Movie Review – Paddington in Peru
Director: Dougal Wilson
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas
Year: 2024
I have said publicly and I will say again that Paddington 2 is a perfect film. Not a perfect kids’ film. Not a perfect family film. A perfect FILM. It’s funnier than most comedies, sweeter than most dramas, more visually inventive than most blockbusters. If you disagree with me on this we probably can’t be friends.
So Paddington in Peru had an impossible task. Follow perfection. And you know what? It doesn’t quite get there. But it gets close enough that I’m not even mad about it.
This time the Brown family travels to Peru because Paddington’s Aunt Lucy is missing from the Home for Retired Bears. The setup allows the movie to do something the first two didn’t — actually show us Peru. The jungle. The mountains. The culture. And while I was initially worried this would feel like a cash-grab sequel where they just send the characters to an exotic location, the movie earns it. Peru isn’t just a backdrop. It’s integral to Paddington’s identity. It’s his home.
Ben Whishaw remains perfect as Paddington’s voice. He brings this quality of — I don’t know how to describe it — earnest goodness that never feels cloying. When Paddington believes the best in people it doesn’t come across as naive. It comes across as a choice. A deliberate decision to see the good. That’s powerful actually. In 2025 when everything is cynical and ironic here’s a bear who just. Believes. In kindness.
Olivia Colman plays a nun who runs a riverboat and she’s. I mean it’s Olivia Colman. She’s incapable of being bad in anything. Antonio Banderas is the villain and he’s clearly having a blast doing a more family-friendly version of his usual thing. The Brown family gets a bit less to do this time around but that’s probably necessary given the runtime.
The director is Dougal Wilson, replacing Paul King who did the first two. King’s visual style was a huge part of what made those movies special and Wilson does his best to match it. He mostly succeeds. There are some sequences — particularly a chase through a jungle temple — that have that same wit and invention. But there are also moments where you can tell it’s a different sensibility behind the camera. Not worse necessarily. Just different.
My complaints are minor. The villain’s plan doesn’t make a ton of sense if you think about it. There’s a subplot with one of the Brown kids that feels rushed. And the emotional climax, while effective, doesn’t hit quite as hard as Paddington 2‘s prison sequences. That’s a high bar though.
Here’s the thing. I laughed. I teared up. I left the theater feeling better about humanity. In 2025. That’s worth something. That might be worth everything actually.
It’s not Paddington 2. Almost nothing is. But it’s a worthy continuation of the series and further proof that Paddington is one of the great screen characters of our time.
A bear. In a hat. Making me believe in goodness.
Sure. Why not.
My rating: ★★★★☆
Paddington in Peru on IMDb | Paddington in Peru on Rotten Tomatoes
