It was perhaps too much to ask for this threequel to match the charm and magic of the first two Paddington films, but while it doesn’t quite match the brilliance of its predecessors, Paddington In Peru is still a warm-hearted, entertaining film that the whole family can enjoy.

Premise: Paddington and the Brown family decide to visit Aunt Lucy in Peru, but when they get to the Home for Retired Bears, the nun in charge of the home (Olivia Colman) tells them that Aunt Lucy has gone missing searching for something in the jungle. With the help of boat captain (Antonio Banderas) and his daughter, Paddington and the Browns set off in search of Aunt Lucy.

Review:

It’s fair to say that 2014’s Paddington was an unexpected delight, and then 2017’s Paddington 2 was somehow even better – becoming an instant classic that was even the subject of a brilliant running gag in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. The director and co-writer of the first two Paddington films, Paul King, then went on to make the equally delightful and heart-warming Wonka (which was my Second Favourite Film of 2023), leaving the third Paddington film in the hands of first-time director Dougal Wilson.

I don’t want to lay the ‘blame’ for Paddington in Peru on Dougal Wilson, because the truth is, it’s still a very enjoyable and entertaining family film, packed with good gags and coming with an amazing cast which includes the likes of Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Emily Mortimer and Hayley Atwell, alongside returning castmates Hugh Bonneville, Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent. By any objective standard, Paddington in Peru is a very good family movie … it’s just that it’s not quite up there with the previous two Paddington movies.

“…packed with good gags & an amazing cast…”

Looking back with hindsight, it seems that Paul King (and his writing partner Simon Farnaby) may have been the secret ingredient for the magic of the first two films – especially given that their next film, Wonka, also captured the elusive blend of broad comedy and heartfelt emotion that made the first two Paddington films so charming. Paddington In Peru is certainly enjoyable … but it is undeniably lacking the magical spark that the three most recent Paul King films have had.

This might, in part, have something to do with the plot and the setting – I have to confess that I was worried when it was first announced that the third Paddington film would be called Paddington In Peru, because quite often, comedy franchises take their characters abroad when the writers have simply run out of any other good ideas. Part of the joy of the Paddington series is seeing Paddington’s life in the (somewhat idealised) multicultural London that we explored in the first two films – but other than a short introductory sequence (which simple reminds us how great the London-based supporting characters are), the film takes place almost entirely in Peru. On the one hand, if they had based the third film in London again, perhaps we’d all be complaining that it felt too similar to the first two films – but nevertheless, I felt that the relocation took something away from the ‘Paddington-ness’ of this instalment.

“…a perfectly enjoyable family comedy…”

The decision to have the Brown family caught up in what is essentially a treasure hunt through the jungle also means that Paddington In Peru feels very similar in places to other recent family adventure/comedies like Dora & The Lost City of Gold, Jungle Cruise and The Lost City – and as great as Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas, neither can quite match the scene-stealing performance of Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2.

But there are plenty of positives – the film does touch sensitively on Paddington’s and Mr Gruber’s experiences as immigrants who becoming British citizens, while Mrs Brown has perhaps the best narrative arc of the human characters, as she struggles to come to terms with ‘empty nest syndrome’ as daughter Judy prepares to go to university. But perhaps if we’d got a little more of those kind of elements, and a little less treasure hunting in the jungle, maybe this movie would have been able to recapture more of the earlier films’ charm and magic. As it is, Paddington In Peru is a perfectly enjoyable family comedy, but I doubt Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal will be discussing it in years to come.