It would be difficult to outdo Paddington 2 for comic inventiveness, especially since the third installment of the series doesn’t feature Hugh Grant (spoiler: he shows up in a brief post-credits bit) or Sally Hawkins, who has so far played the soft-spoken marmalade-scoffing bear’s adoptive materfamilias, Mrs. Brown, and here is replaced by Emily Mortimer. In addition, director Paul King, who helmed the first two movies, has given up the chair to big screen neophyte Dougal Wilson. The most important change, however, is that the movie doesn’t take place in England, whose special cultural atmosphere and, more significantly, manners were so integral to the jokes and warm feelings that are central to Paddington’s story. But the brand is so indelible that all the filmmakers really need to do is trust their instincts: What would Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw, as always) do if his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) started acting very peculiar at the Home for Retired Bears back in Paddington’s native Peru? Of course, he would go there to make sure everything is all right, and bring the whole Brown clan with him for the adventure.

It’s the adventure that poses the biggest challenge, and Wilson and his three screenwriters keep things even lighter than they were in the first two movies. Musical cues and Olivia Colman’s way with a smirk hint that the Reverend Mother who runs the retirement home, which the British crew soon learns Aunt Lucy has disappeared from, can’t be trusted; but it’s the other big name guest, Antonio Banderas, as Hunter Cabot, the gold-obsessed river boat captain who offers to take Paddington and the Browns up the Amazon to follow Aunt Lucy’s trail, that keeps the humor chugging. Like Grant’s faded movie star in the last movie, Cabot is a narcissist, but not a toxic one. His most obvious failing is a deluded confidence in his own ability to overcome any obstacle, including violent river rapids and ghostly visitations from his treasure-hunting ancestors (all played by Banderas). Since clues left behind at the retirement home indicate Aunt Lucy may be on the way to the fabled city of El Dorado, Cabot’s involvement seems pre-ordained, and that’s the mystery that Paddington and the Browns have to unravel in order to locate the old girl. 

Since everyone, including Mortimer and Hugh Bonneville as her husband Henry, is encouraged to act out in a big way, Paddington in Peru never lacks for the kind of silliness that the series counts on to contrast with the stiff upper lipisms it so energetically lampoons, and Paddington/Whishaw’s measured unflappability keeps it all grounded in what can only be called the comfort of polite behavior. The rub is we don’t see any Peruvians in Peru nor hear a lick of Spanish, so, in a sense, moving the setting out of the U.K. was never going to be a big deal. Wherever Paddington goes, he brings his adopted home and its idiosyncrasies with him. 

Opens May 9 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Paddington in Peru home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2024 Studiocanal Films Ltd.-Kinoshita Group Co., Ltd.