…………………………………………………

Paddington in Peru Movie Review

Paddington in Peru is a 2024 live-action/animated family film directed by Dougal Wilson and starring Hugh Boneville, Emily Mortimer, Ben Wishaw and Olivia Colman. It’s an inferior, but still very fun sequel.

When Paddington discovers his beloved aunt has gone missing from the Home for Retired Bears, he and the Brown family head to the jungles of Peru to find her. Determined to solve the mystery, they soon stumble across a legendary treasure as they make their way through the rainforests of the Amazon. This is by far the weakest entry in this surprisingly strong trilogy of movies, but the original film is so good and the second movie was downright incredible that the fact that this one is the worst still didn’t stop it from being an utter delight.

………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………..

Unfortunately, this film saw the departure of Paul King from the directing duties as he had to go to do the wonderful ‘Wonka’ flick. This negatively impacted this sequel as gone were the whimsy and technical craftsmanship of King in favor of Wilson’s rather standard family adventure packaging. This is such a well executed movie on all fronts, but it lacked the originality and the sophistication of the previous installments.

Paddington is just as endearing as ever and Ben Whishaw’s voice is again terrific. His story continues to resonate, especially as an immigrant metaphor. The heartfelt ending was the highlight of the picture and it made me feel first sadness and then pure joy. It was a beautiful way to end the movie and to signify the importance of both honoring your family roots and your newfound family.

Sally Hawkins was sadly replaced with Emily Mortimer. I liked her quite a bit here, but Hawkins was a bit more likable and emotionally engaging in the role. Hugh Bonneville was lovely as the father. His fear of spiders was well mined for laughs and his stuck-up British personality was consistently amusing. Jim Broadbent needed more to do, but Julie Walters was reliably entertaining.

………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………..

The kids were thoroughly forgettable here and the bears also did not get much to do individually, but as a group they were delightful. Antonio Banderas was typecast in the role of the gold-obsessed adventurer. I found this role very tiresome, though the character had his moments. Him talking with his ancestors was also overly familiar and never as funny as the movie thought it was.

Speaking of funny, the one person who stole the movie for me was surely Olivia Colman. She was just incredible in the role of the fake nun. She should be playing these antagonistic and comedic roles more often as she is naturally very funny. I found her delivery outstanding and she managed to bring laughs out of me consistently. She was a genuine scene-stealer.

Paddington in Peru is at its best when it’s focusing on the family dynamics between the bear and the Browns. The movie has a lot of heart, which did lead to that very touching conclusion. With that being said, the film needed more of those moments and it certainly needed more humor. There were funny bits here and there, but most of the film was overwhelmingly frenetic in action scenes that were themselves nowhere near as technically accomplished or as ingenious as they were in the Paul King-helmed installments.

………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………..

The CGI was pretty convincing, but the film lacked the setting authenticity as Peru was nowhere near as well depicted or as intricate as I thought it would be. The score is good and the one song that we got was excellent, but the movie should have either leaned more or less toward being a musical instead of being so indecisive about it.