A Charming But Disappointing Sequel

The first “Paddington” movie arrived with low expectations, first after Colin Firth departed the titular role, and later when the first trailers threatened a “Sonic the Hedgehog” level CGI monstrosity. And yet, that movie won audiences over, before director Paul King delivered a sequel that is a perfect movie by every metric as subjective as a Rotten Tomatoes score, or as objective as the word of Nicolas Cage. 

Unfortunately, it seems that when King decided to make “Wonka” instead of another “Paddington” movie, he took all the magic with him, leaving only a “story by” credit for newcomer Dougal Wilson (in his feature directorial debut) and his cohort of writers (Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont) to pick up. Wilson’s task of following a masterpiece despite the loss of the original creator and one of the main stars of the film (Sally Hawkins, here replaced by Emily Mortimer), was impossible. Sadly, the result is the “worst” of the three movies so far, a merely decent “Paddington” movie — a rather high standard that would mean an amazing film in most other family-friendly franchises. 

It’s not like “Paddington in Peru” is without merit or promise. The start of the film features a delightful Charlie Chaplin-inspired gag where Paddington tries to take a passport photo in a photo booth that evokes the magnificent bathroom sequence in first movie. Finally, after who knows what kind of magical hoops (it doesn’t hurt, perhaps, that he also has a photo with the late Queen Elizabeth II in his room), Paddington is a British citizen, and has the passport to prove it. Still, the bear hasn’t exactly forgotten where he came from — Darkest Peru, here simply referred to as Peru — which is where the heart of the film truly lies along with its biggest issues. 

The idea of home being not necessarily where you’re from but where you are is a nice thought, and resonant with the rest of the trilogy’s ideas on immigrant stories, but the message is never fully cooked in “Paddington in Peru.” Paddington doesn’t even have the thought himself, he is literally told the message by someone else. What’s more, the moment Paddington receives his passport in the mail, he is welcomed in by a nice, photogenic group of side characters, most of them people of color, showing a rather idealistic vision of the U.K. as a pleasant home of people of all cultures and backgrounds — which is the “Paddington” way. The problem is that this is essentially the last time we see any people of color with any dialogue whatsoever. 

This is rather dumbfounding because the story takes place primarily in Peru. Rather lacking in stakes, the film kicks off when Paddington receives an urgent letter from Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman, by far the best reason to watch this film) saying that dear Aunt Lucy is missing. What’s more, she’s out on some “sort of quest,” which inspires the Brown family to go together to Peru to find Aunt Lucy and take one last chance at spending time as a family before their daughter Judy goes off to university. 

What follows is an adventure deep into the Amazon on board a boat owned by Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas, doing an amusing blend of Fitzcarraldo and Gollum). Despite what the title may imply, there is little in the film that feels Peruvian. Other than some shots of Latino background characters waving the nice white people hello, as well as some llamas, the film might want to fool you into thinking that London has more people of color than South America.

This is a shame, because it reduces the film’s immigration story and themes into just a fantasy. Paddington may say he’s from Peru, but the film makes it very clear he is just a magical creature from a magical, fictional land with no resemblance to the real world, which makes his being embraced by friends and family in London, and finally becoming a citizen just a fairy tale.

The lack of a Peruvian, or even a grounded Latino look or feel to the movie also feels like a missed opportunity because it avoids the fish-out-of-water tone that made the first two “Paddington” movies so fun and special. Despite having a classic sitcom trope of throwing an ordinary family into an adventure in an exotic land, the Browns don’t really interact with anything Peruvian, but rather exoticize the entire country by just focusing on how dangerous the world outside of London is, like the jungle and the bugs. The closest the family comes to interacting with the locals is when the dad, Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville), keeps being spooked by Amazonian spiders.

Speaking of the jungle, “Paddington in Peru” trades city whimsy for a jungle adventure, but rather than “Indiana Jones,” this feels more like the recent “Jungle Cruise” movie, with uninspired sound stage sets that make the vastness of the Amazon feel small. Still, there are some good moments. Olivia Colman is fantastic, particularly during an early musical number that spirals out of control. There are also some inspiring animated sequences and a few slapstick moments right out of A Buster Keaton movie. Though “Paddington in Peru” has some glaring issues, just seeing these characters together again makes for a fun time, and seeing actors like Colman and Banderas make big choices in their performances that range on caricature is amusing — even if they never match the energy of Hugh Grant in “Paddington 2.” “Paddington in Peru” is ultimately a missed opportunity, but it’s also a pleasant, entertaining-enough time.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10

“Paddington in Peru” is now out in cinemas in the U.K., before opening in American theaters on January 17, 2025.