugh Grant’s many disguises in Paddington 2, Banderas barely makes an impact. He’s just not big and silly enough to feel like a proper fit for this bear’s distinct style of adventure, which is a shame considering he’s shown the right kind of range over in the Puss in Boots films.
There are other choices that don’t work, too. The shift to the jungle makes Paddington in Peru feel grander in scale, emphasised by the many beautiful aerial shots of endless tree canopies. There’s a sense that this is an expansion of the Paddington “mythology,” only exacerbated by “lore” and “origin stories” that this innocent bear need not be weighed down by. But in the face of all that, Paddington in Peru does know where its priorities lie. Its story ultimately explores very personal feelings about what home and belonging truly are, and it manages to do so in a manner that is always sweet but never saccharine. It’s not the journey I’d have liked to see Paddington take in search of such answers, but I’m happy to have taken the trip anyway.
