Director: Dougal Wilson
Screenplay: Mark Burton, Jon Foster, James Lamont
Based on a Character and Story by: Michael Bond, Paul King, Simon Farnaby, Mark Burton
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Carla Tous, Hayley Atwell, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton
Country: UK, France, Japan, USA
Running Time: 106 min
Year: 2024
BBFC Certificate: PG
In the third film of the trilogy, there has been some change. Emily Mortimer replaces Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Brown, the kids are now in college (the film is set in 2024, but they still seem to be slightly younger than they would be going by the 2014 chronology of the first film), and Paddington has got a British passport. Dougal Wilson, a music video and commercial veteran (looking through his CV, what leapt out was Satisfaction by Benny Benassi) replaces Paul King. Not that you’d notice. This film does have a bigger canvas, taking the intrepid Tory bear and Royal Family grim reaper (Ben Whishaw) back to where he came from. However, this is no story of the bear being deported by Kemi Badenoch. Instead, it is a trip up river to find a missing Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), and a quest to find El Dorado (the city, not as the film reveals in a brilliant cutaway, Paddington’s favourite kebab shop/chipper).
Again, there is the same visual detail. Though set in 2024, it is still a kind of artificial never-was Britain, down to Judy using an outdated dictaphone. Do we really think Ben Miller’s Colonel served in Iraq? This extends to its portrayal of Peru, about as realistic a version of modern Peru as Emilia Perez is of modern Mexico, a world of llamas, women in bowler hats and little in actual Peruvians. Malaga’s own Antonio Banderas again appears as the intrepid Hunter Cabot, a character who though has a Conquistador ancestor, is explained to have ‘family from all over the world’ to excuse the casting of a Hispanic but not Latino actor (plus the Anglo-Spanish family thing excuses a twist). Banderas is outfitted and given a love of opera to recall Klaus Kinski in Fitzcarraldo (1982), and we see in a winning touch, plays multiple roles in flashbacks of the Cabot family throughout several generations including a pith helmeted colonial duffer (doing his best RP and looking like he is playing a British stereotype in an early 70s Spanish Tarzan knock-off), a mutton-chopped vicar, a Gabby Hayes-type prospector and even surprisingly passable as an Amelia Earhart-ish aviatrix (Emilia Perez Earhart?). He is also haunted by the ghost of said conquistador ancestor. Banderas relishes the role, making up for the absolute wasting of him in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. He is rivalled in the suspicious guest star stakes by Olivia Colman. After years of po-faced Oscar Bait roles and playing Paddington’s old pal Brenda Windsor, it is a delight to see Colman in comedy mode. She deadpans with adept skill as she did in BBC’s Look Around You 2. There is a hint of Pam Batchelor in her portrayal of the Reverend Mother, a kind of twisted version of the Singing Nun.
Hayley Atwell plays a one-dimensional American boss of Mr. Brown’s, with appropriately naff accent. Sanjeev Bhaskar (doing his Indian Dad voice from Goodness, Gracious Me!) and Ben Miller reprise their roles as neighbours. And Simon Farnaby (here only the storyliner rather than writer, as with previous films) reprises his turn as the hapless Barry as a flight attendant , in a lovely scene with a CGI plane that has been animated to look like it is stop-motion. Sadly, there is no scene where Farnaby lusts after a character in drag, not even Great-Grandma Cabot. (Was script doctor of the first movie Graham Linehan responsible for the Barry lusting after Mr. Brown in drag joke in the first film? He did seem very angry when some idiots online called the scene ‘transphobic’. As a trans-adjacent person, I must note once again that it’s this bullying from ‘the woke mob’ that causes gender-critical rage not stops it, but I digress.)
As for the regular cast, Hugh Bonneville (for all that you can or can’t say about him) is at least a good Mr. Brown. And Emily Mortimer is fine as Mrs. Brown (not that one, thankfully), though one does think the animated flashbacks where we see events of previous films but with a rotoscoped Mortimer instead of Hawkins slightly ignorant. Julie Walters is a bit annoying as Mrs. Bird, feeling at times like she’s stuck doing that ‘Two Soups’ voice but Scottish, though she does spark in certain scenes (her Father Fintan Stack-esque love of jungle music). However, like with Broadbent, you never buy them as characters, just famous actors playing a part not that convincingly.
All in all, an entertaining romp, deftly done, full of jokes that’ll entertain both kiddies and adults. It does peter out a bit towards the end and may have needed fifteen minutes cut, but it makes up eventually. It is a rousing adventures with echoes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre-the Wrath of God and even Lost Horizon.
Film: 
Paddington in Peru is out now on UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and digital download.
4K Ultra HD, BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
The Making of Paddington in Peru (4K Ultra HD disc only)
The Story of Paddington in Peru
The Home for Retired Bears Tour
Brown’s House Tour
“Let’s Prepare for Paddington” with the Reverend Mother
The blu-ray comes with the usual handful of making of featurettes, including a few set tours.
Disc/Package:
