Eileen, 7 years old, joined me in viewing “Paddington in Peru.” Billed as a live-action, animated comedy, we beg to differ. Paddington does make his hilarious signature goofs, as if he’s a prehistoric being visiting 2025, but we call this Paddington film more of an action-adventure than a comedy.
Eileen and I have seen the first two Paddington films and, despite some scary moments, especially when Nicole Kidman was a scary scientist intent on catching Paddington with the intent to preserve him as an animal exhibit, we both loved the bear’s antics.
“Paddington in Peru” begins with a rush of flashbacks about how Paddington, a Peruvian bear, ends up in a London household. A slapstick number in a photo booth delighted Eileen, who laughed about how silly Paddington’s lack of knowledge about how things work is. But things soon get serious when Paddington learns his aunt, his adoptive parent, is missing him. The head of her retirement home writes Paddington that he should come to Peru for a visit.
The first two Paddington films were dominated by the direction and writing talent of Paul King. However, for the third, he passed the torch onto Dougal Wilson, director, for a first feature film, and a writing team. While still an executive producer for this Peru story, King has been working on other film projects. Sally Hawkins, the family’s mother, also decided to pass, so Julie Waters stepped in to replace her.
We didn’t like this lack of commitment by the originals.
Award-winning Olivia Colman and heart-stopping Antonio Banderas were thrown in the pot to hopefully enrich this new story of adventure about a beloved bear returning to his home territory. But what was Eileen’s verdict?
To start, the first Paddington film, featuring Nicole Kidman, made $263.7 million. The second, featuring Hugh Grant, made $250.1 million. This last, taking us to Peru with both Colman and Bandaras, made $102-117 million. This decline is a little misleading. The original first three Star War films, though making higher profits, also had the same downward slope of profitability.
The biggest problem with this Peruvian version is that it had too many stories going on at once. Eileen would get caught up with what’s going on with Bandaras and his daughter, only to have the focus abruptly switch to what was going on with Colman’s character. More importantly, the ensuing implausibility of all the stories became disconcerting, even though we enjoyed Paddington’s antics and true sense of values.
In the end, despite her affinity for the delightful Paddington, Eileen threw up her hands and said this was a 2 or 3. Averaging my input, we give it a 3/5.
Credits
Director: Dougal Wilson
Screenplay: Mark Burton, Jon Foster and James Lamont
Story: Paul King, Simon Farnaby, and Mark Burton
Based on the Paddington stories by Michael Bond
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington
Producer: Rosie Alison
Executive Producers: Jeffery Clifford, Ron Halpern, Paul King, Naoya Kinoshita, Dan MacRae, Anna Marsh, Rob Silva, and Tim Wellspring
Cinemtography: Erik Wilson
Editor: Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
Music: Dario Marianelli
Release: Feb. 14, 2025
Website: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/paddingtoninperu
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