Did Sally Hawkins, who appeared in Paddington and Paddington 2, sit out the third film because she knew?
It is with immense sadness that we announce that Paddington in Peru, though adequately winsome and chuckle-worthy in parts, doesn’t quite match up to its illustrious predecessors. The anthropomorphic bear’s latest outing stars Emily Mortimer in place of Hawkins and has a new director, Douglas Wilson, trying to fill Paul King’s large shoes.
Paddington in Peru takes the ursine specimen with the mien of the well-behaved British public school student back to his homeland. Paddington (voiced by Ben Wishaw) is summoned by the Mother Superior at the centre for old bears where his beloved aunt Lucy lives.
The Mother Superior (Olivia Colman) informs Paddington that Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) has gone missing. The Browns – Henry (High Bonneville), Mary (Emily Mortimer), Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) – along with their housekeeper Mrs Bird (Julie Walters) go along.
In Peru, the group meet the raffish sailor Hunter (Antonia Banderas) and his daughter Gina (Carla Tous). Adventures on land, in water and the air ensue, all of them suffused with the jolly British humour we have come to expect from the series.
Inspired by Michael Bond’s best-selling children’s books, the previous movies were heart-warming fairy tales about a foreigner successfully finding a home and family in England. In the new film too, the Browns, Mrs Bird and Paddington himself are around to supply examples of British manners and a typically English spirit of adventure.
Although Paddington in Peru has charming new characters, and Emily Mortimer makes herself right at home, the world beyond Great Britain isn’t quite so sharply observed. The marmalade is slathered on thick once more, but the bread’s a bit mouldy.
The visual effects are not always up to scratch in whatever passes for Peru. The flaccid script is best when sticking with the Browns, particularly Hugh Bonneville’s unlikely heroics.
An underwhelming Paddington movie – unbelievable but true.
