Seven years, a new director and one cast change later, the little bear is back and this time he and the Brown family are in for an all-new adventure that will take them out of London to the mountains of South America. PADDINGTON IN PERU offers moviegoers more of what they love about this franchise and it’s not just the marmalade sandwiches.

Life is good for Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw, NO TIME TO DIE), who is still living with the Browns at 32 Windsor Gardens, but that all changes when he receives a letter from The Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman, EMPIRE OF LIGHT) at the Home for Retired Bears in Peru telling him that his Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton, the DOWNTON ABBEY franchise) has gone missing in the Amazon jungle. As Paddington now has a British passport, he decides he wants to go there to look for her. Henry (Hugh Bonneville, the DOWNTON ABBEY franchise) and Mary (now played by Emily Mortimer, MARY POPPINS RETURNS) Brown feel they need more family time now that the kids are grown up and doing their own things (Judy (Madeleine Harris) is about to head off to uni and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) is busy inventing gadgets for gamers) so they, along with their housekeeper Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters, FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL), pack their bags and join Paddington in his Andean adventure. Once at the Home for Retired Bears, Paddington discovers a map indicating that Aunt Lucy may have gone to a place called Rumi Rock which, local legend has it, is the gateway to El Dorado, the mythical City of Gold. As it is upriver from them, they hire a steamboat that is captained by the dashing Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY), who has his own reasons for going there.

One thing I love about the first two PADDINGTON films is that they don’t pander to children. They both have plenty of elements to them that adults will enjoy too. While PADDINGTON IN PERU includes some nods and winks that only adults will get (the winks at THE SOUND OF MUSIC and JUNGLE CRUISE are cute), it has been dumbed down to squarely appeal to a younger audience. This may be due to Dougal Wilson, whose résumé includes directing music videos and commercials, many of which have garnered big awards, but not directing feature films until now. That’s not to say that PADDINGTON IN PERU is bad or disappointing. It just doesn’t have the same whimsical aesthetic that Paul King (WONKA) brought to the first two films.

Colman and Banderas are perfectly fine here, though neither of them puts in a performance on the level of Hugh Grant or Brendan Gleeson, both of whom made PADDINGTON 2 a pure joy to watch. PADDINGTON IN PERU also brings back many of the characters from the previous two films including Samuel Gruber (Jim Broadbent who doesn’t seem to have aged at all in seven years), Joe the Postman (Joel Fry), Dr Jafri (Sanjeev Bhaskar), Colonel Lancaster (Ben Miller) and Barry (Simon Farnaby), who is now a flight attendant. I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on Ben Whishaw’s vocal performance, which really is brilliant. His voice fits the character so seamlessly that it’s easy to overlook his efforts in bringing Paddington to life.

PADDINGTON IN PERU is on limited release in Hong Kong right now and goes into wider release on January 29th. It opens in the US on Valentine’s Day. Your kids will love it. You will be happy they do.

Thanks for reading but don’t be a lurker! If you liked what you just read, here are some suggestions:

Sign up to receive my movie reviews in your inbox automatically
Share this review on your Facebook page
Leave me a message telling me what you thought of my review or the film
Bookmark the site and visit often
Like my Howard For Film Facebook page
Watch my reviews on my YouTube page
Check out my Howard For Film magazine on Flipboard
Tell your friends about the site