Paddington in Peru
Directed by Dougal Wilson
Written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont
Starring Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Antonio Banderas, and Olivia Coleman
Rated PG
Runtime: 1 hour and 46 minutes
In US theaters February 14

by Tessa Swehla, Associate Editor

It’s a common belief that the second film in a series is usually the best: think The Godfather Part II (1974), Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Spider-man 2 (2004), The Dark Knight (2008), and so many more second films that build on the premise of the first film to locate and solidify the identity of the series. Think about the third films of most of the franchises I just mentioned, and, well, the odds of greatness usually are diminished, usually because of bloated character lists, overly complicated storylines, lack of originality, and/or running out of things to say. Unfortunately, this is the case with Paddington in Peru, a film that probably would be considered “just fine” if it wasn’t for its illustrious predecessors.

Paddington in Peru picks up our favorite bear-named-after-a-British-railway-station’s story several years after the events of Paddington 2 (2017). The Brown family is in a time of transition, with the Paddington’s adoptive siblings Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) on the verge of adulthood. Mary Brown (Emily Mortimer, replacing Sally Hawkins from the first two films) is struggling to accept that her children don’t need her as much as they used to, while Henry (the ever delightful Hugh Bonneville) must reevaluate his priorities when his insurance company is bought out by a laissez-faire new owner (Haley Atwell, who for some reason is playing an American?). Paddington (Ben Whishaw) has finally achieved British citizenship–symbolized by a brand new passport–but a letter from his Aunt Lucy’s (Imelda Staunton) retirement home arrives to inform him of her sudden strange and concerning behavior. Mary seizes this opportunity to bring the family closer, so the Browns travel to Peru to check on Aunt Lucy, only to find on arrival that she has disappeared. Paddington vows to find her, embarking on a journey through the Amazonian rainforest.

There is a lot to like about Paddington in Peru, especially as a cute adventure movie for children. Whishaw’s Paddington still retains his self-deprecating charm and whimsical innocence, and the animation for the character and Aunt Lucy is truly beautiful (I always get lost in those big amber eyes) and seamlessly integrated into the live action. The fact that Paddington and gold-crazed river boat captain Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) can have a slapstick chase through Incan ruins without me once thinking “oh that’s a CGI bear” is a truly remarkable feat of VFX. The physical comedy–while nowhere near the Buster Keaton level brilliance of the final act of Paddington 2–is amusing, and there are clever little visual gags throughout the film that made me laugh out loud in the theater. Olivia Coleman plays a musically inclined Reverend Mother that runs the retirement home Aunt Lucy absconded from, and her back-and-forth with Brown housekeeper Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters) provides a battle of the wits subplot as Mrs. Bird investigates what happened to Aunt Lucy. There are a lot of classical music needle drops played for comedic effect, and Bonneville continues to delight as the beleaguered father who hates everything that’s happening around him but loves his family so much that he can’t say no to them

The thematic elements of immigration and adoption continue here too as Paddington struggles with mixed feelings about leaving Peru behind in order to gain a new identity as a British citizen. Is he Peruvian? British? Both? As someone who was not given much of an emotional education until she was an adult, I will always appreciate a kid’s film that tells kids that complicated emotions are part of life, and that it is fine to feel more than one way about a thing, even if those ways at first appear contradictory.

All that being said, the massive shadow cast by the previous Paddington films, particularly 2, actively hampers the emotional center of this film. Some may find it unfair to compare a film to its predecessor in such a way–especially a predecessor that is considered by many to be an S-tier film. After all, shouldn’t we judge a film by its own merits? Yes, but let me explain.

Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 trained us as audience members to read the character of Paddington as a stand-in for immigrants during the last tumultuous decade where immigration has been a divisive subject in the UK leading up to and in the wake of Brexit. Paddington has had to battle prejudice, bias, fear, microaggressions, and systemic injustice, and the films do a wonderful job of illustrating the intersection between Paddington’s desire to belong in the UK with his unique ability as an outsider to critique social norms and institutions. Paddington 2 stands out as a film that not only tackles racial profiling in UK policing and justice system but also the cruelty and isolation of the carceral institution itself–all while still being a playful children’s film. All of this doesn’t even touch on the late career defining performance of Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan, an egotistical actor who is all too happy to take advantage of the general suspicion of immigrants to pin his crimes on Paddington, the most innocent bear of all time.

The problem is that the premise of Paddington in Peru simply can’t–or won’t–operate on this level, which leads to both the diminishment of the character and the metaphorical possibilities. While going on an wacky excursion in Peru is a fun idea, Paddington isn’t the outsider here: the white Brown family is, the Spanish Conquistador descendent Cabot is, the missionary Catholic nuns are. It’s telling that an animated bear is the only main character of this film who is indigenous to Peru: even Cabot’s daughter is played by a Spanish actor, Carla Tous, although the character was born in Peru. Why aren’t there more Peruvian people in Peru? What aren’t they a larger part of this story about Paddington grappling to reconcile his cultural roots with his present identity as an English bear?

Despite many opportunities to do so, the director Dougal Wilson (in his debut feature film, taking over for Paul King) and writers refuse to ask why Cabot and his ancestors are/were looking for gold in the rainforest or what happened to the Incas after they hid their treasure from the Spanish. The violence of colonialism is writ large across every institution in Paddington in Peru–including in Paddington’s own origin story, which is revealed piecemeal throughout the film–but it doesn’t have the courage of Paddington 2 to interrogate it. The excuse could be that this is a film for children, but considering its forerunners–and the multiple children’s films that have broached the subject of genocide and colonialism, such as Kung-fu Panda 2 and 3 (2011 and 2016, respectively) and Frozen II (2019)–it feels like a step backwards for the trilogy, back to a more simplistic children’s tale of hijinks rather than the multifaceted, nuanced approach of the other films.

The character arcs for the Browns are also unconvincing and stale. While technically a good performance, Mortimer is playing a different character than Hawkins was. The script reduces Mary’s curiosity and integrity to a superficial tale about motherhood, while the kids have little to do besides roll their eyes at their parents and make teenagery observations about their journey. Henry gets a slightly more robust arc as a man who must learn to embrace risk in his life, but underneath Bonneville’s hilarious performance, there isn’t much development of who this person is. This issue, as I mentioned previously, is common with third entries in that the writers have nothing new to say about these characters, and including them in the film pads out the number of characters that the film has to service, which takes time away from other, more interesting storylines.

Paddington in Peru is a whimsical little film about characters audiences and readers have grown to love going on a straightforward adventure in the jungle. It’s just a shame that the script doesn’t have the teeth that make the previous two films modern classics.

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